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

[gdw]

Just in case anyone stumbles in here and still doesn't want to be spoiled, I'll put this in spoiler tags.

I imagine the astricies in the second word of the thread title is more than enough. Even without them, nothing would actually be spoiled as without seeing the film/knowing what it's referring to, it doesn't give anything away.

Spoiler

Any who, I wanted to discuss the World Engine.
When it was first mentioned in the film, I almost groaned. It wasn't yet explained, but it sounded like a made up MacGuffin type device that would come back later. "This is now a fully functional nuclear bomb."

However, when it WAS explained, I was surprisingly satisfied. It was a terraforming machine, and it made complete sense, not only how they came to possess it, but that it would be where they found it, and that it served a logical purpose to Zod's desires.
Often these MacGuffin devices and such are forgettable, or laughable. I always forget about "red matter" in the Star Trek reboot, hell, I even tend to forget about the convenient water evaporator device in Batman Begins. Although that served Ra's greater plan, it was a contrived, convenient, device which Wayne Enterprises just happened to have.

Of course you could argue the World Engine was a convenient device which happened to suit Zod's plan, but I think it was more well established with the settlers/explorers that Kryptonians used to be.
It made sense that, especially with their advanced technology, that they would be terraforming.
Any who, I was incredibly surprised that I did NOT end up finding it a contrived plot device in the end, despite my initial assumptions/reaction when Zod mentioned it.

Still, "World Engine" sounds like a dumb contrived plot device.

Thoughts?

 

[Godzilla2000]

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.

 

[gdw]

Spore flashbacks?

 

[Rowsdower!]

Just in case anyone stumbles in here and still doesn't want to be spoiled, I'll put this in spoiler tags.

I imagine the astricies in the second word of the thread title is more than enough. Even without them, nothing would actually be spoiled as without seeing the film/knowing what it's referring to, it doesn't give anything away.

Spoiler

Any who, I wanted to discuss the World Engine.
When it was first mentioned in the film, I almost groaned. It wasn't yet explained, but it sounded like a made up MacGuffin type device that would come back later. "This is now a fully functional nuclear bomb."

However, when it WAS explained, I was surprisingly satisfied. It was a terraforming machine, and it made complete sense, not only how they came to possess it, but that it would be where they found it, and that it served a logical purpose to Zod's desires.
Often these MacGuffin devices and such are forgettable, or laughable. I always forget about "red matter" in the Star Trek reboot, hell, I even tend to forget about the convenient water evaporator device in Batman Begins. Although that served Ra's greater plan, it was a contrived, convenient, device which Wayne Enterprises just happened to have.

Of course you could argue the World Engine was a convenient device which happened to suit Zod's plan, but I think it was more well established with the settlers/explorers that Kryptonians used to be.
It made sense that, especially with their advanced technology, that they would be terraforming.
Any who, I was incredibly surprised that I did NOT end up finding it a contrived plot device in the end, despite my initial assumptions/reaction when Zod mentioned it.

Still, "World Engine" sounds like a dumb contrived plot device.

Thoughts?

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.

 

[BH/HHH]

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

 

[C. Lee]

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.

 

[BH/HHH]

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:

 

[Sundancer]

Just in case anyone stumbles in here and still doesn't want to be spoiled, I'll put this in spoiler tags.

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.

 

[Showtime]

I thought it was horrendous.

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

 

[manofsteel4life]

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

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

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

 

[jacobed]

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

 

[113]

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."

 

[Dork Knight]

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??

 

[PunyGod]

...

 

[RetrogradeOrbit]

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...

 

[Hero 1]

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

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??

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.

 

[Lead Cenobite]

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.

 

[gdw]

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??

1. They adapted to the strength, and INITIAL powers directly given to them by the sun. Zod was able to adapt to the overwhelming senses with intense effort, and his life time of training. It took Clark years as a child, and quite rough ones as an infant, from what his mother described.
Eventually they would evolve to be perfectly ok with the atmosphere from birth, but generations of babies would suffer.

He also wasn't exactly looking for power, he wasn't seeking to RULE a world, he was seeking to RESTORE a world, and it's people.

2. Because the WE was the one generating the transforming, working in conjunction with the ship. The ship was more like a receiving end, if you will. As such, one might assume that, if the ship were taken out, the WE would still function, and possibly out of control, given the lack of the ship to work from the other end.