Doing It Better: Man of Steel

Doing this movie better is tricky, since the changes I’m going to suggest will alter the overall tone of the film a great deal.

First and foremost we need to stop with this dark Superman idea. Some heroes blur the line between true superhero and self-righteous vigilante or likeable tragic bad guy. Superman is not one of those heroes. As Jor-El said in his little speech to Clark, he needs to be the “light” for the rest of humanity and as such he needs to be above things like revenge, killing, and anger. Doing things like snapping Zod’s neck or destroying the Kryptonian nursery ship are things that the Punisher would do, or maybe Batman on a bad day, not Superman.

On that note, the line that Jonathan Kent said to teenage Clark, that he should have “maybe” let the kids on his bus drown in a river just to keep his identity a secret is STUPID! Every generation of Jonathan Kent that I’ve seen is strongly grounded in his morals, always a strong believer in the greater good, and the example that Clark needs to set for the rest of the world. He’d never suggest that Clark should let people die so he could go under the radar. Don’t rewrite a character’s values to push your “darker” character.

Don't do it Superman. DON'T DO IT!

I know it’s his goodie two-shoes style that typically turns off people to Superman, but come on, not everyone is supposed to be Batman. You roll your eyes, but seriously, that’s what they were trying to do. Just because the Bruce Wayne is the most popular DC character doesn’t mean everybody should be Bruce Wayne. Part of the reason why Batman and Superman’s friendship is interesting is because they are polar opposites.

Also, the product placement really needs to go. It’s one thing to have two Kryptonians smash through a wall of an IHOP during a big fight sequence, it’s another to make a minor character who has a major plot point circling around them to WORK at the IHOP. Pete Ross, the heavier kid that was a bully on the bus, for those who don’t remember. I get it, these big movies need a lot of big bucks behind them for effects, actor’s paychecks, and all the other stuff, but you shouldn’t overdo it. Audiences aren’t that stupid, some might miss one or two product placement things, but when you shove so many in our faces that they seem like the standard background it gets tiresome. It wasn’t as bad as say Transformers, where the character’s bodies were walking product placement for Chevy and other car manufacturers. Damn you Michael Bay.

Cool shot, still unnecessary.

At the end of this post I’ll include a link to the How It Should Have Ended Man of Steel video. While it is obviously a parody, the overall idea makes a lot of sense. For those who don’t want to watch, in the video Clark talks to the cyber-Jor-El for advice instead of the random priest. Jor-El tells Clark to do exactly what he did in the movie, use the Phantom drive on his baby ship to blow Zod and his men back into the Phantom Zone. No buildings collapsing, no cars thrown about, no neck snapping. Everybody lives, Superman wins, and Krypton still has a chance to live because Superman still has the nursery ship and the codex.

Obviously it couldn’t be that easy, but the overall idea is the same. I thought perhaps they could have had it so that the ship being forced back into the Phantom Zone left a small hole in space time open, have an arbitrary time limit before the hole closes, and have the climax be Superman fighting to force Zod through the hole before it seals shut.

You didn't earn this scream Superman.

The scene of Superman screaming of pain would then be replaced by Zod doing the same thing about losing the codex again and being trapped in the Phantom Zone again. This would leave Zod open to being used again in later films and keep Superman’s squeaky clean persona. I’ve always been a staunch believer that the “light” heroes should never kill, even the cheat way that Spider-man did in his first three movies. That’s just weak writing.

I hope that the changes I suggested would be improvements in the long run. If you disagree, then sorry, I’ll try to do better next time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjSNLmb0Ndw

 http://www.comicvine.com/images/1300-3430627
 http://moviepilot.com/posts/2014/04/08/the-hypocritical-hate-on-man-of-steel-1328412?lt_source=external,manual#!bmiu8k

http://www.popmatters.com/post/172646-man-of-steel-and-the-wanton-destruction-of-human-life/

 http://www.comicvine.com/superman/4005-1807/forums/off-my-mind-why-man-of-steel-wasn-t-a-superman-mov-1469845/