A terrible reflection of Superman on almost all counts

Rating: 1/10 (6 August 2015)

I will start with good points:
Jonathan Kent has one scene where he really does feel like the character he's meant to be. When Clark learns at last that he is from another world, he comforts Clark and embraces him in his arms;
Clark: Can't I just keep pretending I'm your son? Jonathan: You are my son.
Likewise, there are some scenes with Jor-El that work. For instance, when he says "You are as much a child of Earth as you are of Krypton" as opposed to the Donner version, who was obsessed with Clark abandoning his human emotions and embracing his Kryptonian heritage above all else... despite admitting that the Kryptonians' arrogance destroyed them. MoS Jor-El sees the differences, and says that humanity's difference from Krypton could be a good thing since it could lead them to not make the same mistakes.
There are some beautiful moments in this film that show Superman as hopeful and inspiring. For instance, the scene where he first learns to fly has always been my favourite part of the film, and has one of the few instances of vibrancy of colour, and Clark actually smiling. And, when he's rising up to destroy the "World Engine" to save the world, likewise it's quite well handled.
Now, though, I get to what kills the film for me:
I used to think it just wasn't to my tastes, that it was over-dark and over-grim for Superman... but now, I flat-out think it was incompetent on a lot of levels, with many stupid scenes that make no sense and add up to a whole lot of nothing.
We spend FAR too long, and have far too much focus on Krypton. The story has not changed in almost any version besides this one. Doomed planet, arrogant council who don't believe Jor-El, goodbye to son, rocket. That's it... yet here we've got a ridiculous amount of action, explosions, fighting, the weird skull codex thing that isn't explained why it's a skull, weird symbolism, the "birthing matrix" that looks like... well, The Matrix pods... it's kind of a mess.
In that same opening, Zod is pretty pathetic--he seriously gets his ASS KICKED by Jor-El! A SCIENTIST, and the supposedly great military general, genetically bread to be a soldier and fighter... gets his butt kicked by essentially a nerd. Seriously! And do I even need to go into the "I WILL FIND HIM!!!" line? It's hilariously out of place, and I giggled so much at that. When Zod yelled stuff like that in the original, it fit the tone of the film and he had consistent funny, goofy moments balanced out with intimidating ones. Here, though... it's just a weird bit of laughter- inducing out-of-nowhere silliness.
After that, we have so many random cuts to different points in the film at entirely random intervals that it's really difficult to tell what the hell each scene is meant to mean most of the time, and the flashbacks are so jarring, unnatural, brief and out-of-order that we don't even know when they're supposed to be, and what they're supposed to link to. Most of these scenes would probably be fine if told in a proper sequence, but they aren't, so I'm left not having a clue what to think about them.
So often in this film, it'll feel as if it's about to explore the characters, build towards something, explain something about their personalities, and JUST as it's about to do so something explodes, or there's a crash, or the ambush-tornado turns up.
The tornado scene is one of the most idiotic moments of the movie. Pretty much everything is wrong with it, from Jonathan seeing a trapped dog and sending his invulnerable super-strong son AWAY to hide under a bridge, only to try to save the dog himself (because Clark, a young 20- something fit man saving the dog is suspicious? But the 50+ year-old-man doing it is perfectly normal?) to the complete fundamental misunderstanding of tornadoes actually work on every level.
Zod captures Superman in his fortress--Clark being the ONE GUY that he needs for his plan to succeed--and he puts absolutely no guards on him, just some weedy guy who immediately runs away. Oh, and weedy scientist outright states that Clark DOES NOT have his super-powers that he gets from the sun... and yet, a couple minutes later, with no exposure to sunlight, he breaks the bonds with super-strength. There is no excuse for that level of lazy writing
The villains are idiotic at almost every turn. They give no reason for why they have to make this new Krypton civilisation on Earth, they just want to because there'd be no movie otherwise.
The climax of the movie, the final fight between Supes and Zod was never supposed to be in the movie to begin with. That was added later at the request of the studio who wanted one more fight. So, that scene of Superman snapping Zod's neck wasn't part of any directorial or writing vision. And that very much shows. None of the scenes following it make any reference to it, and the tone is so jarringly different that we seriously smash- cut from him screaming about killing Zod, to him joking about destroying government equipment and smiling.
I hope that in the future it'll be justly left in the dust and practically forgotten.