2: You keep saying that there wasn't enough time. Superman didn't have enough time to rescue people. Superman didn't have enough time to minimize the damage. Superman didn't have enough time to react.
That does not matter.
The logical and practical details of the film don't matter in this context. Hell, I'd argue that they only barely matter in any context. You say that Superman acted in the most prudent way possible for that situation. That's fine, I'm not sure I agree, but I also don't care because that has absolutely nothing to do with what's wrong with the scene.
The issue isn't wether or not Clark made the most logical or ethical choices during that fight, the issue is with what the filmmakers chose to focus on and how they framed the information presented to the audience.
The logical and practical details don't matter ? Well, we disagree on that.
In this battle between two extraterrestrial titans, death and and destruction on an apocalyptic scale is treated as background decoration. Our hero, through who's eyes the audience explores this world, pays it no more mind than if it were rain in his eyes. Hundreds of thousands of people are dying in this carnage, and the movie doesn't even notice.
To portray the destruction on such an incredible, and I'll agree with the word "apocalyptic" scale was a deliberate choice. The film-makers wanted to show what would happen if two gods fought in the middle of down-town. True, the movie doesn't focus on it, but doesn't hide it either.
(especially when we see people getting squashed by the gravity beam or
the falling skyscraper).
Given that I like the choice of making a somewhat realistic depiction of what Superman's battles would really be like, I don't have a problem with it.
It's hollow. It's cheap. It feels disingenuous. It doesn't create an immersive experience that feels real, because the scene fails to address the reality of its own events.
Your opinion, and fair enough. I disagree, but respect your view on that.
Where could they have fit all of this stuff in? Well, for starters, Superman and Lois could have reacted to the destruction right after the world engine was destroyed instead of making out and making that truly horribly unfunny joke.
They were probably just relieved to be alive, and have prevented the catastrophic extinction of humanity.
But during he Zod fight itself? How about when Zod kicks that oil truck at Superman and Superman jumps over it, causing it to crash into the building behind him and take out the first two floors when it explodes. Just add one little moment where Superman turn and looks with a look of shock and horror on his face, followed by Zod taking advantage of this moment and striking from behind.
Have a look at 0:59 of this clip,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWyTY6T_h90
Superman actually does turn back to see the effect of the explosion. Maybe a close up with a shocked look would have worked there.
Otherwise it's a knock-down fight to the death. Not a lot of respite there.
Besides, Snyder already showed us during the Smallville battle, what happens when Superman stops during a battle to help someone, he gets nailed !
It's probably not a smart move in a fight, but it is a very genuine human reaction. Or, how about have Superman actively trying to minimize damage and rescue civilians early on in the fight, and have him be on the loosing end of the fight at first due to his split focus. That would even be a better reason for Zod to suddenly be on equal terms with Superman than the contrivance of his powers suddenly increasing exponentially, and it would fix the other huge problem with that scene:
That's not a bad suggestion. A bit cliche, because how many times have we seen that in superhero comics and films? But it might have worked. Personally, I prefer the way it played out in MOS that they just went hell-for-leather against each other.
That fight has absolutely no tension.
Throughout the whole fight, no one gains the upper hand at any point. No one shows any signs of being tired or in pain or injured. Everything that happens between the start of the fight and when they crash into the train station is a complete waste if time because it's just two indestructible guys smashing into each other with no consequences and nothing progressing.
Well, one of the basic premises of Superman is that on Earth, he's pretty much indestructible, and by extension so is Zod. The battle was a stalemate, and probably deliberately so - at least while Superman's not willing to kill Zod. The fight wasn't going anywhere, which is why Zod forced Superman's hand by threatening the family.
In terms of consequences, the fight ends with one of them dead at the other's hand. Superman screams, probably to acknowledge the guilt that he's at least somewhat responsible for the end of his own species. So I'd say there was a consequence after all.
Having Superman's focus split by his desire to protect civilians might have helped create the illusion that he could have possibly lost, and it would have lent his decision to ultimately kill Zod in order to protect civilians much more weight.
Again, a possibilty but a cliche -although there's always room in superhero movies for cliche. IMO the decision to kill Zod had megatons of weight, as Zod a) clearly has a death wish b) makes it unequivocally clear that he will slaughter humanity unless he's killed, c) no practical alternatives exist to imprison him.
3: First, I want to say that The Avengers took civilians into account consistently throughout the battle, not just in the bank scene. Hawk eye and Black Widow rescued those people from that bus, Captain America initiated evacuation procedures with the NYPD, Captain America's battle strategy involved keeping the aliens contained within a three block radius to keep them away from the civilian population as much as possible, the Hulk actively saved all the people in that office building from the Leviathan, and as for emotional reactions there were all if those shots of all of the Avengers looking horrified and emotionally drained by the battle.
I must have missed the horrified looks bit, although I did catch all the glib dialogue "Well, this is all seems horrible" without a trace of horror.
In terms of emotionally drained, I think the Avengers looking a bit tired at the end was more about physical exertion - but expressing horror at the destruction, nope didn't notice that.
Since you're not concerned with practical or logical details this might not mean much, but there's a distinction between a small group fighting an invading army, and a single person fighting another single person. This goes back to why Superman doesn't have an opportunity to save anyone during that fight. Who's fighting the Chitauri when Hawkeye and Widow are saving folks on the bus ? The rest of the crew.
I will agree that MOS would have benefitted from some sort of montage showing the world's reaction to the events, but IMO the lack thereof is a flaw that's outweighed by the other great stuff in that film.
But that's slightly less important than this:
Your whole argument about The Avengers not caring about all the Chitauri they kill is entirely inapplicable.
The issue was never with the morality with the characters, at least, not really. There is a whole separate issue about Man of Steel reinforcing the very dangerous and very morally dubious notion that any damage done in order to secure general safety is justified, but that's really not my beef with the scene, at least not the one I'm talking about right now. And, of course, the morality of the characters informs the reality of the scene. But the big issue I'm criticizing right now is, once again, that of genuine reactions and of acknowledging the nature and severity of what is being depicted. The Avengers' reaction to the chaos and destruction around them is completely genuine. And when your cast is made up of four battle hardened soldiers, a freaky monster man, and a hyper pragmatic anti-hero, not weeping as they kill enemy soldiers in a war feels very genuine, ESPECIALLY, when those enemy soldiers are inhuman looking cyborg monster men that exist in a hive mind and possibly don't even have personalities if their own.
Actually, I agree about the Avengers not reacting, it made perfect sense, because of who they are and of course logical and practical detail of the film - that they don't have time to react because
they're too busy fighting. Clearly we view Avengers differently, I liked it,
but I don't see the heroes themselves having any of the reactions you
are suggesting - which is why I find it odd that you would expect Superman, faced with an even more dire situation, and facing it alone, to have those reactions.
The montage of news clips, yup, that would have been good - just to show the rest of the world's reaction. Why they didn't do that, who knows. Although I did like the final flashback, which was about validating
everything that Clark had grown up believing, that he would change the world. That he had to reveal himself when the world was ready - as a result of the crisis.
Now people have complained that none of the disasters would have happened without Superman being on Earth - that's true. While you can't blame him for summoning Zod, because he didn't even know Zod was out there, perhaps it would have been better if Zod had found the Earth independently. Who knows ? I liked the "you are not alone" sequence, it reminded me of old black and white sci-fi films and tv shows.
5: As for how Man of Steel handles the character moments, I have to disagree. They weren't handled well at all. All of the big character moments, all if the dialogue scenes in general, we're rushed through at a break neck speed, with no time to sit with the emotions or let them sink in. And as for Zod's death, while a nice idea, it had no set up and no pay off. It wasn't even mentioned again after it happened. It left no impact on the film itself.
Again, that's an opinion. Fair enough. Believe it or not, I went into MOS knowing about Zod's death and being very set in my beliefs that Superman just doesn't deliberately kill people. However, while watching the film, within the context of the story, I realised it made perfect sense.
As such, the character moments, including that one, worked for me.
