You're confusing me. There is no version of Clark's background in the Donner film to adapt: he's a teenager, his father dies, and then he travels to the Fortress. MoS didn't adapt anything from Donner. MoS, by making Clark an itinerant worker, is actually closer to the Birthright version than it is to the Donner version. The Donner version centers on Clark going from child to adult, from someone unheroic to heroic, as a direct result of interacting with his biological father's AI. The Birthright and MoS versions, on the other hand, have Clark engage in secret acts of heroism, meeting people along the way, which culminates in a decision to become Superman. Birthright differs from MoS in only two key ways: Clark travels as a journalist rather than taking on different jobs, and Clark learns of his Kryptonian heritage after he becomes Superman.
Im talking about the scenes paralleling the vignettes we got as flashbacks for MOS, and the general fact that Clark doesnt really start becoming Clark or Superman until he encounters Jor-El. Get out of defensive mode for a moment please. Im just saying that a more active first act present-day plot, and one involving Clark being a journalist, would have been more interesting in my view.
The character we know is both reporter and superhero. What I meant by Clark as journalist in Birthright is the fact that 1) he is actually doing the work of a journalist from the start of the story and 2) he is involved in some sort of plot before becoming Superman.
On #1, Man of Steel gets through roughly half the film before he becomes Superman or does anything significant as Superman, which is fine, but we also dont see that other half of what defines the character. In BvS we get a tiny glimpse of it. Sure, Clark as reporter has never been as prominent a feature of the character as Superman or his Smallville roots, but Metropolis and the Daily Planets reporters play the predominant supporting role for a vast majority of his stories. And for a franchise that quickly moves to introducing Batman and the Justice League, having a bit more of that development up front would have been nice, and I think could have worked better.
On #2, at least a third of the film goes by in which, in the present day, Clark rescues an oil rig crew, wanders to a Canadian bar, trashes a guys truck when he cant fully defend a harassed coworker, and then ends up at the scout ship site. In the middle of all that are flashbacks that help define who Clark is and his central struggle in this film, but it doesnt line up as well as in, say, BB, with what happens in the present. I think the actual balance is like, less than 10 min of present day and about 20 of flashbacks, which to me says that they should have told this as a straightforward story. But do that, and you essentially end up with a more interesting, less idyllic take on his upbringing than in Donners film. Between the backstory and the scout ship, we see Clark do two things (help some people and fail to help a person). Im saying that something like the situation in which Birthright has Clark at the beginning might have been more exciting. And obviously Im talking about a different focus for his origin story than the question of to help or not to help.
If a future Superman film happens, Id definitely like to see a Metropolis-based story that has more involvement for the DP supporting characters and for Superman (I think BvS could have been that if it had fewer but meatier plot threads).
Doesn't seem like anything is set in stone at all for a Superman sequel.
Unfortunately not, but Im not at all surprised. Not enough people turned out to see JL, so whatever supposed positive reactions this Superman had dont really matter. And unfortunately WB doesnt really have anyone to argue for prioritizing Superman.
