@ZombieGenesis said in Good or New Movies Review:
Take the Man of Steel; Superman kills Zod after a fight that nearly levels Metropolis to the ground. What did we get to show either of these events impacted Superman on any level? He screamed. That's it. It's never touched on again, it did not further his character at all, it provided no sort of story-based development.
But it does. It's just buried under everything because Snyder doesn't know what the fuck he is doing.
Goyer is setting Zod up as a tragic figure. Zod was tasked to protect and preserve Kryptonian life. Jor-El found a way to do it, but Zod disagreed and opposed him. In the end, Jor-El was right, and Zod realized his error. Zod thereafter has another chance to preserve Kryptonian life on Earth; unfortunately, it requires the alteration of the biosphere, which would kill all other life on Earth. Zod makes the choice he was tasked to make.
Contrast Zod with Mr. Freeze. Mr. Freeze tried to save his wife. Ferris Boyle interrupted him, and nearly killed him. Mr. Freeze lives in a literal Hell, and he believes that his wife is dead. So, he sets about getting revenge by killing Boyle. Batman intervenes; yet, after seeing what happened to Mr. Freeze, he sympathizes:
Mr. Freeze: Snow is beautiful, don't you think? Clean, uncompromising...
Batman: And cold.
Mr. Freeze: Like the swift hand of vengeance.
Batman: I saw what happened to your wife. I'm sorry.
Mr. Freeze: I am beyond emotions. They've been frozen dead in me.
Batman: That suit you wear... a result of the coolant?
Mr. Freeze: Very good. A detective to the last. I can no longer survive out of a sub-zero environment. Tonight I mean to pay back the man who ruined my life. Our lives.
Batman: Even if you have to kill everyone in the building to it?
Mr. Freeze: Think of it, Batman. To never again walk upon a summer's day with a hot wind in your face, and a warm hand to hold. Oh, yes. I'd kill for that.
(Entire script of the best 22 minutes in television right here) At that point, Batman realizes that Mr. Freeze's motivations are the same as his, but the lengths to which Mr. Freeze would go exceed his own. That's why, in the final scene of Heart of Ice, Batman tries to get justice for Mr. Freeze by revealing Boyle's actions to the public.
Kal-El sympathizes with Zod. He wants to learn more about Krypton and what it means to be Kryptonian, but he realizes that the extent to which Zod would go to protect Kryptonian life is "inhuman" and immoral to him. To Zod, the death of humanity is a necessary sacrifice for the preservation of Krypton, and there is nothing he would not do to meet that objective.
General Zod: Look at this. We could have rebuilt Krypton on this planet, but you chose the humans over us. I exist only to protect Krypton. That is the soul purpose for which I was born. And every action I take, no matter how violent or how cruel, is for the greater good of my people. And now, I have no people. My soul, that is what you have taken from me!
But, step into Zod's shoes, just like Batman stepped into Mr. Freeze's, for a moment. Kal-El knew that what he was doing -- killing all of the Kryptonians -- was exactly what Zod would have done. But he did it anyway. Which makes Kal-El as much a villain to Krypton as Zod was to humanity. Which explains his final, primal scream.
That's what I saw and heard.
Something you probably missed because omfg zack snyder sucks as a director.
