Way better than expected

Rating: 9/10 (27 June 2013)

As a kid, I bought every Superman comic book available until I was about 18. Also as a kid, I watched the black and white Superman TV show with George Reeves. Later, I enjoyed Lois & Clark on TV. The Christopher Reeves Superman was enjoyable too. A year or so ago, I watched the whole 10 seasons of Smallville on DVD or BluRay. I liked it well enough to watch them all again immediately after.
I guess that gives me a bit of Superman knowledge, so I was able to catch a few clues during Man of Steel that some people may have missed. For example, I saw a semi-truck with Lexcorp on the side get toppled during the destruction scenes. There was no mention of Lex Luther at all in this movie. But maybe a sequel?
There was also no kryptonite in this movie. I expected there would be since there always is--wherever Superman is. That surprised me, pleasantly. We didn't need any kryptonite in this movie though. There were several evil Kryptonians who had the same powers Clark Kent had on earth. That worried me a bit since it would seem he was way outnumbered. However, it turned out in this story, the Kryptonians need time to adjust to Earth's atmosphere. Clark had been here 33 years and already adjusted, so that gave him an edge.
I am guessing that some of the writers for this script may have worked on Smallville because there were many similar incidents that I had seen in the Smallville episodes, but in this movie, they had been improved upon.
I was pleased that Russell Crowe had a bigger part than I expected. I love him as an actor. I think Henry Cavill really did a great job in the role of Clark/Superman. Even Amy Adams was good as Lois Lane even though I wouldn't have thought of her for the part.
A lot of the storyline I knew from the comic books was changed (for the better in my opinion).
My only complaint about this movie is that the fighting and destruction went on way too long. There comes a time when it is just tedious to sit through it. Even 5 minutes less would have been better.
I saw this in 3D and I don't think the 3D improved it at all. If anything, all the action made my eyes tired watching in 3D. I plan on watching this again in 2D when it is out on BluRay.