[kysirsoze]

Originally Posted by -King-

How exactly was he supposed to convincingly display it?

Spoiler!

One obvious way would be to make any attempt at all to take his superpowered beatdowns away from a populace that was constantly in danger. OR I'll do you one better, rather than take the fight away from civilians, how about don't willfully drag the bad guys to the most populated area around (Main Street Smallville) for the fight in the first place.

Another one, and this was just a plot head-scratcher, Have the military deal with the world machine since all it apparently took was him flying through it to destroy it. I have a hard time believing the entire might of the worlds military couldn't have dealt with that. This would leave Superman to deal with the much more pressing matter of conservatively 10's of thousands of people dying in Metropolis. (Not to mention all the people flying a suicide mission to deliver his escape pod rather than him just doing it himself faster than the speed of sound)

Also, if the argument is he isn't Superman yet, fine. I disagree with that rationale, but fine. Then who IS he? I had no idea by the end of the film. I saw practically no defining traits or genuinely human moments from him (or practically anyone else in the film). He was a cardboard cut out.