The debates over the quality and content of Batman v Superman have reached white-hot levels. Not only are people divided on the quality of the movie, they’re upset over Batman’s usage of guns and his relatively nonchalant attitude about killing the hordes of henchmen that stand in his way.
Yes, Batman has a reputation as a guy who doesn’t kill, but you have to think with how many people he’s chucked against walls and hit with his car, there’s bound to be some unintentional casualties. Sometimes things get messy when you’re a superhero fighting for your life, but there are only a few instances in which he clearly kills some freaky bad guys, and this is mostly in the Tim Burton movies. I recently re-watched those classics and was shocked to see how laissez faire Michael Keaton was about blowing up baddies.
And so, Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder feels like this is the status quo, and he’s working around what came before. He extrapolated on the Batman-related murder in Batman v Superman to HeyUGuys. (Transcription h/t IndieWire.)
“I tried to do it in a technical way. There’s a great YouTube video that shows all the kills in the Christopher Nolan movies even though we would perceive them as movies where he doesn’t kill anyone. I think there’s 42 potential kills that Batman does! Also, it goes back and includes even the Tim Burton Batman movies where this reputation as a guy that doesn’t kill comes from. So, I tried to do it by proxy. Shoot the car they’re in, the car blows up or the grenade would go off in the guy’s hand, or when he shoots the tank and the guy pretty much lights the tank [himself]. I perceive it as him not killing directly, but if the bad guy’s are associated with a thing that happens to blow up, he would say that that’s not really my problem.”
Here’s that video Snyder is saying absolves him from taking any flack regarding Batman doing some hardcore killing.
The interview is an interesting conversation touching upon the “boringness” of Superman and Zack Snyder’s perception of the series that he is now leading into the future. We can all respect someone’s opinion, especially with the evidence in that video, but it doesn’t quite justify Batman unloading bullets into a car then essentially going “oops” when the car blows up. Did Bats somehow know that none of those bullets would kill the men in the car? That’s the deus ex machina of murder.
(via IndieWire)
