WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR MAN OF STEEL.
It's not easy having superpowers. They set you apart from everyone else. The question is, will you use that power to destroy or to become a symbol, an ideal for humanity to strive towards? This is a central theme in Zack Snyder's oft-criticized Superman movie, Man of Steel. The movie presents us with two would-be saviors. I'm not talking about Christ figures here. I'm talking about two characters that have the power to save their people. First we have General Zod (Michael Shannon), a military officer with a desire to save his fellow Kryptonians from extinction. Unfortunately, preserving his people means destroying humanity. Enter Kal-El, aka Superman (Henry Cavill), another Kryptonian who is the only person standing between Zod and humanity. Kal-El believes in the sanctity of life, and he is not willing to stand by while Kryptonians destroy humanity in order to preserve themselves.
Because of this comparison between these two characters, Man of Steel is more than just an origin story for Superman. It wrestles with the question of how far is too far when trying to save people. At what point do the ends justify the means? Even when the film reaches its controversial conclusion, it is still asking these questions. The dilemma that Superman is faced with forces him to deal with this very issue. Should he kill Zod, or should he allow Zod to kill more people?
Of course, Superman chooses to kill Zod in order to stop him from killing a group of people. This, along with the massive amount of collateral damage that Superman's fight with Zod causes has generated online controversy. Man of Steel's haters claim that Superman would not have such little regard for life. He would never allow so much collateral damage and he certainly would not kill. Therefore, the film's ending is not a good ending for a Superman film. I would disagree with this conclusion. As the Youtube channel CinemaWins pointed out in their video about Man of Steel, this is a movie about Superman's origin story. Superman had just learned to fly when Zod arrives on Earth. Of course Superman's going to make mistakes when fighting someone who at the very least matches him in terms of strength. In addition, he shows immediate regret over killing Zod even though he did it to save someone else. Part of Man of Steel's job as an origin film is to present us with events in Superman's life that contribute toward making him into the hero that we all know. I think this film had to have the ending it did because the damage he causes in this film is the reason why he is so mindful of how his actions affect others.
All in all, I think that Man of Steel is a great film. It deals with some interesting issues, it is beautifully shot, the score is amazing, and the cast does an excellent job of bringing the characters to life. I honestly think that people need to give this movie a second chance. The ending is not so controversial when taken within the broader context of this film being an origin story, and the film presents us with a hero who does represent an ideal for us to strive toward.
Check out CinemaWins's video about Man of Steel:
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