Lets take them one by one..
First, I felt the film did a nice job of showcasing how Clark was born with his instincts and morality. He was not told how to act and feel by his parents as many have claimed. As a 10-12-year old, we see him save his classmates from drowning after the bus tumbles into the water. The mother of one of the kids he rescued is having coffee at the Kent house and explains that "this is not the first time Clark has done something like this". Later in his 20's, we have a scene where he saves an entire plant of people. He saves Lois multiple times and others throughout the film. At the very end of the film we see a young Clark playing in the yard with a "red cape". If this isn't supposed to signify that he was born to be Superman then I don't know what would.
Pa Kent is certainly there for guidance. Clark wants his life to "mean something" as he explains in a car ride and he tells his father earlier that he couldn't just let those kids die. Pa Kent is not against this idea that Clark can change the world, he simply wants him to wait until the time is right. He does not tell Clark not to save mankind overall, just that they are not ready to witness what Clark can do. Clark will know when the time is right. The tornado scene was hokey and contrived but that would only be a minor gripe for me.
Jor-El is definitely not telling Kal what to do so much as he is offering reassurance. Kal already wants to be a "Superman" type figure well before Kal establishes the significance of his landing. I had no issue with any of this. Critics have said that Superman shouldn't have doubt but I don't mind this take on it. He is still developing as Superman and as a "person" on earth
I also wanted to revisit the scene with he and Zod at the end. First, Superman does not throw Zod through buildings, I don't know where this idea came from but it is absolutely false. I watched it again very closely. Superman is trying to fight Zod in mid air and abandoned locations and Zod keeps throwing him through shyt. Plus, most of the buildings Superman is thrown through are no longer occupied. This idea that Superman should have been there to save everyone from the destruction, it's not possible. He was across the world trying to destroy the machine in the Indian Ocean. He is Superman but he cannot be EVERYWHERE at once.
RE: Zod's death. Zod says "This ends with one of us dead". Zod was already banished to the phantom zone and came back. Zod will always keep coming back. Superman never showed that he could strong man Zod away from anything. Superman could not simply "lift him up and away from those in danger" as others have stated. This was his first real fight and Zod explained how he was a born warrior who was adapting easier to the elements in terms of fighting skills. Zod was the stronger being in this fight. This as fact, he was stronger than Superman at that point in time. Superman was still developing his skillset. People have taken issue with how he dealt with Zod but Zod cannot be imprisoned. It is better in my view that it ended this way than for Zod to be banished and then come back and kill even more innocents. That is a failure in the comics because Superman is often left with blood of innocents on his hands.
Overall this is a visually stunning film and a script that is not nearly as bad as some have made it out to be. It makes perfect sense and though there are some alterations to the character, it is still Superman. He still possesses most of the qualities that we expect him to.
' and I'm like
He destroyed half of Metropolis fighting Zod. No mention of a body count? That had to be in the thousands
. I still rate all the Batman movies over it though.
Spider-Man has guilt on his mind that I would wish on my worst enemy. Knowing that he could have handle the guy who eventually killed his Uncle.