Originally Posted by
Adekis
I don't think Jor tells Kal to become Superman in either movie, as unhappy as I am to pass up an opportunity for spearing Superman the Movie, nitpicky heretic that I am. In Superman's special edition, Kal goes to Metropolis and becomes a journalist as Clark first, and then reveals that he's Superman only when Lois is in danger. After he flies around doing a saving-people montage, he discusses it with Jor's ghost, who basically regards Kal's creation of "Superman" with fond resignation. Kal never meant to be Superman, he just kind of started saving people and then got carried away. Jor understood that and had in fact anticipated it, but Kal's bashful, almost ashamed reaction indicates that by no means did he instruct his son to undertake such a super-task, and if anything had entreated him to stay under cover of secrecy.
Strangely, Brando's Jor-El instead seems more fixated on Clark Kent, entreating Kal to keep his secret identity. Additionally, I cannot for the life of me figure out why Clark started working a normal job and living a normal life in the first place. We can see why Clark chooses to become Superman, but not why Superman chooses to become Clark Kent again. I have to assume that returning to the Clark Kent role was Jor's idea, which is I suppose a version of Jor telling him to be Superman.
By contrast, in Man of Steel we first have a Clark who basically, already behaves as Superman when danger arises, but who otherwise constantly lives in hiding, not even using his real name as Clark Kent. While Jor tells Clark lots of important information, his own reason for conceiving Kal in the first place was the absence of "the element of choice" from Krypton's society. Obviously he's not going to go through all that effort just to tell Kal how to live his life! While Clark chooses to reveal himself to the world as Superman in a crisis and not in a vacuum, that's not at all different from Superman the Movie with the helicopter crash. People are in danger and he takes the time to focus on helping them. Crucially, unlike the Donner'verse Clark who spent over a decade studying in the Fortress prior to his accidental and then initially regretted public debut, the Snyder'verse Clark has constantly been making the choice between remaining unobtrusive and helping people in need, after which he must disappear, for a decade and a half. For him, "Superman" is just a way to help people without having to disappear afterward - which perhaps most importantly of all finally allows "Clark Kent" to put down roots and live as a normal man.
Both films present concrete, clear motivations for Clark becoming Superman, and each based on the same basic principle: when people are in danger, do what you can to help.
Yeah, absolutely. Jor was awesome and Lois was absolutely stellar!