Two things:
If he valued life, and so you state, then it's not true that "the values you attribute to Superman did not exist in Clark at that time." He did value life before he became Superman, therefore the values I attributed to Superman did exist in Clark at that time.
Except the point about valuing life requires him to use his powers in order to do so, which clashes with the other fundamental thought that he must remain secret in order to prevent being ostracized.
Now if Clark "also valued his father's advice," how come he ignored it after Pa Kent died and went on to save people's lives showing his face and all, which was exactly what Pa Kent told him NOT to do and, in fact, died for?
You do realize the film implies that Clark lied about his identity? There were a couple of instances where IIRC, he was called something like John or Bill. So in actuality, no one knows who he really is aside from his facial features. Therefore, the whole point of being shown his face is not a huge concern at all.
Same for Clark believing the world was not ready for him. How come he went on saving people if he believed the world wasn't ready?
It's symbolic of the clash between Jor-El and Pa Kent. Clark had this natural instinct to do good, while Pa Kent was the artificial suppressant for that natural instinct. His actions imply that he feels his purpose to be greater and yet he knows of the drama it will bring. Hence the nomadic lifestyle.
Another thing, let's say Clark wasn't "even emotionally ready for that sort of responsibility." Would that stop him from saving his very father's life? Would that stop you? 'I am too emotionally unprepared, so I'll let my father die'?
If you're being told continually that you have to keep yourself a secret for a number of years, and all of a sudden you were faced with such a decision, I'd imagine it wouldn't be easy. In fact, it's almost hegemonic.
It was obvious that Jonathan didn't prepare his death. It came to his mind when he saw the tornado (he couldn't have planned having a tornado). So it's hard to think - and the movie does nothing to support this - that Clark was so convinced of his father's idea that he "understood" what he was doing. Because, for one thing, nobody was paying attention as everyone was trying to save their life.
You do realize that Pa Kent's teachings regarding fear and being secretive stem as far back as Clark's adolescence? That's an ample amount of time between that and young adulthood to internalize your parents' teachings. The film, at the very least, implies that Clark began to accept his father's viewpoints after the bus miracle. As for no one was paying attention...
That said, okay let's agree that it's true that "the world wasn't ready." Sounds great and cool. How was the world not ready? Or, let me rephrase, when and how did the world get ready? Or Clark himself? What changed? The movie just shows that Clark got his suit. Other than that, nothing changed. He got his suit and suddenly he was ready and, somehow, the world was too.
The world was never ready, but before I continue, I'd like to preface with the following, we have to make two distinctions: the alien invasion was a game-changer in terms of forcing Clark's hand, and it was Zod who outed Clark rather than Clark outing himself. If Clark had revealed himself to world, then that would've made him appear as a hypocrite (and I mean in a large scale, not simply a small scale X amount of people knew who he was because of his odd jobs/Smallville debacle...the world would be extremely cynical and question the validity of their statements. Almost an urban legend so to speak).
I think the movie makes it quite clear that it's still not ready with the aftermath of Superman's arrival in public discourses, as well as Metropolis's and Smallville's battle. The problem here is trying to grasp for an absolute answer to the question when there isn't one. This isn't to say the movie fails because of that, but rather, it's a question that we'll continually revisit as the people of Earth witness the creation of the Justice League (or in simpler terms: the creation of the DC Universe).
Anyways, when we're deconstructing what it means to be ready, I'm not sure how you would interpret it, but I think it starts with acceptance and tolerance, how well can we accept someone who is essentially a god from another planet? I don't mean to be philosophical, but I think the natural reaction is to ostracize and be fearful of him. Thus, when you have events such as kids making rumours about Clark's quirks, and the military's quick reaction to bear arms at and arrest Clark, it's the classic fear of the unknown at work. And that works to show the way in which Earth may not come to accept him. However, the film also shows instances where people began to trust Clark after they witnessed what he was doing for them. It may not be absolute, but it echoes Jor-El's teachings in that Superman will help them. This is humanity going one small step at a time in preparation of being "ready."
By doing a future analysis, you also have to consider the context of world politics, what does it mean to have a superpowered being essentially working alone but for the interests of America and humanity in general? And knowing Snyder, that no doubt also echoes Dr. Manhattan's issues with being a quasi-political figure serving America's interests. So to expect an absolute answer to a question like "when did the world become ready" is too hasty right now.
Although I'd say that the world was as unprepared for him as it was before, but an alien invasion started and something had to be done (which is the exact same premise Clark had to save those kids when he was young, so - again - not much changed). It seems to me that the whole "the world is not ready" was more a bombastic sentence than something the movie actually developed. The world never got ready, they just had to accept Superman, as nothing could be done about it.
In this block of your argument, I'm mixed between agreeing and disagreeing. On one hand, the last block I wrote shows the ways in which the world wasn't ready, but it also showed that they were willing to trust him, which is a huge step forward. At the same time, I also disagree with the notions that 1) it wasn't developed and 2) People had to accept Superman. I disagree with it being well-developed because the film shows details that I think offers a perspective into answering that question, not absolutely, but the point is that it's slow-burning, because the question affects other significant variables as I pointed out. I also disagree with 2) although it sounds oxymoronic. What I mean is that yes, you have figures like Lois, and U.S. Army who had the build up their trust before complete accepting Clark. At the same time, you also have the citizens of Smallville and Metropolis to account for, who may condemn Superman for his actions in their cities. With that in mind, I wouldn't say it's bombastic, inasmuch as it is a question that will underpin the narrative framework for future sequels.
Not all.
As I said, nothing about the world getting ready for Superman, nothing about how Pa Kent's death affected Clark and nothing as to how or why Clark started saving lives again when his father had died to stop him from doing exactly that.
I think I went in depth with that, so I'll leave it to you to respond.
Yes, exposing his identity would have been terrible. And yet he did after Pa Kent died. So much so that Lois Lane got straight to him because of his life-saving career.
No, he doesn't just flat out expose his identity. The film implies he falsified it while he was a nomad working odd jobs.
Now as for the tornado thing, it would have been easier to simply NOT save anyone. Because Pa Kent died and we saw nothing about how Smallville reacted to that, just to see if it worked or not. Next time we saw someone from Smallville, Lois was interviewing her and the lady was still talking about Clark's "miracle." That is, a Kent's death didn't prevent Clark from keep saving lives nor it stopped people from Smallville from thinking there was something weird about Clark.
It could easily have been the case that there were more casualties and Pa Kent was just one of those unlucky ones that died (not to appear insensitive, but I mean those types of deaths where you hear about it in the news and newspapers and forget about it the next day). The fact that the mom could only talk about that miracle should be pretty damning that Clark didn't do anything after Pa Kent's death, at least in Smallville.
That's exactly it. Jonathan told him that Clark should probably stop saving people. I wish Jonathan had had some brains to think of a simple reasonable way for Clark to go unseen instead of this overblown idea of killing himself in order to make people believe he was not super powered, which didn't even work. But there was nothing about that. Somehow this man thought that super speed was not an option, only killing himself was the way to go.
But you can't go both ways and saying that Clark did respect his father's opinion and yet did the complete opposite thing that he told him, and that's perfectly coherent.
The problem I have with the narrative of your argument is that, it seems you want Clark to embody one absolute side of the debate between Jor-El and Pa Kent (that's essentially what this film is). That isn't the ideal way to deconstruct Clark's actions in Man of Steel. I mean, I've seen you only engage with Pa Kent, rather than Jor-El's side or even the conflict between Jor-El and Pa Kent's teachings. The film reconciles both sides of the equation by showing how Clark adapts to both of their teachings. Jor-El wants him to be a symbol of hope to humanity? Okay, we'll build Superman so that he becomes that ideal. Need to keep yourself a secret? People are afraid of what they don't understand? Fine, we'll create a false identity to protect ourselves from being ostracized. Clark's character is not simply an affinity for one side of the debate, but rather an assemblage of both fathers' expectations. It's Clark trying to find a balance between the two (albeit, they may clash).
There's no double-standard against Superman, Marvel characters like Iron Man and Wolverine have allways been shown to have a "kill without remorse!" ideal when needed, hell, wasn't Wolverine a mercenary for a while? Some writers even write him as a stabing junky. Captain America doesn't kill as much, but he still doesn't hold a "no kill rule", he fought during WWII so of course he is accostumed to killing.
Superman's no-kill rule is sacred, some forget but in the 90s when he killed Zod, there was a fan outcry, this rule for Superman is not different than Batman's, Supes killing naturally would be like Batman picking guns and killing criminals. That said, that event in the film didn't really bother me, problem is that Zack doesn't know how to handle these elements and they end up feeling like they're just for shock value.
No, Superman's no-kill isn't some traditional sacred ground that can never be touched. For anyone to say that shows that they do not have any understanding of Superman's rich comic history. I'm not trying to come off as a holier than thou comic fanatic, but Superman's comic history shows instances where he either killed a villain, or accepted murder as a possible option for stopping a villain. Fan outcry doesn't negate the need to kill when the situation calls for it.
There's nothing more infuriating than fans who misplace their ideal Superman for the character's actual trait. What this shows is how completely arbitrary the majority of fans's perception of Superman killing really is, because if they believe Superman shouldn't kill, then why wasn't there a massive outcry when he killed Doomsday?