Adding serious credit to the claim that General Zod would make a trip to the Kent farm, the brief shot of alien aircraft descending on the farm setting is telling - and may be a sign of how dark the film will get. If nothing else, the multiple space craft shown prove that Zod is not alone, and it's unlikely he and Faora are each piloting an entire ship to themselves.
Whether or not that means it is, in fact, Black Zero in army form that will be accompanying their military leader in a conquest of Earth (or if it's some other force), Ma Kent looks to be in danger. One might immediately ask: why do Zod and Faora even needs ships to travel? And the answer could be telling.
Firstly, this shot might be of Black Zero arriving to either attack or kidnap Kal-El's family. Then again, if Kal-El's time on Earth allows him to fly while Zod and Faora cannot, we'd have to credit Snyder with a clever (and completely plausible) way of differentiating their powers.
This is one that has us puzzled. Since the revealing shot of General Zod (Michael Shannon) sports the horizon of a planet in the background, this scene could be taken from his approach to Earth, or from Krypton prior to its decimation. Shannon has already commented on the amount of time he's spent among the "massive" sets and green screens of Krypton, and the number of speeches he gets to recite.
If Zack Snyder really wanted to distinguish Man of Steel from the previous Superman movies, he'd do more with Krypton than relegate it to the opening minutes of the film. Shannon's comments - and Russell Crowe's casting - imply just that. The arrival of actual space craft and an apparent army mean David S. Goyer's script has passed on the 'Phantom Zone' angle, which puts Zod's arrival on Earth in new context.
Is 'the General' invading Earth as part of a speech-laden rivalry with Jor-El? Was Kal-El, a prince of Krypton, sent to stop him? Who knows. But that hulking costume looks like it means business.