Man Of Steel Review *Might contain Spoilers*

Where do I even begin? Man of Steel was not a great film to me. I wanted to like it much more but I just didn't.

The one main thing I loved, was Lois Lane. She was the intelligent, bold, caring and daring journalist and woman you wanted to see on screen for once. Not a quimbling, bumbling idiot who only wanted to get into Superman's undies.

I am not totally sold on Amy Adams perse, who plays the almost-fearless Lois Lane. She is stereotyped into playing the damsel in distress or princess role. So seeing her play this was a bold choice and she did well for what she was given. There was still something missing in her performance though and I can't quite put my finger on it.

I did see some good nods to people like Pete Ross, Lana Lang and even Lexcorp. Laurence Fishbourne plays Perry White pretty on-par with what we have seen and know about White.

Henry Cavill really does nail the look and for the most part, personality of Superman and Clark Kent. He looks the part, much the way Brandon Routh did in Superman Returns. He played the angst when needed, which is most of the film, and he played the much-needed Superman just as easily.

The problem though is how Clark/Superman was written. I think for the most part, Clark was written as we all know Clark to be- sweet, understanding, loving and an honorable man. Though he was written to be what seemed to be much more angsty than usual. It wasn't as bad as watching a teenager brood the entire film, it never crossed that line, but it could have easily if gone a different way. But we see Clark being a loner with fake identities for what feels like the first forty minutes of the film. It's dragged on too long and seems like a worthless payoff for when Lois tries to find out about him.

Lois does try to find out about Clark early on and finds out way more about him than in previous incarnations of movies, tv shows and cartoons. Basically she finds out where Clark came from pretty early in the film and then knows who Superman is the rest of the film. This is definitely different then other media we've seen about their history together.

The beginning of the film starts with us on Krypton. It's an alien planet to us and it definitely felt like someone watched the movie Alien while designing the ships, Krypton and all the tech Krypton has. Everything was slick, black, moved organically and had a lot of blue lights. The implosion of the planet is already happening. Jor-El is trying to consult with the counsel to inform them of their poor decisions. He eventually is pleading to let him send off their son to some outer reaches of the galaxy when he is interrupted by General Zod who plans to take over. Drunk with power, Zod and Jor-El fight inside Jor-El's home as Lara is trying to send Kal-El off the planet. Pet peeve here, they changed the deaths of Jor and Lara. They do not die in each others arms like they should have. I was very disappointed in that history change.

Zod and his rebel gang are captured and sent to the phantom zone - which in this film, reminded me of Star Trek 2009 film when the Romulen's octopus-like ship goes through the wormhole. That's almost exactly what this scene looked like.

Much of the film is done in a lot of flashbacks. They lingered too much on each flashback. It made the storyline and movie slow. Along with the flashbacks were all the draggy angst scenes of each lonely job Clark had as he ran away from himself.

I realized later that the whole film was really about the fathers. Jor-El's fight with Zod, Pa Kent's teachings toward Clark. How each lived and died and the lessons they left behind. They changed Jonathan Kent's death to be something that technically Clark could have saved him vs a heart attack that Clark honestly could not have prevented or helped with much. And that felt really wrong.

In keeping with the fathers-movie theme, we see that Clark or Kal-El is really just being motivated to fight Zod because of Jor-El. Its as if Kal-El is just a pawn in Jor-El's quest to bring down Zod, even though Jor-El is technically dead. Another point, instead of just being a guiding factor or a normal hologram, Jor-El is trapped in a Kryptonian hard-drive and once used wherever this "hard-drive" fits, he becomes his own sentient being. Not just an educational hologram like we saw in the original films with Reeves or like we see he is in the Smallville show (at least in the beginning of that show). So it was odd to see him keep popping up so much and driving the plot towards its end.

My friend made me realize the kryptonite used in the film was the atmosphere. Since they couldn't actually use kryptonite, the atmosphere on earth or on Zod's ship became Superman's weakness. This was lame and lazy to me. Although, yes I like that it was a different weakness for Superman, in some ways I'd have preferred the usual green piece of kryptonite to be used...

There were plenty of moments I kept thinking it was like Nolan's Batman reboots if only that it's-not-a-Batman-movie-without-Batman concept. I felt like there wasn't as much Superman in this. Even tho the second half of the film is Superman fighting Zod, I didn't feel like it was something Superman would have done or that it didn't feel like Superman in general. There was a LOT of fight scenes and like Transformers, it was up close and personal and I could barely follow along with them because they were so fast and furious and close to the camera. Even through the slow, quiet angst scenes, Snyder did not have a steadycam or turned off the steady in steadycam. All the shots were shaky and moving and it made me annoyed at having to watch those scenes. Side note- most of the film was so loud I was holding one ear closed the entire movie.

The ending fight with Zod is kind of a shocker. The whole theatre cheered when it happened vs me and my friend groaning and were totally disappointed in how they handled it. But we were slightly relieved with Kal-El's reaction to it but only slightly. It just wasn't something I thought Superman would have done, ever. EVER! But Superman's reaction to what he did, still wasn't enough to uphold the horror. And I think it was a cheap escape in a way. Superman was forced to do what he did, thankfully it wasn't by choice or his first choice but at the same time it was too quick. Especially for the build-up of all the many many many! fight scenes that led up to it. So I felt cheated by what happened and how it ended.

Any and all humorous moments are lost. Every joke or pop culture phrase they tried to use, came off forced and not funny at all. They were all cringe-worthy. It was bad writing.

Editing to add the concept of Superman as Jesus or God. I cannot deal with this any longer. Both Superman Returns and this one both use the concept of him as a God. I get that he's different and he will be our "savior" but that is implied already by his humanitarian efforts. We do not need to see anymore effigies to this. And I don't believe Jor-El in old comics and such, (tho one can correct me if you'd like) ever once said that Kal-El will be a God to humans. He actually says that in this movie!! No! Bad Jor-El! And then later in the film, when Jor-El is guiding him to save earth, Superman exits the ship in a very Jesus-on-the-cross manner with his arms out and his one leg up slightly and flies outward backwards with the light behind him. NO! Bad Zach Snyder! Bad! Ugh! This was so blatent and it really annoyed me to see this depiction again. Also, we all know Superman was made my Jewish people right?? Ok enough religion... Sigh.

I was a bit annoyed at how the entire film was about Zod and Jor-El basically. Yes, I'm glad they picked a different villian than Luthor who could have been a tv show, oh wait it was, Smallville... So I'm glad they picked someone else but this movie was too long to be just about Zod too.

To me, the film's focus was turned around -- we are learning his origin in the entire film and it's about Jor-El and Zod instead of being about Superman helping to save the Earth. In this case, the earth is just collateral damage and not a one-off save the earth film. Superman is not an established superhero yet. He needs help to become that. He is not mutually loved by the public yet. And that's different. In past shows or films he is already Clark Kent, the bumbling journalist at the Daily Planet by day and Superman by night. In this he's nobody yet. He's barely even a Clark Kent yet. So it was interesting twist to see if from this perspective but I don't know if it really worked.

Clearly, I did not really like this movie even though I really wanted to. It had so much potential but fell short. I know Superman Returns also fell short but maybe if they took a little from column A and a little from column B, both could have been better films or one big film that would have matched expectations and a better combined movie overall.

Note -- If you post comments, please try not to post any spoilers. Thank you.

Editing to add again: 
I keep  forgetting things to add to this huge list of stuff I didn't like, so I apologize for all the add-ins.
But I really disliked how Superman didn't try to save any civilians. Yes, I know he saved the earth but at what cost? How many millions died in the rubbles of the small Smallville street or in Metropolis where buildings collapsed!! In none of those scenes did Snyder decide to put in sequences of Superman saving civilians or trying to! Superman saves people!!!! and in turn, will save the planet. and in turn, will defeat the bad guys. But that didn't happen at all in this movie! wha?!? ok wrap your head around that.
And overall -- this was a sci-fi movie more than a fantasy superhero movie. That bothered me. As you can see from my idea about the Kryptonian ships looking like something out of the movie Alien.
I also realized there isn't so much a Fortress of Solitude like there should have been. Much like the no-kryptonite to hurt Kal-El thing, there was no true Fortress built. I suppose one could argue that where the ship was, was the Fortress. But it was either too subtle or just not enough to convince me of that.