DC: Zack Synder defends Man of Steel's ending, and Ben Affleck states that Bruce Wayne "knew people who died in the battle" · 7:23pm Jul 4th, 2015
I'm gonna quote the article directly first, so that way you guys have context, and then give my thoughts
“In the original version of the script, Zod just got zapped into the Phantom Zone,” Snyder explained in 2013. “But [screenwriter] David [S. Goyer], Chris and I had long talks about it, and I said that I really feel like we should kill Zod, and that Superman should kill him. The 'Why?' of it for me was that if was truly an origin story, his aversion to killing is unexplained… I wanted to create a scenario where Superman, either he's going to see [Metropolis' citizens] chopped in half, or he's gotta do what he's gotta do.”
Goyer also provided rationale for the ending later that same year. "This is one area, and I've written comic books as well and this is where I disagree with some of my fellow comic book writers—'Superman doesn't kill.' It's a rule that exists outside of the narrative and I just don't believe in rules like that. I believe when you're writing film or television, you can't rely on a crutch or rule that exists outside of the narrative of the film," he explained. "So the situation was, Zod says 'I'm not going to stop until you kill me or I kill you.' The reality is no prison on the planet could hold him and in our film Superman can't fly to the moon, and we didn't want to come up with that crutch."
And with "Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice" on the horizon, Snyder again explains why "Man Of Steel" needed such intensity in its conclusion. “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,” he told EW. The director also added: “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’s it’s okay that there’s this massive destruction with zero consequence for anyone?"
“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,” he [Ben Affleck] said. “And in fact, one of those buildings was Bruce Wayne’s building so he knew people who died in that Black Zero event.”
In my personal opinion, the whole ending of Man of Steel was deeply flawed, both from a screenwriting and directorial standpoint. Zod's death was given no time to sink in and be properly felt, and since we also were forced into what is basically an 'idiot ball' moment in order to kill Zod, it means that we still feel a death that becomes needlessly dark, and helps feed into the overall depressing and heavy hearted aura that Man of Steel has in my eyes.
Furthermore, the whole idea of Superman being hated by the populace goes against the overall message of the Superman mythos, which is one of acceptance and hope, not fear and paranoia. I really get a feeling that Goyer and Synder don't understand what makes Superman's stories work, and just want to make things darker for the sake of making it feel 'more mature' or something.
But I've already kvetched about Man of Steel, so I will stop for now, and simply let the words stand on their own.
So basically Snyder, Goyer and DC want to turn our beloved heroes into Game of Thrones for the sake of "angst sells".
Sounds about right.