Awesome but not awesome.

Rating: 7/10 (24 August 2013)

I saw Man of Steel on opening night at midnight. It was pretty awesome how many people were there. I managed to not watch trailers and not read any spoilers about the movie before I got there so I had no idea what to expect.
The opening scene on Krypton was awesome! It was beautiful and reminded me of the scenes on the moon in Watchmen. Just, with more action. So, I definitely liked how it started.
Once we get to Earth, we go through all of Superman's growing up scenes. We see him having meaningful conversations with his his earth parents, saving kids from a sinking school bus , hugging his mother, and losing his father to a freak I-used-all-my-energy-saving-this-dog- and-can't-run-to-you paralysis accident during a tornado. He soon grows up and defends his honor at a bar!
It's hard to connect with this character. I'm not saying that Henry Cavill (or the other actors playing Clark at a young age) did a bad job, because I actually really liked him but I feel like there wasn't enough there. I get that these guys were going for a strong, silent type, but Superman just seemed too silent. Like he wasn't much of a character. You could draw comparisons to Ryan Gosling's character in Drive, who was also a strong, silent dude.The Drive guy had a much broader range of emotion. So, I couldn't connect with this Superman.
I also didn't care much about Superman's relationship with Amy Adams as Lois. There wasn't much there.
Russel Crowe as Jor-El was awesome! He did a good job and I liked his character, which also brings me to the scene back on the ship. I really liked it. Jor-El was helping Superman through the ship, disappearing and reappearing everywhere. That was fun.
Clark's dad was awful. Way to die for a dog. I get what they were trying to do here. No matter what, it's not worth showing these people what you are, blah blah. But they really could've gone with a stronger sacrifice than having to save a dog.
Again, nothing against Costner here, he did a great job with what he had but... they really didn't give him much to work with.
Michael Shannon was great as Zod. He is an interesting actor to say the least or should I say, interesting casting choice, but I like it! He's a great actor and I really bought how dramatic and angry he was.
The last hour of the movie basically consists of Superman and Zod punching and throwing each other into and out of buildings. The action was awesome, as it is in every Zak Snyder movie. I could watch these guys punch each other through anything for an hour and not mind, as long as I cared about them and what they were doing.
Neither of these character's had anything important to say. Superman was nobody and Zod was Zod was actually pretty fantastic but I could've gone for a little more time spent with him to get to know him.
I feel like he was offed way too soon and quickly. Just as we were about to explode from building smashing overload, he yelled about why he's doing what he's doing. Shannon was convincing enough, but then that's all we really got. Mr. Personality snapped his neck all of a sudden.
Antje Traue, who stood out in Pandorum was impressive here as one of Zod's cronies.
I was definitely disappointed with Man of Steel. I was hoping for something a little deeper. I didn't read the comics or anything but I've seen the Richard Donner Superman and watched some cartoons as a kid. So I know that there's a lot more to Superman than staring at things, not realizing your dad is an idiot, and having super long punching battles.
That said, I still recommend watching it. Man of Steel is a pretty awesome spectacle, but it tries to fool you into thinking that it is smarter than a Transformers movie. It has got a great dramatic score, but that doesn't help if its playing in the background of nothing.
I can't wait for it to come out on Blu-ray. I'm definitely going to see it again and it'll be a lot better because I can just watch the badass Snyder action knowing not to expect anything more than that. I just hope there's more to the Superman/Batman movie than this.