Man of Steel is better than expectations (and what the movie critics think)

Rating: Null/10 (15 June 2013)

I had low expectations going into "Man of Steel" given the mediocre reviews (57% on RottenTomatoes) and Zack Snyder's track record that started to look a bit like M. Night Shyamalan's. After his break-out debut with the "Dawn of the Dead" re-make and followed by the eye-popping "300," he started to stumble with the mind-bending "The Watchmen," a cartoon movie about owls, and the disposable "Sucker Punch." But I was hopeful given the guiding hand of producer/screenwriter Christopher Nolan and screenwriter David S. Goyer.
Man of Steel was a pleasant surprise that was vigorous and entertaining.
Russell Crowe nearly resurrects his Gladiator greatness as Kal-El's/Clark's/Superman's reserved but bad-ass father on Krypton. The deeper dive into the chapter of Krypton's demise is absolutely captivating with the addition of a ton of science fiction elements.
Instead of re-treading Superman's back-story on earth which has been covered abundantly already, the use of flashbacks between the adult and young Clark works really well. Henry Cavill as Superman does a decent job switching from brooding to giddy to serious, although when he's not in his suit his sculpted body looks totally unreal. Amy Adams as Lois Lane plays the part of a strong female lead well while putting the character, as always, in completely ridiculous situations requiring the classic save by Superman.
Michael Shannon from HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" is solid as the maniacal and ethnocentric General Zod.
Unfortunately, the movie falls into tedium and redundancy during the "smash-things" climax where Superman and Zod (and his minions) do 20-times more smashing and destruction than all of "The Hulk" movies combined. The Avengers smash-things climax was even longer (I think) but 20-times more entertaining because they smashed things in very different ways. There is a limit to how many times you can watch invincible beings get hurled through buildings.
Ultimately, even these flaws can't diminish a well-crafted reboot of the oldest super hero of all time. Zack Snyder may have just got his mojo back.