Great action, not a lot of heart

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2013)

DC seems cursed in the last few years to sit idly by while their top competitor, Marvel, takes in all the money in the world on their various franchises while all DC can do is put out a few good Batman flicks. The good news is that the dry spell is over - Superman is a good movie, proving that the Dark Knight isn't the only comic book they are capable of translating. The bad news is, it's not nearly enough.
First off, let's talk about what this movie gets right, which is honestly most of it. The action is fantastic, although it often feels like Superman is holding back (and I'm still not sure how Zod's soldiers can have the strength of Superman while simultaneously wearing suits that block out all elements of Earth around them after specifically saying it was the sun that allowed Superman to grow strong). The acting is top notch, and I love how they showed Clark going through life trying to suppress his powers.
Initially I was worried when the trailers showed his father apparently talking to him on a spaceship, which lead me to believe that he had survived and that Krypton might still be intact which would ruin the character (don't laugh; when JJ Abrahms wrote a script for a Superman movie ages ago they had Krypton still survive and Lex Luthor was also Kryptonian *shudder*). Fortunately this was not the case, and his father only appears as a hologram-type apparition.
For all the movie does right, however, it is lacking one thing: heart. There's really not a lot of emotion to this movie, and what's there is not predominantly what is associated with Superman. I guess that's what happens when you take Christopher Nolan, a brilliant director who's great at smart, analytical, realistic pieces, and put him in charge of an over the top character who's more about emotion. The relationship between him and Lois Lane is not believable, and despite the amazing line from the trailers where Jor-El talks about giving hope to the people, we never really see that idea come to fruition. It's less 'we have faith in you' then 'I guess you're all right'. Which is a pity. It seems to me that we could have used a superhero who's a bright, optimistic person when compared to the others out there. Instead he seems angsty, shouting out 'noooo' a lot and looking sad. Oh, and he actually kills someone at the end... which is VERY unlike Superman.
It's really too bad that it went that route, though I am sure that a lot of people will see the fights then nod to themselves after and say 'see those fights? What a great film.' It may be enough for some, but it doesn't do anything to separate itself from all the other superhero movies out there other than just how strong he is. I'm glad I saw it, but I think in a few months I won't be able to remember any specifics about what happened in it. Overall I give it an 8/10. Good, but could have been much better.