myrmidonhero

In case you missed it in the title, this opinion contains SPOILERS. You have been warned.

A few of my friends and even some members of my family have expressed their “concerns” about the movie “Man of Steel”. Allegedly the top concerns are: The amount of destruction and property damage done as well as the civilian casualty/human casualty rate, Superman killing Zod, Superman’s distinct lack of “boy-scoutness”, the concept of villains dying in movies these days, and finally the “religious over/undertones” reflected in the movie.

After sitting quietly about all this discussion, I’ve decided to weigh in my thoughts and opinions about the movie. I can tell you from the start I loved the film, for various reasons. For this however, I’m going to address these “concerns” that seem to be popping up a great deal. These are simply my opinions about the story and movie's content. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, I just feel like expressing mine.

1. Destruction and Civilian Casualties: It's an Origin Story. Superman's not a seasoned hero and he's fighting a small "army" of increasingly powerful Kryptonians alone. There are going to be casualties and things are gonna get destroyed, especially since he's fighting his own people. He doesn't have the JL helping him and he has to deal with a giant terra-forming machine on one side of the planet while humans “handle” the Kryptonians on the other. Peeps are gonna die in this conflict.

2. Superman Killing Zod: This single act leads to making him a more relatable character. With the amount of desperate remorse he felt after having killed Zod and the rest of the Kryptonians. He comes up with an absolute distaste for killing and a desperate desire to come up with “a different way” from some experience. Before it was just "ingrained" in his character and had no real reasoning other than “killing is bad”. (Though he killed plenty of aliens in the comics with no visible remorse.) Is killing Zod the best idea? Maybe not, but he gave Superman a “no choice” situation. Zod was literally a man with nothing to lose at this point in the movie, his death was the only thing that made sense. (Unless you prefer he get zapped to the “phantom zone” like everyone else and pretty much die there and make for an anti-climatic ending.)

3. On Villains dying: It's realistic. Super threats typically die in combat realistically speaking. When you're in a fight for your and everyone else's life, you aren't exactly worried about whether or not you're going to kill the opponent, you're more worried about your opponent killing you or all the other people around you. You're going to do what it takes to stop them. If you can do it without killing them great, but if you're forced to choose, you're going to kill the opponent to save yourself and the many.

4. Superman not being a "boy scout": Stop wishing for Christopher Reeve remakes. There hasn’t been a good Superman movie since Superman 2. Superman 3, 4 and Returns were all “boy-scout Clark” and people apparently got tired of that. (Not too mention they were all bad of varying degrees). Clark is far more relatable if he has actual feelings and moods. He lost two fathers and one mother, lost an entire world, found out he was the last of his race, was picked on his entire childhood, and was told he couldn't reveal his true self to the world because we would all fear him. He would still be a nice guy, thanks in no small part to the values instilled to him by the Kents, but he wouldn't be the "perfect boy scout" either. He would have moods. He's more relatable in this movie than he has ever been before.

5. On religious under/overtones: He's a character created as an allegory to Jesus and his entire story is based on him setting an example for greatness. A point of greatness for humans to strive for. The "greatest" example of human ideals is Jesus (this can be debated by many I’m sure), and that's what Superman was made to emulate, it’s a part of his character. He’s a savior in the making.

And as a final, little tid-bit:

Bonus. Lois and Clark’s Romance: Why exactly would they be romantically involved at any point other than the end in this movie? It’s an origin story and the focus isn’t on his relationship with a woman he doesn’t meet until later. He hasn’t even lived in Metropolis yet, nor has he gotten a journalism job. Their kiss at the end is more of a “thanks for saving me” moment and is what sparks the future of a relationship. She even consoles Clark after he kills Zod, further leading into their future relationship. It’s gonna happen folks, it just wasn’t the focus of this movie (thankfully).

If the movie's a reboot, why not change it up a bit? Chances are, they won't be doing anything based off any direct story arc from the FF Stories and make something completely original. Will Jordan have the acting chops to actually pull off the character personality? I can't say (and that's if Johnny even keeps the same personality). I have no experience in watching his acting first hand. That if he's even actually being considered for the part at all.

Comics get re-tooled, re-booted, changed up, and replaced in so many ways these days that it'd make your head spin. Heck, they cherry picked the way they made Cap for the movies, he's neither full standard Steve Rogers nor is he full Ultimates Steve Rogers but he's still there and did awesome in the Avengers Movie and relatively well in his own movie.

The reason Fury is black is because he's the Ultimates Fury who was based off Jackson in the first place. There is literally nothing in the FF Family that would set in stone the absolute need for any or all of the characters to stay "white". All of them were pretty standard people in their own rights before their cosmic accident. You could simply treat the movie as an alternate universe set up if need be (lord knows there are tons of those).

Before anyone goes off on some weird rant that says something like "well then, we could change ANY character's race then couldn't we?!" Technically, yeah you could. The reason changes to characters like Thor wouldn't work as easily is because he's based out of Norse Mythology/Religion which would basically write out his historical significance.

Though they did change Heimdall to be black and I didn't mind that. Of course to get around Thor, it could simply be a black "Donald Blake" who gets the hammer and is worthy, then bam, problem solved lol.

@cadencev2 Congratulations, good luck on your next match bud ^^. Thanks to all who voted for me ^^.

Round 1- Cap takes this albeit barely (Probably 6-7/10 tops). It would really come down to whether or not Bruce has enough gadgets to get the job done. Cap can see faster than bullets travel, is immune to most gases/toxins and earth-borne diseases, his physical attributes borderline on metahuman/superhuman levels, he's near impossible to tire, and his spacial reasoning is near second to none. That shield is devastating in his hands and darn near always returns to his hand. Bruce doesn't have anything to take out that shield, but he could get his licks in while the shield is air-borne. Batarangs, Gas Pellets, Sonics, all that stuff is nothing new for Cap and he's overcome it all routinely.

Round 2- Cap still takes this one. Bruce may know more styles than Cap (Steve is no martial slouch himself), but Steve is much stronger and faster than Bruce and will not tire out anywhere near as soon.

Round-3 (Blood Lusting)In the first scenario- Bruce would take it. He would pull out his most lethal standard equipment possible and use it for maximum killing power most likely in a surprise attack. Cap would be no slouch here, but he would go down.

In the second scenario- Steve would take it right in the beginning. Instead of using his normal striking methods, he would be striking to kill with each blow, and with his enhanced strength Bruce wouldn't be able to withstand that kind of punishment for long. Even if he were blood-lusted.

Those are my thoughts anyway ^^.

@esquire I vote for me lol.

I'm voting Dredeuced on this one. He had a lot of evidence to back up his team (Not that Dextersinister didn't) but the point was better made on Dredeuced's side of the debate. I think this was a good debate (if a little convoluted) and great points were made on both sides.

@esquire ready for voting bud. ^^

<p>Arrows only fly as fast as the bow allows that's a fact. The only difference between normal Hawkeye and Ultimate Hawkeye are his twitch reflexes and better sight. Their accuracy is the same, one just reacts faster than the other.</p><p>Taskmaster could easily perform this feat by performing the skill in fast forward which he has done numerous times, he's even fast enough to catch bullets in his hand. The arrows get shot down.</p><p>Prove to me that Ultimate Hawkeye is actually a better shot than normal Hawkeye, not just a faster reacting one. I have never seen Ultimate Hawkeye make any trickier shot than normal Clint couldn't also perform. He's a quicker draw, that's all. (Though I did read about him killing a guy with his fingernails gross lol).</p><p>Singularity does damage but it doesn't remove enemies from the field like a normal black hole would and it's range is limited. You say "suck" I say "pull" in either case all it accomplishes is pulling objects off the ground temporarily.</p><p>Liara also can't rapid fire biotics nor could any biotic, they have to take breathers between shots because it exhausts them.</p><p>Using a barrier, no matter how big still causes the user to be immobile. It's like reverse stasis, she can't move while she's protecting everyone with it.

She also can't beef up her physical abilities while firing off her other biotic abilities.

</p><p>The scorpion projectiles are also slower moving and have a time delay, not as difficult to dodge.</p><p>Roland is the quickest draw in the west, that doesn't mean his bullets somehow fly faster or harder, it means he can shoot more of them. All 3 of my characters can dodge bullets.</p><p>It doesn't actually take Ryu that long to fire of a Hadoken. They fire as fast as he can move.</p><p>In either case, go to vote ^^.</p>

@onilordasmodeus: If Kahn/Tsung are in possession of so many soul in their body that only compounds the effect of the Raging Demon. Since when has Shang Tsung shown feats on Par with Akuma again? Even if we just use in game storylines/feats, again, Akuma has punch a mountain apart with a single strike right in his own ending. I'll agree that it took some serious effort to stop Kahn once he just started taking whatever he wanted, but Akuma is definitely up to the task. In either case it has nothing to do with Ryu vs Liu Kang.

If we go by in-game showings, Liu just has no proper defense against Ryu's arsenal of moves. He'd be completely incapable of defending himself against something like a Denjin Hadoken which couldn't be blocked by anyone and fries every fiber of your being. Half his major arsenal could be countered by the Dragon Punch alone, the other half the Hadoken.

If we go to extended canons, Ryu has survived a raging demon punch through the chest and finished the fight, can lift large boulders over his head (that is actually in game canon storyline), can use hadokens that are like maximum sized Cyclops powered optic blasts, there are all kinds of crazy things to go by.

As for the "Pup" thing, the only people that even still consider him that are Gouken, Akuma and Oro. Gouken and Akuma because he still has more power and skill to attain and Oro because of the skill/power thing and that Oro is over 100 years old.

If we still stick with in-game storylines, who did Liu Kang actually fight? He didn't fight everyone. We know he beat Shang Tsung twice (and was horribly robbed in Deadly Alliance, I was really mad at that). He was also originally recruited because he was the best fighter from the Shaolin Temple he lived/studied at. Not because he was the best fighter in the world. He was considered the best fighter in the world because he beat Tsung and Kahn. That doesn't necessarily make him the best fighter on the planet.

And as @rozalia said, by the end of the SF 4 series, Ryu mastered the "Power of Nothingness/Emptiness" which grants him incredible spiritual power, and clarity enough to easily surpass the Satsui-no-Hadou.

In either case it's a good fight, if they were in the same universe I could easily say they'd be great friends (so long as neither of them got murdered in a cheap way lol). I say Ryu wins and you say Liu wins. Thank goodness we're both entitled to personal opinions ^^.

@cadencev2 Didn't say a Singularity would be shot down, said it could be prematurely detonated/blocked (that scan of one is not Liara BTW that's Aria) It doesn't suck up anything at all, it causes things to float around by pulling them towards it's center in order to be shot at and then creates a dispersal shockwave sending objects flying. The singularity itself does little damage on it's own (beat all three games numerous times and it is merely used for pulling objects together so you can shoot them all up before they get sent flying).

If Liara throws up a barrier (according to your comic scan) she can not act while holding it up at all so she's out of the fight as long as the barrier is up. Biotics are based on line-of-sight, if the Singularity orb hits an object before it reaches the caster's destination, then it goes off prematurely just like every other biotic move or is rendered completely useless (the exception again is the actual move "Shockwave" which can go through solid matter and Liara can not use that move).

Same with Stasis. You're video shows how Beneziah can use it on someone who is standing out in the open, not someone who is behind cover (which makes the move useless unless you use the "bubble version" which you obviously aren't here. Can't use both versions as biotics are always tailored to one style or another, not both. Biotics also have a "cool down" period after firing off, so Liara won't be firing off much very quickly here. When one move wears out, she'll have just recovered enough to fire off another biotic shot.

As for your "Nuke Arrow" it gets shot down. No matter how good Ult Hawkeye is once the arrow is loosed normal Hawkeye or Taskmaster could shoot it down. Ult. Hawkeye's accuracy doesn't mean anything to the arrow after he's loosed it and his accuracy doesn't change it's speed. Unless he can trick shot that arrow (which he can't) once it's airborne, it's shot down. Hawkeye's special twitch powers don't make arrows fly faster. Their speed is determined by the draw of his bow.

And since you get to use comic editions and game editions of characters and their moves, does that mean I can do the same with mine? If so I have a list of feats for Ryu outside of the core SF games that pretty much ends this fight in one shot also. Things like Optic Blast or greater sized Hadokens, Evil Ryu instant transformations making him move faster than any of your characters could see (With the exception of Ultimate Hawkeye most likely) as well as bullet proof and he's survived fists through the chest, fought on the moon, fixed a moon sized fissure with a punch... There is quite a list for me to use if we're going outside the games here.

So like I said, Richard can easily toss Mannequins to stop Biotics, Taskmaster can easily shoot down flying arrows (regardless of whether or not it will cause an early detonation, the Nuke is taken out of the picture in any case) and Ryu can spam the crud out of flaming hadokens and your team will either burn to death or suffocate, whichever comes first after Liara's barrier falls from her exhaustion. In either case he could switch to vacuum hadokens or electric ones if we're still going by game lore here. Otherwise I have a mountain leveling Hadoken he could use right at the start.

The giant metal tables and mannequins will provide more than enough random cover from Hawkeye's remaining arrows as well as Roland's bullets.