Truly Terrible Film

Rating: 1/10 (19 June 2013)

To put this into perspective, I've never read a comic book. Well, not of the DC/Marvel kind that you'd find in a US comic book store. I don't really read books, I love movies. I get distracted easily and prefer all my senses to be stimulated.
I've loved the Superman movies since I was a kid and owned them on VHS, DVD and now Blu-ray. I have the extended editions, the Donner cut etc. I'm quite a fan.
I enjoyed Lois & Clark, anything with a Superman costume has rarely failed to impress.
I loved Smallville, even cried at the end, I own all those too.
I even bought Superman Returns on DVD to watch over again as I liked that as well.
Now comes Man of Steel, naturally I was looking forward to it.
What I got was a Hulk/Transformers type film that contained a character that wears a red cape. Nothing about it was Superman for me.
Sure there is Krpyton and the two sets of parents and the farm in Kansas and a bit of the Daily Planet and Lois Lane too, but this was all buried under ridiculous amount of CG battle scenes that had no appeal.
I guess it's fair to blame Zack Snyder for a lot of the problems. I turned off 300 as I thought it was rubbish too. Sucker Punch was OK in the most part but again ruined by battle scenes towards the end.
But he's not the only one to blame. The screenplay was awful, with script lines that made me grimace at times. I guess we can blame David S. Goyer for that. Whilst his style likely suited Batman & Blade, it doesn't suit Superman.
Add to this the awful casting, the worst of which is Zod. I don't know who thought of putting this guy in the role, but it just didn't work. Terrence Stamp was always going to be hard to match up to, with his clear English elocution, but Smallville managed it with Callum Blue. See the connection? English accent. Here we have an English Superman, faking an American accent, and an American Zod - it doesn't work.
Crowe was acceptable as Jor-El, hard to choose better in the right age group, but the choice for Lara I thought was poor. Back on Earth, Costner was as cardboard as usual and made John (Dukes of Hazzard) Schneider look like a good actor. Martha Kent was also equally poor and didn't get into character very well.
Who on Earth chose to cast Christopher (Law & Order SVU) Meloni in the film? Could he be more typecast? Laurence Fishburne was about the best character, although he felt more like a police commissioner than Perry White.
I'm going to give Cavill and Adams a pass for now as I felt they were truly let down by a terrible screenplay and didn't really get a chance to play either role properly. Adams is likely a bit feminine for Lois though and will really need to bring out a "tom boy" attitude for any sequel.
So, all in, possibly one of the worst films I have ever seen. It is truly the sum of it's parts. If you like the 300 and comic books, you'll likely think it's great. If you're a traditional Superman fan, though, I'd avoid it completely.