Best Superman film ever!

Rating: 9/10 (19 June 2013)

The cast of the film is wonderful! Every single one of the actors were great in their respective roles. Hans Zimmer's score, though not as iconic as John William's, but was still great in providing a level of epicness to the film, especially the action scenes.
In the beginning, they show a spectacular view of Krypton, with dragons flying around. Instead of just showing a place full of ice and crystals, they really depicted the scene well, like Avatar. Jor-El, as a scientist, is able to beat General Zod in a fist-to-fist fight shows how determined he is to save his son. Both of them want to save Krypton, but they have different views on doing it.
When the spaceship carrying Kal-El falls to Smallville, I expected what was supposed to happen. Johnathan and Martha Kent driving in a truck, the spaceship crashes and you see a naked kid. But instead of that standard scene that you see in Superman I and Smallville, they skip it to the grown-up Man of Steel. I really liked how they actually changed these parts, and show a really different Superman movie. You don't get scenes like a young Kal-El lifting a truck but you get young Kal-El having problems in school.
One of the more emotional moments is when Johnathan Kent dies. In the standard storyline, Johnathan dies from a heart-attack. This time, he dies trying to protect Clark's secret. It was really a tear-jerking scene. It provides a great deal of character development for Superman as he knew that he could have saved Johnathan but he did not.
There were moments where even though they changed quite a lot of Superman's origins, it was still done really well. The Fortress of Solitude with Jor-El is no longer limited to an area in the north pole, but its data is contained within a key that you can insert into a Kryptonian spaceship. You don't get just Jor-El's head, but his whole body. This shows the great 1000 years of advanced technology of Krypton over Earth.
The part with a major controversy was when Superman snapped Zod's neck. Personally, I felt that it was necessary, especially what happens after. Superman cries in remorse over what he had done. This shows that Superman really didn't want to kill Zod. After all, what could he have done? Cover Zod's eyes with his hands? No.. just no! Superman may be invincible but he can be hurt by powers equal to or greater than his. If he was invincible, he wouldn't need to be flown through buildings and buildings.
The most disappointing part of the film was actually with Zod. Michael Shannon did a great job. He had the motivation to do what he did, instead of just pure revenge. However, the lack of "Kneel Before Zod" was utterly disappointing. Zod should have given Supes a chance before being intent on killing him. After all, Zod is all about making sure the Kryptonians survive. Why would he want to be bent on killing one of his own without giving him a chance? Of course, I'm not saying that we let the scene where Supes kneels before Zod only to trick him, but at least we could see Zod say "Pledge your allegiance to me, and Kneel Before Zod!". I know we've seen that many times already but come one, stuff like this never get old!
Because of the awesome action scenes, (personally I didn't think there were "too much" action scenes, but they were definitely overwhelming) they didn't get to cover much but they still managed to touch on important parts like Clark Kent working at the Daily Planet. Henry Cavill was surprisingly really good as Superman from his look to his voice but what bothered me was that he really only wore glasses at the end, and not slick his hair back or anything. I like how there wasn't a standard romance between Clark and Lois yet, as their development takes time.
The Arrow-styled flashbacks were really great. Initially, Henry Cavill doesn't look like Superman but throughout the movie's progression, he looks more and more like Superman. Overall, this film is one that is very different from its predecessors, a very unexpected one. Be prepared to accept change, but making Superman modernized is really a great job.