World En***e ***SPOILERS***

I don't know about anyone else but I was having some Spore flashbacks of using terraforming devices on populated planets just to see what would happen when Zod deployed that sucker.

 

I was cool with the World Engine. The name sounds a little silly I guess, but silly names are part of superhero culture; in the Return of Superman storyline, the Cyborg and Mongul destroy Coast City and turn it into "Engine City," which to me always sounded like they just transformed it into Detroit or something.

Anyway, I expect things like the World Engine in these types of movies because they put things on a grand scale. They present a real threat to a large group of people beyond just going around and beating them up. Movies like Spider-Man 3 and even Superman 2 bug me a little bit because they lack this. (I give the first Spider-Man a pass because that film had a lot of great character development with Peter Parker, and that was the most important thing).

Anyway, like I said, these movies tend to have doomsday devices quite frequently, and this one was one of the coolest. That's why I love the microwave emitter in Batman Begins too... maybe it's not the most realistic thing but at least it was something new and different. TDKR almost lost me a little bit when they just made Bane's weapon a nuclear bomb, but at least it didn't start out that way so I think it worked well enough.

 

All I can say on the World Engine is probably gonna lead to the reason for their been Kryptonite on the planet.

 

Good point. Hadn't thought about that.

 

It's funny cause I said it to my brother when we were watching it and since then vie listened to a few podcasts and they've said as such.

Oh and I liked the World Engine btw, the name of course is kinda lame but what else could they call it, it was like ronseal it does exactly what it says on the tin t:

 

Not to pick on you specifically gda, but I don't understand why people do this in a forum clearly marked "spoilers"

Moving on....I think a McGuffin drives the plot, like the Ark in Raiders. The World Engine upped the stakes but removing it would keep the movie's essential elements intact. Zod could have arrived with his small army and try to conquer Earth to repopulate the Krypton species or it could have been like Superman II where Supes is outnumbered and Zod wants to rule to re-create Krypton culture with the humans. Similar story, but less enemies for Supes to fight.

 

I thought it was horrendous.

"Release the world engine." I thought a Kraken was going to rise from the depths.

 

Lol that's what I was thinking

 

The world engine sounded like dubstep. All the scenesters in Metropolis were probably slam dancing.

 

I thought it was cool. The whole things being crushed was a really really really awesome effect

 

I LOVED IT.

Like you said, I initially thought it was just going to be forgettable plot device that didn't make much sense but was JUST there to move the story along.

I think Goyer and Snyder did an EXCELLENT job explaining it. Like you said, they explained how Zod found it on the old Kryptonian outpost, it's probably thousands of years old. And when the World Engine landed I like the pseudo-scientific explanation that Dr. Hamilton provided with it working in tandem with the Black Zero, it was just brilliantly handled all around.

Add to the fact that the World Engine (I actually love the name) feel like, and looks like more of an organic living device then just a mechanical thing. How it lands feels makes it feel alive, something to be truly feared.

I think the tentacles scene should have been completely cut, but there is no doubt that that helped to add to the feel that it was "alive."

 

The only things that really bothered me about the world engine plot:

1. Why would Zod even want to terraform the Earth? It is not uninhabitable for Kryptonians. Zod and his army adapted pretty quickly to Earth's atmosphere and gravity. And babies can adapt just like Kal-El did. Also, super-powers would be quite handy in rebuilding your alien civilization on a new planet.

2. Why did Superman have to go and destroy the W.E. in the Indian Ocean first? Couldn't he just have gone to Metropolis right away and destroyed that ship, severing the gravity altering bond as seen in the movie? There's a ship tearing up one of the most populated areas in the world, and another tearing up miles and miles of ocean.... and Superman decides to go stop the latter??

 

...

 

It could have been far worse, we might have ended up with killer Polar Bears...
You do know they are the fiercest killers in the animal kingdom on our planet? Second only to spiders...

 

I'd imagine that if the World Engine in the Indian Ocean was near, or right on top of, the Indian Plate then a major catastrophe that would kill considerably more than in Metroplis at the time would have likely occurred.

 

In a sense, Man of Steel really did go all "Wrath of Khan" on it, like Bryan Singer promised, which was another movie involving a potentially destructive terraforming device.