Not good/ not terrible

Rating: 4/10 (19 August 2013)

First of all I am no superhero movie fan, I read some comics when I was a kid of course but never delved into the universe as much as some here have done. So I don't have any quarrels with changes as long as we get a great performance and a nicely fitting story. I would also like to point out I watch movies for the story not for cheap thrills, so movies like Transformers/Expendables/John Carter and more of those mindless drones are not for me.
The editing is pretty bad and I would even go so far by saying that it broke the movie for instance they show Clark wearing a cape witnessed by his dad at the end of the movie, they should have done it in the beginning to show that father Kent saw his foster sons potential. The jumping back and forth between then and now using the latest flashback technology from Krypton breaks consistency as well. If they have shown a linear growing up movie, they might even incorporate the fact that it takes time to get really powerful or have taken time to explain that Superman is also different(stronger ) on a genetic level so it can be made believable that one farm boy can beat a squadron of equally powerful individuals who were trained as soldiers. Instead they cram in as much (raw)material as they can, throw it in a blender take of the lid and let it splash the kitchen hoping that no one sees what they threw into the blender but show people how clean the kitchen is when they were done cleaning up.
There is no real story/plot discernible in the entire movie. I wasn't expecting Tolkien, Dickens or Tolstoy but from Nolan/Goyer I expected a bit more depth in the characters and story. The dark knight would be a great thriller if you would take the Batman element out of it. If you take the Superman element out of this movie there is no movie left, the closest it would come to is an independence day like movie. Also the Terraforming bit is ridiculous, if Kryptonians would have developed their technology to this level, why not pick Mars? Ask Superman for some blood so they can rebuild their home on Mars and done! For an advanced society, like that on Krypton apparently, I find it strange that no one except Superman could escape. I could have believed it if it was a sudden thing without warning whatsoever and that Superman was send out by his parents because of a genocide type situation or maybe a strange custom where kryptonians send out their newborn to experience other civilizations( DBZ anyone? ;) ), but no they even had time for a full criminal trial. IF Jor El was correct they even had a couple of weeks so they could save several thousands Also using the codex as a plot device is very poor since it doesn't really relate at a human level( it doesn't play into emotion-Pathos-), what they should have done is create a storyline where it actual makes sense to people why Zod goes to earth and wants to kill superman, just a small example: Supermans mother was bethrotted to Zod because it had the perfect genetic match( or maybe even something more traditional or earth like as a caste system), but instead she falls in love with Jor El, gets pregnant of him. Zod finds out and wants to kill Jor El and his son at which point Jor El who already had taken precautions shoots his son towards earth in a newly designed ship. Since there is no proof of a son Zod get's sentenced to the phantom zone for 20 years for assault, Jor El marries Supermans mother and thus creating the final hate that will consume Zod in hunting down Superman.
The only reason that this movie is even remotely watchable is because the actors themselves carry their respective roles and try to make the best of it, the VFX made the turd slightly better watchable as well but if you are not carried away by the hype it can only take you so far.
This is at best a mediocre movie, it had great potential but fell short in a lot of ways...