The final act of 2013's Man of Steel is the debate that won't die. Director Zack Snyder has found himself constantly having to defend the sizeable amount of collateral damage that is caused by the battle between Superman and General Zod, and with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice just around the corner the issue has reared its head again.
This time round the director was speaking to The Wall Street Journal when the death toll of Man of Steel was brought up. Snyder recalled an incident in which he was 'mystified' when someone told him that they couldn't think of a movie which has as much collateral damage as his Superman reboot, and he used the biggest blockbuster in recent memory to prove his point.
"I went, really? And I said, well, what about ['Star Wars: The Force Awakens']?", the director says. "In 'Star Wars' they destroy five planets with billions of people on them. That’s gotta be one of the highest death toll movies in history, the new ‘Star Wars’ movie, if you just do the math."
While I can definitely see the point Snyder was trying to make, using The Force Awakens as an example was a poor choice. The deaths in Star Wars are caused by the villains, while it can be argued that Superman should have done more to move the fight away from populated areas and save people.
Whether you agree with Snyder's statement or not, one thing is for sure - this debate is not ending any time soon.
Directed by Zack Snyder and starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Diane Lane, Gal Gadot, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeremy Irons, Laurence Fishburne, and Amy Adams, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will arrive in UK and US cinemas on March 25, 2016.
Images: Warner Bros.
