Don't read if you haven't seen the movie and don't want spoilers revealed.

I've seen a lot of reviews from internet reviewers, often big fans of Superman who are foaming mad about this movie. Some anger is legitimate and some seems just bizarre. I've heard a lot of reviewers complain that the movie is just BORING. That one just doesn't resonate with me. Other complaints like the overuse of CGI are legitimate.

So is Man of Steel appropriate for a 12 year old? I would say no. The volume of death and destruction is just off the charts but what I'm going to address is the ending. The BIG spoiler and see if I can't make some sense of it.

*SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER*

Superman has just one inviolable rule. He never takes a life. At the end of Man of Steel Superman breaks Zod's neck with his bare hands killing him. He desperately tries to avoid it and agonizes afterwards but he does kill. So is this the most egregious insult ever heaped upon Superman by a writer and or director? Let me make a defense.

1. Did Superman do the right thing? Yes. Police kill, soldiers kill and we do not cast them as villains. In the movie the soldiers were attempting as best they could to kill the Kryptonians and they were not cast as morally bereft. This was Kal-El's first experience with any being whose power even approached his own and he could not contain Zod. Not only would Zod have killed thousands if not millions more he was moments away from killing a family right before Superman's eyes. There was no establishment in the movie that this Superman had set a no kill rule and his anguish was simply over his innate sense of right and wrong but in the end he had to weigh the morality of killing versus allowing countless more people to die and chose to end the killing with one final death.

2. Comic characters have the luxury of living in a fantasy world. Zack Snyder and DC chose to put their movies into a much more real world environment. Metropolis is not a retro city or futuristic city it is a real city. In the real world mass murders, in the midst of a rampage, are put down and a super mass murder needs to be put down fast. Superman doesn't obey the comic rule because this is not intended to be a comic.

3. Superman from the 1940's would have killed Zod in a heartbeat. In fact he would kill low level thugs without a hint of remorse. It wasn't the writers who set the rule it was a publisher who was trying to appeal to young readers. Why does Batman not kill The Joker knowing full well he'll be put into the revolving door known as Arkham Asylum? Not because of the slippery slope theory. Because DC doesn't want to lose the character. Killing the Joker would solve half the problems in Gotham City.

4. In Superman II, Superman tricked Zod, Ursa and Non stripped them of their superpowers and then.... uh.... tossed them into a crevice? When I was a kid watching the movie I kinda assumed he just killed them. They are never seen being carted off to jail. We don't close with Zod swearing revenge on the family of El. We don't see Superman agonizing about what he did to three living beings. The movie just continues on. If I were tossed into a crevice in the artic I believe I would be done for and I assume that was what happened to Zod and his cohorts.

My bigger issue comes much earlier in the movie when Clark is working at a restaurant. He approaches an unruly customer who tosses a beer in Clark's face and tries to shove him only to find Clark as movable as a brick wall. Clark walks away and the customer tosses a can at his back and continues to mock him. That was perfect. The most powerful being on the planet took it all and walked away and showed himself to be not just the better man but the best. Unfortunately the scene finishes off with the customer later walking outside to find his semi completely demolished. Now Clark went from a zenlike calm to a vindictive jerk who in the moment failed to learn anything his father tried to teach him and the whole scene was played for a cheap laugh from the audience.

Disappointing, but not nearly enough to ruin the movie for me.