Justice League movie part 4- The Man of Steel, and the Superman/Batman Movie.

So it's been a while since I have revisited this, but with Comicon, over the world's largest focus group is over, and the announcement of a Superman/Batman movie is out of the bag, and the Man of Steel is in theatres, I gotta say not just that DC dropped the ball with Man of Steel, but that I am liking the prospect of a Superman/Batman movie less.

So from here on a quick warning the following article includes spoilers, rants and a possible incent to riot. if you want to read on please do but be warned...

Zach Snyder is no Joel Schumacher when it comes to making movies, but that does not mean he is a good choice to make superhero films. Both 300 and Watchmen seemed to have odd overtones of homophobia, with King Leonidas of the spartans, cracking on the Athenians being cowards and "boy lovers!". Obviously Zach Snyder doesn't know much about greek history. Among his changes to Watchmen was the odd need to turn Ozymandias both oddly European and imply he is gay, besides his effeminate actions we see him in the opening montages hanging out with the village people at studio 54. Why do we need to make the villian gay especially when there was no real discussion of his sexuality before? But in the Man of Steel, we sidestep this (thankfully) but we have to jack the origin of Kal- el, making him not the last son of Krypton but a abomination due to not being genetically modified. This is a pretty big problem, no longer an orphan from the stars he's now a fugitive from a planet that can cause untold damage to us if we don't give him up, and at the end of the film we see just this. Billions in property damage probably millions dead, all for a superhero fight that takes away from Superman's compassion. And compassion is one of the hallmarks of the man of steel. Superman snaps Zod's neck, and we still could be looking at an invasion that makes the martian attack from war of the worlds, look like high school kegger. This still doesn't address the potential death and destruction we see in the streets of Metropolis.

To Me I think Max Landis Director of the movie Chronicle has a point here when it comes to how to portray the man of steel.

In fact when Tarentino's tilm Kill Bill, the titular "Bill gives a speech about why the bride cannot just live a normal life, implying that she is a predator by nature and using the superman character as an example, leading a double life but never really being merely Clark Kent. Bullshit Tarentino. Superman is by definition Clark Kent. his psyche, his personality, their goals all match up. Now Batman in the Bill arguement makes sense. Bruce is nothing but a fascade for batman to use to both hide and access places that Batman simply cannot go. but While Bruce may be a playboy with no real interest or cares in Gotham's woes. it is all a mask to make Batman work.  This being said, that is what we need to show in Superman, yes he has godlike powers but his moral compass is the embodiment of all that is good in this country.

So this is what I think would make a better movie, step one: start with the man of steel already wearing the suit.  If we tell the origin, it should be a small flashback while he is explaining it to Lois, we all know Superman's origin, this isn't Hellboy,Psylock or Invincible, we are talking about the story everyone knows. As for the villain, I would go with Brainiac.

Sure
a lot has been written about the aborted movie disaster that was superman lives and that we dodged a serious bullet in it not being released. Yet how many times must we retread Luthor, or Zod. I think the use of Zod in man of steel (despite Michael Shannon being a hell of an actor and doing a great job in the film) is that it smacks too much of having to retread over the most successful film of the previous franchise (Same with the plot of Star Trek 2 which had to be recycled twice!)

Now for the coup de grace. For an endgame Brainiac unleashes an army of drones onto the city of Metropolis, and explains that while you may have thwarted my plans, I will have the last laugh, for all your powers you cannot be everywhere at once, you cannot save them all and you will spend every last ounce of strength trying, you will tire, you will weaken, and you will die. Cut to superman trying in vain to do just that stop the drones save the city, spotting a schoolbus about to go over the bridge into the river he flies trying to reach it in time only to see the bus stop, it's fall halted by a golden tether, Pan up to Wonder Woman holding the other end, and yelling "Don't just stand there, grab the other end!" When he asks who she is she says she is like him, and the rest of us are here, we are here because you inspired us, and we are here to help. Cut to The flash racing past drones knocking them over and picking up a kid who is about to be hit by a runaway truck, Cut to the Batwing blasting arial drones over the river, and Green Lantern holding up a building with his power ring. This is how we introduce the Justice League as a big reveal at the end of the movie, not some cryptic post credits vignette of Amanda Waller trying to talk Clark into joining her JL project. In fact for fun, I would place Ambush bug as the post credit vignette urging movie goers not to reveal the secret twist ending and possibly throwing out some real tidbits about the JLA movie.

Well that's my $0.02, for what it's worth.