Super-charged, over the top, the "S" stands for "WOW!"

Rating: 10/10 (17 June 2013)

I don't get the venom being spewed at this movie. Evidently I saw a different movie.
The movie I saw is called "Man Of Steel". It is an intelligent & very well thought out movie that has all the hallmarks that made "Batman Begins" such a pleasure --an "origins story" that has never been explored in the depth that it is here.
Quickly:
---Henry Cavill is great in the title role -even better than Christopher Reeve. Cavill & the 2 kids who portray the young Clark never hit a false note. It'll be interesting to see how he does when he has to wear the fake glasses more as the barely glimpsed grown up Clark Kent.
---Michael Shannon as Gen. Zod is ferocious & driven. I've really liked Shannon for a long time. He delivers another Shannon-esque performance.
---the rest of the cast is excellent: Crowe is Crowe, Amy Adams is the best Lois Lane ever, Kevin Costner, Dianne Lane & Laurence Fishburne all have crucial moments that they matches some of the best work they've ever done.
---David Goyer's screenplay from a story he conceived along with the legendary Christopher Nolan may be the best & most thought out of any of the "super-hero movies".
---Zack Snyder brings this all together with the confidence it needed to pull it off. His visual gifts are on FULL display. There were times when I couldn't help to smile in delightful awe at the stuff his team was putting before my eyes. ("The Bourne Identity" shot that pulls back to reveal humpback whales swimming above a drifting Clark was a hoot.)
---The only knock I have about this movie is that is does get a bit overwhelming more than a few times. The action scenes raise the bar for these things so high that you lose sight of the ground on a few occasions. (Maybe the 3D IMAX didn't help.) I'd rather see a movie that gives me too much rather than too little. However this movie never dragged for a single second.
It isn't aimed at kids. This is Superman for adults, but it is not nearly as dark as Nolan's Batman Trilogy.
If this is not the best movie of this genre then it certainly belongs in the Top 5 (along with Snyder's vastly under-appreciated "Watchmen").