4. Zod Chooses Not To Adapt To Earth
Were into the final act of the film, and General Zod has explained his motivation to Superman and the audience. He wants to terraform Earth into something close to Krypton so the Kryptonians can live on and thrive. Unfortunately, humanity doesnt have a place in his plans, so theyll have to go. So far, so super-villain-y. However, the film makes it clear that Zods plan is utterly bananas, and theres actually a much better solution on offer they can adapt like Superman. The big blue Boy Scout even points this out to him, saying that hes learnt to control the sensory overload which Kryptonians experience on Earth, so surely Zod can too. But then Zod chucks all the toys out the pram, shouting Superman down by saying he cant be arsed with this adaptation lark so Kryptonians shouldnt have to bother with it either. In itself, this is completely insane if the Kryptonians could only breathe sulphur or something, we might better understand his motivation, but this isnt the case at all. He then makes matters worse by spectacularly shooting down his own logic, adapting to Earth within a matter of hours to the extent that he can fly around like Superman, only in a foxy purple number. To be fair, the writers attempt to dig themselves out of a hole by having Michael Shannon tell the audience that because hes been bred as a warrior, he can master his senses in double-quick time. But this just makes matters worse if Zod has been designed to adapt, surely every future Kryptonian can in thanks to that massive eugenics project he keeps banging on about? If Zod had just figured that one out, he mightve saved his species, a whole lot of death, and the wrecking of several miles of Metropolis real estate.