BE WARNED OF SPOILERS. There are SPOILERS for the Man of Steel below.
No Really! You’ve been warned.
This week’s cover story reveals how the new film (out June 14) attempts to humanize the superhuman by finding new flaws and vulnerabilities. The most common one, however, was off the table: “I’ll be honest with you, there’s no Kryptonite in the movie,” says director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) Those glowing green space rocks – Superman’s only crippling weakness – have turned up so often as a plot point in movies, the only fresh option was not to use it. Anyway, if you want to make an audience relate to a character, a galactic allergy isn’t the way to do it.
So: no Kryptonite. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, yeah I agree a galactic allergy is hardly compelling and Kryptonite gets so overused. On the other hand, you can understand why it gets so overused. A completely invincible hero is neither fun nor compelling. Where’s the story if there’s no danger to the protagonist.
It seems they are trying to say that this Superman’s weakness is his emotional instability, his inability to fit in with the world. So, what, his weakness is teenage like angst? I love Christopher Nolan and all, but that doesn’t sound great to me.