Simply awesome

Rating: 10/10 (29 June 2013)

*** SPOILER ALERT ***
Great casting, great action, great reboot. I watched the 1978 Superman movie prior to watching Man of Steel and glad that I did, Man of Steel provided good explanations/perspectives to some questions I've asked myself for a while that the original didn't quite cover i.e. why his suit is that way, clearer take on why Jor-El chose Earth etc. Henry Cavill really owned the part but hopefully he doesn't get stereotyped after this. Even as a 2.5 hours movie I still feel it was a bit compressed, would have been great if they announced this as a trilogy upfront, start out a bit more mellow, focus on more character development then really up the ante in the second and third parts. Nevertheless, I thought the flashbacks were sufficient to provide 'origin' elements so I'm not really complaining.
As for other reviews/articles I've read where they talk about the damage caused by the battles being too extreme (even some mentioning something like "well in the Avengers it wasn't like this...") I say boo-hoo. Snyder mentioned in an interview they wanted to portray Superman's story in real-world situations, well folks you can't get any more real than what they did here. Imagine alien life forms invading Earth (i.e. Independence Day) with hostile intentions and firepower to match. One would be naive to think that with ample destruction there should little to no loss of life because the hero/heroes were there to save the day. I like that in this story Superman tries to save all he can rather than save each and everyone in every situation...it shows that even with his seemingly infinite super powers he's not omnipotent, actually I thought it showed more of his human traits than anything which helped emphasize his choice to be a citizen of Earth rather than the last son of Krypton.
Would have given this a 10 but there was one scene near the end that I thought wasn't necessary, I'll just say it has something to do with a flirtatious Captain who really seemed more like a school girl. Really found this annoying so minus 1 from me.
Having said the above, I highly recommend Man of Steel to everyone. Watch it with an open mind and hopefully you find some sensible answers to Superman questions you may have asked yourself. Hardcore Superman fans please don't get too anal if some elements of the story doesn't seem consistent with whatever Superman origin story you've grown up with, appreciate Man of Steel for what it is - a reboot that really does the Supes movie legacy justice. Can't wait for the sequel.