I noticed Lexcorp on the side of a tanker truck in Metropolis and another truck in Smallville. My husband said that the satellite that Superman destroyed said Wayne Industries, too. I like having Lex in the background like that. He doesn't have to be the villain. He can just exist as part of the landscape.

Overall, I liked the movie, but I had some gripes. My three main gripes were Johnathan Kent's death, Zod's death, and the millions of innocent civilians that died needlessly.

I understand Johnathan's reasons for telling Clark not to save him, and I understand Clark listening to him, but the execution was awful. I had thought that he was going back for a kid who was stuck in a car, but he was saving the family dog. Be as much a dog lover as you want, but no person's life is worth losing over a dog. He should have been saving a kid. Then, Clark could easily have run over at human speed and helped his dad to get under the overpass with everyone else. The situation was not extreme enough that it would have required him to out himself. Use the same setup, have Pa Kent save a kid, and have a car or something fall on him such that Clark would have to visibly use his powers in order to save him, and the scene would have been much better.

Zod's death: Well, I guess they're going for Golden Age Supes, 'cause boy did he kill a lot of people in the 30's and 40's. Always throwing gangsters out of tenth floor windows and stuff. But later Superman changed so that he doesn't kill. I have mixed feelings about it, though, because it wasn't just random murder; it was war. Also, Superman ended up executing the Phantom Zone criminals with kryptonite back in the 80's because he ended up with no alternatives, but he anguished over the decision, and he felt sick about it afterwards. Part of my dislike of Zod's death is that I didn't see any reason why they didn't just have Zod sucked back into the Phantom Zone with everyone else. It didn't really further the story in any meaningful way.

That said, I really liked the way Lois came in and held him afterwards. It was touching, and it was a good bonding moment.

Now for the innocent bystander death: In Superman II, Zod and company were throwing Superman and various vehicles around the city, endangering the civilians. What did Superman do? He flew away to somewhere remote to continue the fight in order to spare the bystanders. In Man of Steel, he just continues throwing punches in the middle of IHOP in Smallville. He throws the other Kryptonians through skyscrapers. How many buildings collapsed that day? How many people worked in those buildings? Enough damage had already been done to Metropolis by the world engine; Superman acted like it was his responsibility to finish off the rest of the city by throwing people through buildings or being thrown through buildings himself. He should have taken the fight away from the city.

Oh, my other gripe was that Clark shouldn't have told the military that he grew up in Kansas. How many people live in Kansas? And he told them how long he's been here. It won't take the military long to track down just who he is.

I liked Lois. She didn't back down from anyone. She was determined to find out the truth about Clark based on a lot of vague information. Then she sat on her findings in order to protect him.

I liked Jor-El. He was a scientist with principles who fought to do what was best for his people. He was forward-thinking and a revolutionary. He was very well done.

My son liked the Kryptonian robots that followed Jor-El and Lara around. I think one was called Kalex, but I want to call it Skeets because it reminds me of Booster Gold's little robot that floats around and talks to him.

I liked Clark's answer to Zod about Clark killing Krypton's future: that Krypton had its chance, and it's over.

I liked how Clark used the Kryptonians' weakness against them: that they haven't learned how to filter out all the sounds and how to use their vision powers. He dropped the ball, though, when he told Zod how his mother taught him to focus on one thing to learn to control it. Zod used that trick later.

Clark's reasons for working at the Daily Planet (besides being near Lois) are very Golden Age. He wants somewhere where he can keep appraised of situations where he might be needed and where he can come and go without question. This is quite different from post-Crisis Clark, who just always wanted to be a journalist because he enjoyed it. He gained a lot of joy and satisfaction from doing well in a field where he was on a level playing field with everyone else.

It was a good action/sci-fi movie all around, but in many ways it didn't feel like a Superman movie. It also felt too much like a first movie setting up for a sequel. I don't mind setups for sequels in general, but this felt too much like it was the primary purpose for the movie. I'm hoping that the next one will feel more like a Superman movie because Clark Kent, Daily Planet reporter, will be in it, glasses and all.


"It is a remarkable dichotomy. In many ways, Clark is the most human of us all. Then...he shoots fire from the skies, and it is difficult not to think of him as a god. And how fortunate we all are that it does not occur to him." -Batman (in Superman/Batman #3 by Jeph Loeb)