7. Giant Ball-Bearing Snake Arms. WTF?
As the film approaches its climax, we learn that Superman must destroy (note destory, not battle) Zod's World Engine, which the dastardly villain has set up in the Indian Ocean (just far away from American so as not to be a threat to anyone important, obviously) to terraform the planet. The Engine is basically a giant spider machine (incredibly Jon Peters wasn't involved) that shoots out Independence Day style beams of energy, in conjunction with Zod's own ship in a way that is just confusing enough that noone would ever question it. So it's like farming equipment. But when Superman flies around the world to take the machine out, with absolutely no precedent or warning, the World Engine suddenly sprouts a giant snake arm that tries to squeeze Superman to death. This weapon appears out of nowhere, and quite why Snyder and Goyer didn't just have the World Engine guarded by a few of Zod's minions (who by this point have been completely pushed into the background) is beyond me. It all feels like reactionary story-telling, and the worst kind of story-telling is reactionary story-telling. It's like a child playing with his action figures, endlessly adding twists in the tale to ramp up the action without due diligence or foundation, and at the end of the day it is not only cheap, but it also poses more questions about the rest of the film's expositionary prologue. So wait, the Kryptonians equipped the World Engines with terrifying weaponry for what was presented as a peaceful programme to find suitable outposts to colonise? Are they saying the Kryptonians were basically going Borg on every planet they could, invading and annoying the natives off enough that huge defence capabilities were necessary? That doesn't sound very peaceful.