The main problem with the death toll (one of them anyway) that everyone seems to be missing is that Superman HIMSELF is unnecessarily causing a lot of it. When Zod punches Superman through a building, causing it to collapse, that’s forgivable because that’s Zod’s fault. When Superman throws a train or Zod through a building and causes it to collapse and undoubtedly kill countless innocents, that’s not something that can be attributed to the villains, the stress of saving the world, or the fact that Supes is a rookie; that’s just Superman and his own stupidity/reckless disregard for human life and it makes him look like a terrible hero.
All it would have taken was one quick scene in the fight to show Clark using his X-Ray vision or hearing to determine something like, “Hey, there’s people in that direction so I’ll try to lead Zod in this direction.” Or maybe the occasional worried expression, just to show that, yes, he can’t save everyone, but he still cares. Or maybe a scene showing Superman helping out in cleaning up Metropolis. Just something. ANYTHING. But we don’t even get that much, so Superman just seems like he doesn’t give a damn, even when buildings are falling down like dominoes.
The other major problem is that the film doesn’t really acknowledge it. By the end of the film, a solid chunk of Metropolis is wiped out and hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, and Metropolis has essentially suffered one of the worst tragedies ever. And then it ends on this weird happy note where Superman and Lois Lane make out and steal a line from “Speed” and then life in Metropolis seems to resume like normal a few days later with Clark going to work at the Daily Planet (which I’m positive was destroyed too). Ultimately, the consequences aren’t felt. No one cares.
This movie wants to be “darker,” but it still tries to present us with a happy fairy tale ending ignoring the losses. It wants to be more “realistic” with the collateral damage, but then it’s completely unrealistic in how everyone else reacts to the damage and to Superman himself. They praise him as a hero even they know nothing about him and they had no way of seeing him save the day. It tries to have its cake and eat it too.
I don’t care if Superman isn’t a huge boy-scout or even if he’s willing to kill as a last resort (after all, he did it back in Superman II); I’m all for trying something different. But I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a Superman who won’t throw a goddamn train in my direction on the off-chance that he MIGHT knock Zod on his ass.
Alternatively, people like to compare this to the destruction in the Avengers, but in that film, you had the heroes going out of their way to help citizens when they could or to rally the cops to help citizens in the chaos. The worst they ever got was what, when Hulk ran through an office building? But it IS the Hulk, so some recklessness is to be expected and even then you could clearly see in that scene that he didn’t run anyone down (so even the worst of any of the Avengers still wasn’t nearly as bad Superman).
And at the end of the Avengers, you see memorials erected in honor of the casualties, showing that, yes, the day was saved, but a lot of people still died in the process.