Man Of Steel: 10 Biggest Blunders
1. Superman Kills Zod With No Consequences
Well, you all knew this one was coming right? The aforementioned Zod tries-to-laser-beam-family scene ends with Superman breaking Zod's neck and screaming in agony. When I first saw this it completely threw me out of the movie - Superman doesn't kill!! But after thinking about it, I decided I didn't mind the killing itself that much. Superman clearly regrets it. He felt he had no choice, and was doing it for the greater good. Zod made it plain that Superman's only choice was to either kill or be killed, making Superman's decision inevitable. No, it wasn't the killing that got me, it was the way the writers chose to handle the aftermath. We get Superman crying into Lois' arms, and then in the very next scene he's shooting down satellites and making wisecracks with military personnel. What the hell??!! Where's the emotional damage? Where's the scarred and tortured Clark? Where's the scene where he vents his feelings to Lois and swears never to kill again? You NEED to have that in there when Superman kills someone. Even if the killing is justified, which this was, Superman simply wouldn't be Superman without bearing the burden on his shoulders. Just like with the thousands of people who were most likely killed in those buildings, Superman appears to show very little care towards his actions. For someone whose whole mantra is valuing all life, he seems to have no qualms in dispensing casual death. It's very out of character, and Goyer and Snyder should have known better. The most annoying part is that this isn't a case of the writers not understanding a character. They clearly understand Superman, having spent an entire movie explaining who he is. It's more like they needed to get from point A to point B in the story, and were so concerned with getting there that they let themselves temporarily forgot who was travelling between the points. Which is almost a worse crime. It demonstrates a lack of conviction in giving us a consistent character. They basically decided "Oh screw consistency, Superman screamed in agony, that's all we need. Next scene!"
Again, a lot of people may claim that they'll deal with the aftermath of Superman's actions in the sequel. David Goyer himself said they wanted to build upon the idea that Superman killing Zod would be the character-defining act that prompts him to never kill again. That's all well and good, but it needs to be demonstrated in THIS movie, not a movie we won't see for another two years. If they really wanted the consequences to carry over between the two films, then the weight of those consequences needed to be felt at the end of this movie, rather than ignored. That would have made the transition between the two movies more natural. Because they decided to end the movie on a more upbeat note, any dramatic weight from Zod's death will feel disjointed in Man of Steel 2. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see.