Satisfying, but not the whole Superman

Rating: 7/10 (14 February 2014)

Zack Snyder is a director whose strengths lie more in the visual department. If anyone could capture the action of Superman, it's truly him. And in Man of Steel, he proved himself in that regard - that is unless you don't like CGI, which this movie is full of. It's spectacular, well edited and is never too hard to follow. Buildings are getting destroyed all over the place, explosions at every corner, heat-vision blasts, space-ships... you name it. The fights are intense, fast and the oomph! factor is high. However, where he succeeded with awesome visuals, he failed with characterization and plot. One of the problems I'm having with it is that it felt more like a invasion movie like "Independence Day" rather than a superhero one. It also notoriously suffers from circumstantial conveniences, much so that even I couldn't ignore them anymore, and I'm usually very forgiving about such things.
SPOILERS AHEAD: One of my major gripes was the death scene of Jonathan Kent. It was just unnecessary and plain stupid. There's no way anyone would let their father die in front of them, while still being able to prevent it. And would those couple of people who'd see him save a man from certain death really be that freaked out by him, that you can't reason with them to not tell anyone? Was his secret, which was already exposed once or twice, more worth to him than his dads life? It's just something that breaks the character for me.
Another thing that I was missing was his alter ego Clark Kent. Beside some flashbacks and the fact that he worked at a ship, there's little to know about him. I never got to know what kind of person he is in the present and he also got very little scenes with Lois, which leave no place for any romance between them. SPOILERS END.
All that aside, the acting was rock-solid. I especially liked Russel Crowe as Kal-El and Amy Adams as Lois. Michael Shannon, despite doubts, pulled off a surprisingly good Zod and Antje Traue was a deadly yet very attractive Faora-Ul. Henry Cavill was a convincing Superman, but I would've liked to see more of him as the down-to-earth reporter Clark Kent.
The movie despite the about two hours run time, never felt was dragging on, and was well paced. It's definitely a fun ride, but its plot definitely needed more work. It will please anyone looking for a entertaining action-flick, but for those who expect a little more of their superhero-movies nowadays, it probably won't do it entirely.