Remember that sinking feeling you had watching The Dark Knight Rises?

Rating: 5/10 (13 June 2013)

I wanted to like this movie. Admittedly, I went in with high expectations, but I thought the names behind the movie, the actors and the beautiful trailer justified my high hopes.
And - at first - I thought it was all going to work out. For the first 40 minutes or so, this movie is awesome. Krypton, an ALIENated Clark Kent doing odd jobs on earth, a confused boy trying to cope with his powers...
Some reviewers have bashed the movie for being too serious, but there's nothing wrong with a little seriousness, or a little reverence towards the character. In the first half, I think the tone is perfect. A little dark, sure, but it all feels like we're building up towards something truly awesome. Then, kind of suddenly, the main story with Zod and the action starts. And, as much as I love action movies, I really wished it hadn't.
When the serious actions starts, all coherent story telling stops. In the blink of an eye the movie goes from feeling like a sci-fi Batman Begins to Transformers 3 minus the nuanced story telling. Suddenly Superman is here and we get these big sweeping beautiful scenes, and they're just completely boring and out of place. And I don't even want to talk about the totally contrived Lois Lane - Superman romance. (Lots of sighs, and "WTF?" comments at the theater I was in).
I kept waiting for it to recapture the tone of the first half, but the action just keeps getting bigger and dumber. In the middle of the unending action spectacle of the second half, I actually nodded off.
This movie had the creative talent, and the actors to make something really great. And I feel like without a Michael Bay explosion quota maybe they could have done it here... But in the end this is a missed opportunity.