I haven't seen the movie yet, though my husband has. I'm always a little hesitant about watching new "superhero" movies, and I'd heard some bad things about this one. Mostly, the death toll in Metropolis and the killing-Zod thing.
I really didn't like the idea that Superman would be indifferent to civilian casualties. I get that it's spectacular to smash a city - Avengers did it, too - but at least in the Avengers, there was concern about the by-stander casualties. However, somebody upthread suggested that Superman couldn't move the fight away from the city, because the city wasn't the setting, it was the *target*. That would make more sense to me.
I think I'd like the Lois/Clark stuff - I do like the idea that she tracked him down & was in on the secret before there was a secret
So maybe I'd want to watch it if I could get the stupid parts snipped out <g> Mind you, that might make it a very very short film.
As for the origin story being common knowledge, yes and no. The broad overview is known. But if they want to change it up, which they obviously do, then I do think they need to explain that. And God knows the "Superman" character has changed a *lot* over the years, so they need to pick what works for them. Otherwise, some people would be expecting Christopher Reeve's version.
It's like the Star Trek reboot - they were making some major changes and that had to be explained - and that makes the new movies a lot more interesting, IMO. I think I'm looking at it from a fanfic writer's perspective - I love doing elseworlds, where I totally play with the background & circumstances, yet try to have the characters still recognizable.
For Zod's death, I do not blame Clark. Sometimes there are no other options, and it sounds like that was the case here. But I do blame the writers - they're the ones that set up the parameters to force this solution. And I've got to ask why they wanted to make Superman kill. It could be to lay the groundwork for a really interesting second movie, where Superman's working out his ethical limits, not just his physical ones. Or they could have just been doing it for shock value, and that annoys me. Go ruin your own icons, and leave mine alone.
PJ
