Quintessential Superman Movie

Rating: 9/10 (4 July 2013)

Going into watch this movie, I had very high expectations due to me watching all the great trailers and TV spots to death. In hindsight this might have detracted from my cinema experience of the movie as most of the scenes they had already shown on one trailer or the other. However, this was very minimal and to my surprise the movie lived pretty much to my expectations with very few exceptions.
First of all, getting to see Krypton in all its glory with a living world (unlike the ice laden one shown in Superman: The Movie) was a thrill. People seem to forget Kal-El is first and foremost an alien from another planet and bringing science fiction into the movie, in my opinion, was a no brainer. Criticisms that having this makes this less of a Superman movie is a bit odd. It's even more odd when people more readily accept that Thor is from another world which is based on Norse mythology in The Avengers.
How Clark goes through his journey towards becoming the Man of Steel were well done with great weight placed on each scene. Kevin Costner portrayed Pa Kent brilliantly as did Diane Lane as Martha with both reinforcing his initial restraint on using his powers. Then we have Russell Crowe, who does really well as Jor-El, counseling Kal-El to accept his heritage and help the people of Earth.
About half way through the movie we see our main protagonist, Zod and his crew, show up with their ultimatum of Earth surrendering Kal-El. It's safe to say both Zod and Faora present formidable opposition to Kal-El. Michael Shannon plays Zod to a tee with understandable motivations for all his actions.
Then everything hits the fan, with Zod releasing the World Engine to terraform Earth to become another Krypton. In my opinion, the damage that occurs feels very realistic and I would expect mass deaths at the initial stage of the attack. The fights in this movie are spectacular and to set the record straight, the fight in Smallville lasts only 10 mins, the World Engine sequence lasts 15 mins and the final battle lasts only 5 mins. In total they add up to only 30 mins of a 2 hrs and 30 mins movie to all the people saying that the fighting goes on forever. I would say 80% of the damage to Metropolis is already done by the World Engine before Kal-El and Zod go at it.
Over the course of the movie, however, he does voluntarily demolish a silo, a service station, creates a skylight by flying Faora into an iHop in Smallville, throws a Kryptonian into a railway tanker, drags Zod through some windows in a skyscraper and flies Zod through the Museum's roof in the final Battle. The largest damage caused by him was when he made the spaceship with the Genesis Chamber crash land which seemed dramatic but could have been done differently even though it did seem to crash land in the already ravaged part of Metropolis. A lot of collateral damage is inflicted by either the Kryptonians, e.g. Zod throwing Kal-El through buildings, or the Army, e.g. the missiles being fired at the Kryptonian mothership being diverted towards the city. Once the black hole is created and the Kryptonian ship with its crew are sucked in, we get to see Superman go head to head with Zod. This fight was spectacular and showcased what would really happen if two beings with such power did do battle. In this fight there was one building that was toppled, yes only "one", unlike a lot of people saying "buildings". I did have a problem with this fight though, as it moved too quickly from the decimated part of Metropolis to the still populated part by them just going through one building. The fact that people were still hanging around even though the centre of Metropolis was decimated either by the World Machine or the missiles being shot by the Air Force said very little for those people's survival instincts which should have triggered when one building collapsed. It would have been better if most of the fight had happened over the unpopulated area then have the last part in the populated side to show Superman kill Zod.
I for one had no issue with him break Zod's neck, as this was the point that Superman finally realises that Zod wasn't going to just simply give up, as his whole reason for being was wiped out by Kal-El. It's true though that Superman himself didn't provide much of a verbal argument against Zod other than him being a monster.
Finally, the score from Hans Zimmer fits perfectly into this new Superman mythology. The emotional scenes are appropriately accompanied by his somber music. Whereas, when the action ramps up, so does the tempo and energy of the music. I've listened to the soundtrack and still get chills listening to the score for when Clark is learning to fly and when he decides to work as a stringer (freelance journalist) for the Daily Planet.
I preferred the new takes on all the old character: Kal-El coming to terms with who he is and what he will become; Lois, a Pulitzer prize winner, able to piece together the identity of the unknown saviour as compared to the one in the original whose spelling ability questions how she became a journalist in the first place; Zod being a protagonist with understandable reason for conquest; Jor-El as a father figure encouraging him to embrace his heritage and be a shining light for humanity; The Kents who knew Clark was meant for bigger things, just couldn't bear the thought of losing him.
In the end, this is still the quintessential Superman movie.