Not boring but dumb

Rating: 3/10 (12 January 2014)

This was basically the Superman story that was told in 1978, and there were some improvements, including (of course) better special effects and a more interesting/fleshed out General Zod character.
Unfortunately, there were, for me, even more complaints. The film started out okay but then grew ridiculous and stupid. I would like to avoid spoilers so I'll just say the villains, the conflict, and how all that played out was so over-the-top, I felt myself in that all-too-familiar, "Oh, it's a fantasy- I guess I'm not supposed to take any of it seriously, right?" position. Wrong! The "Man of Steel" film started out well but ended up yet another lazy superhero film that dumbs itself down to it's audience to sell tickets and maximize profit for it's investors.
By that, I mean that characters and plot points became riddled by clichés, violence grew over-the-top, and the actors lacked the charm and humor of the actors of the 1978 version, like Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, and Gene Hackman. The original '78 film wasn't perfect, but at least it was an original (and the first superhero movie) and it didn't need the digital spectacle to tell the story. "Man of Steel" had 35 years to improve the film.
The movie wasn't boring, so I gave it 3/10.