Not enough to surpass 1978's Superman: The Movie

Rating: 6/10 (9 July 2013)

Man of Steel and it's popularity help to illustrate why the JJ Abrams era of Star Trek and the Michael Bay actioners of today make so much money. It's what the public wants, quick and fast action.
For the same reason I never came to Star Trek because of cool ships and action, I never came to Superman for it either. It's probably why am not much a general genre fan. I like these franchises for different reasons. Superman, for me, is as much a character for hope as he is for powers. It's the hope element that attracted me to the character, not how many cars he can lift. I felt that was lacking in this movie.
I felt that Cavill filled the tights much better than Brandon Routh but I walked out of the movie feeling that I didn't know who this Superman was, a feeling I have not had before, even in the days of Kirk Alyn and George Reeves. I was disgusted that he learns to fly and become Superman in the course of just a few minutes. It's an insult to the volumes of comic books that have been written to show the challenge it was for him to adapt, and it's even more frustrating when, as a child, he is shown to be having trouble, lending less credibility to the idea that he can learn the rest in a few mins.
Also, the origin story heavily borrowed from the Donnerverse, even down to some of the lines.However, it all felt far less emotional and epic than the Donner counterparts. Numerous scenes come to mind, such as the brief and casual nature that Jor-El strolls in to the Kryptonian council and announces the world will end, totally lacking the gravitas of the Brando scenes. Or the criminally abused Zod, who is given very little development and the great actor that is Michael Shannon is left to give stock deliveries of his lines that hide in the shadow of Terence Stamp. Worse still, I just couldn't get to grips with the notion that Superman managed to beat an entire legion of Kryptonians, who all are as strong as he is, on his first day on the job!
While perhaps overused, one of the great things about Lex Luthor is that it's not brawn v brawn. He's a human who relies on his mind to fight Superman. This movie didn't require the use of the mind, it just required stuff to be destroyed.
Don't get me wrong. The action was great. It was a joy to see Superman's flight and powers finally realised in the majesty that they represent. I thoroughly enjoyed all the flight scenes, my favourite being the first scene where he puts on the suit because I didn't feel he was just one of the Kryptonian numbers, rather the focus was just on him. But the man barely has any lines in the entire picture! Who is this Superman???? So annoyingly underdeveloped. It's easy for existing fans to go in and declare this great, but this is both because an actiony Superman has been missed on screen for decades, and because they know the character already. But I just didn't walk out feeling I was familiar with the Cavill incarnation.
I find myself looking more fondly on Superman Returns. It had more heart. What it lacked was action. But, in striving for the "anti-Returns" Snyder has gone in the opposite direction. Sacrificing character for action. Perry White & Lois? I just didn't engage with them at all. They could've easily been someone else, such was their lack of behavioral recognisability. Same with Ma Kent. What about Jor-El's consciousness,just quickly deleted by Zod. Forgettable. Only Costner stood out. I wish that I could have taken Cavill and the action from this and put together with the heart from Returns. The attempt to redo the origin is excruciatingly inferior to the Donner version, in part because the modern audience need movies to be loud and fast paced. The numbers for blockbusters like Transformers illustrate this.
The reason 1978's Superman was such a benchmark is that it wasn't just about action, it was about quality movie making all round. A quality the modern audience doesn't care for or recognise. I found myself believing the Donner version more than this, despite it's age.
The only scenes in this entire film that brought a smile to me face (aside from the aforementioned first flying scene) were the glasses scene and the Costner scene at the very end. Those were the moments I felt I was watching Superman. That just didn't feel like enough to me, with much of the rest feeling dark and depressive. I don't understand why Superman has to be a character with melancholy like everything these days. Has the world really grown out of hope? As for the score, I thought it was awful. Instantly forgettable and way behind it's bombastic and uplifting forerunner.
A Superman for the action to order generation I think. Not awful for me, but arguably average.