Disappointing.

Rating: 7/10 (12 June 2013)

I was ecstatic at the choice of Henry Cavill, following his work ever since I saw him on "The Count of Monte Cristo". His chiseled made-for-GQ-cover looks and what-guns-are-you-packing body won't make it difficult for anyone to believe he is worthy of being tagged the Man of Steel.
I love Christopher Nolan's work since I first saw "Memento" at an indie theater and the fantastic job he did rebooting the Batman franchise. But he's donned the producer's hat for this one and passed the directorial reins to Zack Snyder who I thought did okay on "300" but not much else (was NOT fond of "Watchmen" and "Sucker Punch").
The rest of the all-star supporting cast is enough for the price of admission.
The anticipation from seeing the first official trailer a year before the movie was set to come out snowballed all the way to the minute I handed my ticket stub.
The opening scenes were great, fantastic. Packed with enough action and drama that I started whispering to my teenage nephew how many times did he think we'd go back to watch this again.
The non-linear story-telling worked well and it transitioned effectively from current time to flashbacks as the character is slowly revealed.
I really wanted to love this movie. Really. But something about it just kept holding me back.
Henry Cavill was convincing as the brooding, conflicted man from another planet coming to terms with his alien status. Unfortunately the script didn't give him much substance in terms of dialogue. He seemed more of a "listener" and "observer" and the bulk of the emotional character background was built through the dialogue of his parents. This made it tough to access the core of his psyche - which is one of the crucial things, I think, that made Christian Bale's "Batman Begins" so effective as you follow his journey from man to superhero.
The second downer was Lois Lane (Amy Adams) having about as much chemistry with our main guy as marshmallow and ketchup. Their story line felt rushed and could have used a bit more flirting to build up some semblance of anticipation. (Smallville was quite more effective with this but that was helped a lot by the spunkier, self-assured, naughty, carefree Lois version than the plain-jane-trying-to-talk-tough-but-not-really-believable version on this one) Lastly, the fight scenes in the mid to latter stages between hero and villain - while as grand and explosive as you can imagine combat between two clashing megapowers could possibly be - starts to get tedious and overextended that at some point (after dozing into quick microsleep) I muttered "just finish him already".
It's not as fun (or funny) as the Marvel stuff. It's not as deep or engrossing as the "Batman" reboot. It's just stuck in the middle - a victim of its own great expectations.
Seeing it once was enough.