Smallville Actor Reveals the Exact Moment That Made Him Hate Man of Steel

By Russ Burlingame

John Glover, an actor with plenty of DC adaptations to his name, apparently had a pretty serious issue with Zack Snyder's Man of Steel. The actor, who has appeared in movies like Batman & Robin and Shazam! and on TV series like Batman: The Animated Series and Smallville, participated in a viral Twitter thread that asked users to pinpoint the moment when they mentally "checked out" of a movie. Someone in Glover's timeline chose a moment from Man of Steel -- the scene in which Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) dies because he refuses Clark's (Henry Cavill) help -- and Glover quote-tweeted his agreement.

After a fan expressed disappointment that Glover, who played Lionel Luthor on Smallville, would take a shot at Man of Steel, Glover clarified that he isn't judging people who like the movie. He just couldn't come around to that scene's interpretation of Pa Kent.

"I have no problem with anyone liking the film, just have my own feelings as someone who knows good writing from bad, and how to deliver both,"  Glover said, punctuating the comment with a cry-laugh emoji.

Man of Steel was intensely divisive from even before its release, with one of the big scenes people took issue with being in one of the movie's trailers. the three big moments that tended to draw the harshest criticisms were:

  • Jonathan Kent telling a young Clark "I don't know" when Clark asked if he should have let a school bus crash to protect his identity;
  • The scene Glover singles out, where Jonathan dies in a tornado so that Clark does not have to reveal himself to the world by saving him; and 
  • A scene at the end of the movie, when Superman kills General Zod

Beautifully shot and capturing the joy of flight and the visceral terror of a superhero battle better than almost any other film, Snyder's first DC Universe movie has its supporters, for sure. Still, both Man of Steel and its sequel Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice underperformed relative to studio expectations, setting Snyder up for failure when he set out to make an ambitious, multi-part Justice League film. 

Before Justice League failed, Snyder left the project, and was replaced by Marvel's The Avengers director Joss Whedon, who did not bring the Marvel box office magic to the project. Instead, it was a box office disaster, and Snyder would ultimately return to the film to release a four-hour director's cut. Unbeknownst to everyone involved, Zack Snyder's Justice League would not reinvigorate the "DCEU," but would serve as a cap on that timeline, with a reboot coming in 2025, including a new Superman movie featuring a new actor in the suit.

0comments
Start the Conversation

of