Must be Seen on a Big Screen. Great CGI Movie

Rating: 8/10 (11 August 2013)

This movie should have been a 10, but it isn't. Very little plot development. The CGI is fantastic, but goes on forever. The spaceship and set design has an Alien/ID4 look about it.The battle scenes are over-extended. Like "Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman" from the 1940's, a more appropriate title is "Kal-El Vs. Zod". The problem with most of the previous Superman movies was poorly-executed action scenes. In "Superman II", the battle between Zod and Superman seems puny. They knocked each other thru billboards and tore up a few streets. Big deal. The Krypton and Fortress of Solitude sets were amazingly cheap-looking. Here, thanks to CGI, we get the alien-looking sets and battle scenes that a modern-day Superman deserves. But the movie has very little soul, to speak of. Amy Adams does a wonderful job, but she is too short for the role of Lois Lane and looks like a Hobbit next to Superman, who looks like the Wolverine with all his excessive body hair. Where is Jimmy Olsen? Why is Perry White black? By comparison, however, this "Zod" is a much better antagonist. He is torn between his love for the Krypton People and his former friend Jor-El whom he paradoxically, killed. The Codex DNA is a wonderful plot-devise. However, as Zod is a scientific genius here and not a mindless villain just bent on revenge, he and his followers discover that it is hidden in Kal-El's DNA, not in it's original crystal-like form. A great battle scene at the end of the movie, but it goes on far too long for my taste. The ending sets us up for the sequel with "Clark Kent" finally reporting for duty at The Daily Planet. Here, everyone seems to know that Clark is Superman, as several children, including Lana Lang, were sworn to secrecy after a young Clark saved them all from certain death in a horrific bus accident in Smallville, years earlier. "Clark" looks exactly like "Superman" in a suit wearing glasses, which he is.The jury is out whether I need to own this one. I am still trying to recover from the mind-numbing CGI! A curious sequel-reboot, to be sure.I wish it had been a little more like "Superman Returns". The ending seems to go on forever, and all that CGI gave me a big headache.