Super Lame!

Rating: 4/10 (30 June 2013)

The Plot: An alien planet called Krypton is reaching its doom due to its unstable core so in an effort to save his son, Jor-El(Russell Crowe) sends baby Kal-El(Henry Cavill) with a genetic codex of the entire Kryptonian race. Meanwhile, the Council is attacked by General Zod(Michael Shannon) who tries to take over the planet but ends up getting arrested and put into the Phantom Zone for punishment. Now that he's arrived on Earth, how will he deal with his powers?
Pros:
Henry Cavill makes for a good Superman. The man sounds authoritative when he's speaking to the military and has a kindness and gentleness when he's speaking to Lois. Some of the designs were pretty neat. I was surprised in a good way how the designers chose to not copy the Fortress of Solitude from the Richard Donner Superman and I like how high-tech Krypton feels in this version. The cast for me was hit-and-miss, I liked Russell Crowe as Jor-El, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and Laurence Fishburne as Perry White. And lastly, I like that Superman actually fights in this film as opposed to Superman Returns where he was taken down by Kryptonite and has to lift up a Kryptonite mountain to win.
Cons: The pacing feels really rushed once we get down to Earth. They kept on flashing back to his teenage years in Smallville and it was just unnecessary. They should've told it in a linear fashion like in the Donner Superman. The tone is just depressing throughout. The score by Hans Zimmer is so down the entire time! There's barely any humour in this film at all! These things just make the film depressing and I miss the positive spirit that the Donner Superman had. The action is just excessive and mindless. Superman doesn't care about the property at all in this film, he slams Zod into buildings non-stop possibly killing hundreds of citizens! I also found Kevin Costner to be bland in the role of Jonathan Kent especially compared to the excellent one we had in Smallville.
Overall: This film was just depressing, rushed and mindless. It tries way to hard to be like Batman Begins and it just doesn't work because of that. Superman should not be this dark and girt! The pacing was rushed, the action is excessive and mindless, and the character development seemed to be forgotten midway through the film.
Final Verdict: 4/10