im kinda conflicted about the action in the movie. on one hand, after seeing SR, action was sorely needed for the movie to be successful. But on the other hand, imo i just seemed out of place for supes to indiscriminately level smallville and metropolis without really trying to divert the battle to somewhere more safer. Like, that kinda fighting makes more sense for the hulk, but seemed out of character for superman
I felt that Superman was more busy trying to stop the Kryptonians to end the problem, keep in mind that Faora said it herself that they will kill millions for every 1 person he saves. He really cannot be flying around and flying each person to safety. It is also hard to say to lure the enemies away because as you can see, Supes was overwhelmed and in a few scenes, you see him trying to fly away just to be held/pulled back. Even in the beginning, it is hard to just fly away and hope the enemies would follow. If I were the Kryptonians and I had military training and I am trying to invade something, then I would stay somewhere where the hero would be more distracted and just cause chaos.
Again I look at this as a starting point, a learning curve for Superman, an origins story. The same reason that I really have no ill feeling about him killing Zod, it's just something he can learn from and the re-precautions of his actions which I think they will touch up on in the sequel. This is what shapes him in the end, he just have to make mistakes.
I agree with that one article that they could have conveyed it better though.