‘Superman & Batman’ movie will follow ‘Man of Steel’

Other movies are capable of showing heroes taking a pounding and making an effort to save civilians. However you feel about it, the scenes could easily have been setup to leave enough space to allow for that in MOS, as well. The decision was made not to do so, and it's a decision that rubs a lot of people the wrong way, especially when the superhero in question is supposed to be one of the most powerful and righteous heroes in comic book history.

It fit the story they were telling reasonably well, but there's nothing wrong with the fact that some people really didn't like that story.

 

Superman killing Zod to end the threat in MoS was totally justified. Batman killing The Joker in 1989 to avenge his parents was much less so, but understandable. I have no issue with these characters killing to prevent greater death and destruction, it's in line with previous incarnations.

 

Sure he's one of the most powerful Heroes, but, he's up against, not one, but three, Villains of equal power. That was the whole idea of the film, that he was outmatched.

And sure, it's perfectly understandable, that some fans were unhappy that the movie chose to have him outmatched and unable to do anything but deal with that immediate threat, but, the bulk of the complaints aren't framed as being unhappy with that decision, the complaints are that it was lazy writing to not find a way to work in a Dues Ex Machina ending with Superman having an easy time of it, and being able to multi-task.

 

He wasn't trying to kill the Joker, he was trying to prevent him from leaving. It was the Jokers own actions that caused him to plummet to his death.

Now in Batman Returns, when he punches the big dude and sticks the bomb on him and knocks him down the manhole. That's Batman killing someone and with a big grin.

 

"Lazy writing" is code for "telling a story I don't like" - it's not useful or thoughtful criticism of the writers' skills or effort.

 

Ahem...

https://youtu.be/gaB-MWX00xo?t=47s



I guess you could argue they were the faster runners known to man and were able to all escape rather than being blown up or horrifically burnt to death...

 

In the final sequence, he's up against one being of equal power, though. And he has the home turf. The part where he was outmatched was in Smallville.

 

Still part of the same fight, and therefore took it's toll on him.

Not sure what "Home Turf" has to do with anything, other than the disability Zod had from the superhearing/supersight, which was what gave Superman the temporary upper hand to strike the killing blow.

 

By Home Turf, I mean that he knows how kryptonian abilities work on earth far better than Zod does. And Zod isn't exactly fresh as a daisy by this point, either.

At the end of the day, there's no compelling story reason why Superman would be completely incapable of rescuing some other people during the fight in metropolis. There was just a decision made that that wasn't what they wanted to show. Which is fine, but it shouldn't shock anyone that it was a little controversial.

 

The "Save Our City!" on the Batman poster looks like it's done in Exterminate, the font for Dalek speech in comics.

 

Well, he did kill Zod by snapping his neck such that his head turned towards the people he was inches away from melting with his heat-vision rather than the other way.

 

Also, we'll leave out the tens of thousands of people Batman just killed because he blew up a toxic chemical plant in the middle of Gotham City.

 

Nope. His head was pulled up and back so that the eye beams couldn't hit the people.

 

Maybe my right and left aren't what they used to be but isn't he pulling his head back and to the right there?

...

So Zod was gonna fry those people and Superman couldn't stop him (because moving Zod's head in a different direction or something was out of the question)

Superman cleverly solved this problem by snapping Zod's head (which involved moving Zod's head in a different direction)

Superman is so silly. Why didn't he just use his captivation finger-beam on Zod. Or a gust of anal hypnotism dust?

 

Shit, I was so invested in making the stupid JFK joke that I didn't even pay attention to the direction in the gif. Fixed. Thanks.

 

I dunno - watching it at full speed it sure looks like it's awful close and it continues to pivot to the right. But what's the internet for if not for me to be pedantic?

 

I agree that it was poorly shot. You shouldn't have to slo-mo a scene and break it down frame by frame to make sure Superman didn't accidentally assist in vaporizing a family. Also, after the fact, there's no clear shot of the family running to safety, which could leave you wondering about their fate.

On Blu-ray there's a blink and you'll miss it shot of them still standing way in the background after the eyebeams are shut off, but I think it would have lent greater weight to Superman's actions had you seen the family clearly survive and leave together shaken but giving Superman a grateful nod.

It's a small matter though, as the implication of the scene is clearly that he saved their lives.

 

Anyway, we got so sidetracked by the eight billionth iteration of the Batman/Superman killing argument (albeit, that was my fault this time since I posted the pic of Batman vaporizing some dudes) that no one commented on my theory that the Batmobile docks with the Batwing (and possibly a Batboat), so I went ahead and made a graphic for it. I'm curious what you guys think.

 

My only comments are:

- Based on the pics we have, it seems plausible, at least generally. We need more pics!

- It seems to me that a module (the cockpit alone) taken out of the Batmobile would fit into this conjectural Batboat, which in turn would get carried by the Batdrone. The Batboat as depicted is too long to come straight out of the Batmobile.

- Some of the surfaces you have on the Batboat may in fact go on the Batdrone. It's not clear what you're calling the "garage," but if it's what look like control surfaces then that's what I mean here.