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Originally posted by Aria:
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The only thing about the kiss that bothered me was the fact that it's their first kiss and it was witnessed by Perry, Jenny, and Steve, and Zod. It was more of a relief 'we've saved Metropolis from the World machine and survived' kiss. In that light, it wasn't very romantic. Neither of them has had time to processing the death and destruction around them, or even consider where they are. They are just happy to still be alive, and to have won that battle (since Zod is still alive at this point). In that regard, Lois is right. That isn't a good foundation for a relationship. They haven't yet had a chance to take a step back to view the destruction around them and go "whoa, you guys really destroyed Metropolis, Clark."

Technically, there isn't time for Clark to process and come to terms with everything that happened in this film before their tagged on 'everything will be okay' ending (unless a good year has passed by, but the filmmakers were obstinate when it came to NOT marking the passage of time well). If this is supposed to be the more emotional and "Dark Knight"-ish Superman, we need to see him introspectively process what happened during Zod's campaign of terror, and I hope he is at least still haunted by it in MoS-2.
Don't get me wrong, I don't need an angst fest like Batman. It's not so much that they kissed, but the context in which they kissed that bothered me. If they'd shared a comforting embrace and kiss and hadn't joked and smiled and acted silly, then I would have bought it 100%. Instead of simple relief, the writers chose to use that moment as one of Man of Steel's few bouts of [b]comic relief, which I thought was pretty inappropriate given the flaming ruins, likely full of bodies and trapped injured people, that surrounded them.

I don't need a hulking mountain of angst/guilt/remorse, but I will be happier if, in the sequel, Superman at least acknowledges that he could have handled things without so much reckless abandon. [/b]
I am thinking that they will deal with the aftermath of the destruction in the sequel. I know some people already thought the film was too long, and they really had to end with the very upbeat Clark shows up at the Daily Planet. Well, I guess they could have done another way, but I am glad they ended the way they did.

John Pack Lambert