When Man of Steel opened to mixed reviews earlier this summer, one of the main criticisms concerned the film's mass destruction, especially during a battle for Metropolis that ended with more than half of the city obliteraed. Coming off the heels of the Dark Knight trilogy, which placed real stakes on the survival of both Gotham City and its citizens, the wanton video game-esque devastation of Metropolis makes the action feel thoughtless and inconsequential (everyone at the Daily Planet, which was miraculously left standing, is all smiles at the end).
Director Zack Snyder finally addressed the complaints with the Japan Times, and had this to say: “I wanted the movie to have a mythological feeling. In ancient mythology, mass deaths are used to symbolize disasters. In other countries like Greece and Japan, myths were recounted through the generations, partly to answer unanswerable questions about death and violence. In America, we don’t have that legacy of ancient mythology. Superman (who first appeared in ‘Action Comics’ in 1938) is probably the closest we get. It’s a way of recounting the myth.”
So there you have it. Superman and Zod clumsily smashing into buildings, in a fight where Supes doesn't even try to take the action to a more open space, is supposed to feel mythical. Instead, it's mostly just noisy.
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[via Vulture]
