Man of Steel ending defended by Zack Snyder; Ben Affleck talks Batman v Superman

It’s not particularly surprising that a director is defending their own movie; Zack Snyder has just piped up in concern to the ending of his own superhero movie, Man of Steel. Uproar first began soon after the 2013 film hit cinemas, decrying the fact that Superman and General Zod’s final battle, where they ping-pong between skyscrapers, could potentially kill thousands – a shockingly irresponsible action by someone who is supposed to save humanity. Snyder went on to explain this decision to Entertainment Weekly, revealing a bit of an ulterior motive in terms of films that would follow – namely, next year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice:

‘I was surprised because that’s the thesis of Superman for me, that you can’t just have superheroes knock around and have there be no consequences… There are other superhero movies where they joke about how basically no one’s getting hurt… That’s not us. What is that message? That it’s okay that there’s this massive destruction with zero consequence for anyone?’

Ben Affleck, who’s donning the cape and cowl as Batman, also contributed to Snyder’s grand plan:

‘One of the things I liked was Zack’s idea of showing accountability and the consequences of violence and seeing that there are real people in those buildings… And in fact, one of those buildings was Bruce Wayne’s building so he knew people who died in that Black Zero event.’

Hopefully, this means that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will tackle with much heavier themes than originally thought, instead of merely more superhero-on-superhero carnage. Once the film comes out, it will offer a new hindsight perspective on Man of Steel, and rationalise Superman’s actions in the bigger scheme of things. (That, or die-hard fans will continue to have a problem.) But whatever happens with the upcoming blockbuster, it’s refreshing to hear Snyder address these points.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is released March 25, 2016.