A flashy, pretty mess.

Rating: 3/10 (19 June 2013)

I really wanted to like this movie; I'm a big fan of Superman and the trailers looked great. That's why it was so disappointing when, after an impressive Kryptonian set piece and pleasant stroll down memory lane, the movie nose-dived about an hour in and never pulled back up. It had good elements: the costumes were great, the CGI was beautiful, the casting was good, and the music was evocative... but most of the film's good elements were showcased in the trailer.
Besides these, we get a convoluted mess of a movie wherein all of the conflict in the entire film derives from an unreasonable and short-sighted General Zod deciding that godlike powers sound awful, and that being invincible is a terrible way to insure the survival of his species if they have to trip out for approximately eight minutes in the process of becoming immortal.
To avoid this terrible fate (survival), he decides to wipe out all life on the only life-sustaining planet in our solar system to make room for easily-killable-by-design Kryptonian clones rather than terraforming any vacant planets where nobody would try to stop him and he wouldn't have to commit genocide, and the script makes the point that he does all of this because he's the perfect soldier and preserving Krypton is the driving goal behind everything he does.
Okay.
The points where the movie shines are unfortunately front-loaded, with some very nice flashbacks to Clark's childhood and adolescence that do a pretty good job of informing the character he is to become. The producers evidently spent a bit too much money on their admittedly impressive CGI set pieces, though, and forgot to save enough money to invest in a tripod, as evidenced by strange and unnecessary shaky-cam in such scenes as a conversation between a boy and his father in a truck bed. It was a little headache inducing, and I can't see the reasoning behind it, but overall this portion of the film was strong. Unfortunately, it doesn't last.
In what feels like about ten minutes, Clark is told his background and destiny in direct exposition, introduced to his love interest, given his suit, taught to fly, and then threatened by the villains of the film whose motivations make no logical sense and whose technology and biology don't seem to follow any consistent rules even given the fictional setting. (Solar radiation responsible for super strength and speed can penetrate through their suits, but super senses are caused by air? Their space prison is designed to release all the prisoners if it loses an external signal from home? Their entire species' reproduction relies on a single skull kept in one location and protected by the honor system? What?) Superman spends a few minutes establishing a rapport with the military, who are going to comprise every human character except the Daily Planet staff from this point forward. An hour of CGI brawls and drop-ship withdrawals follow, followed by more CGI brawls, eventually climaxing in a longer CGI brawl during which about two million people die, and at some point during all of this we're told a romance developed, though near as I can tell the only chemistry between the two leads is shared trauma and the villains' odd decision to force them to spend time together for reasons never adequately explained. Given how much effort and care obviously went into the costumes, the visual effects, and the sets, it was really kind of shocking how little attention was paid to the writing. I haven't been this disappointed in a movie in a long while; it could have been great.
Brought to you by Ihop, Sears, Nikon, and the US Military.
There are no real twists or unexpected developments in the plot, but I've tagged this review for spoilers because I'm a little unclear on the rules and don't want ruin anyone's day.