Snyder and Nolan have officially both ruined Superman for me

Rating: 5/10 (19 June 2013)

Please bear in mind that I am a fan of both Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan. I'll spend pretty much every day until my terminal breath defending Sucker Punch and Snyder's Watchmen adaptation. Nolan's work with the Batman movies is nothing short of absolutely amazing and he has one eye for a tragic superhero story. He turned the story of Bruce Wayne into a beautiful tragic story of a man who must choose heroism or sanity. Watchmen is the story of former superheroes who realize that even though they're retired, they have a lot of saving to do- themselves for a starting point. And so when you take Superman and give it a dark spin, it's bound to succeed, right?
Absolutely wrong.
Alright, so maybe the movie isn't bad. If you're a pedestrian viewer wanting an explosion filled action movie, then you'll get that here. But for us Superman fans, it's a disgrace. I don't know who these "fans" are telling us that this is close to the graphic novels, in fact the way they adapted the comics is among some of the most appalling adapting work I've ever seen. There are problems right off the bat when Jor-El is stabbed to death by General Zod. REALLY? If anyone has even read the comic books, you'd realize that Jor-El is much stronger and more defensive than that. But it doesn't stop there
To begin with, the Superman is greatly raped with a stove pipe and executed Tarantino- style throughout. He spends the whole movie angsting and whining. It's as annoying as The Tenth Doctor's final episode of Doctor Who. Alright, that's a little dramatic, sure. But half the exchanges between Clark Kent and people around him consist of:
PERSON X: Clark, can we talk? CLARK: I don't want to. PERSON X: Look Clark, nothing is wrong with you. CLARK: I know. PERSON X: so why don't you send your powers to the world? CLARK: No, you don't understand. People CAN'T know who I am. They'll reject me.
Every time one of these rubbish soap opera dialogues rung out over the cinema speakers, I groaned. To be fair, it is SLIGHTLY true to the comics, but they take it up to 11 here and it's unnecessary. The cutting of the film is really off here too. One minute, Superman is being interrogated, the next he's in the desert. It comes off as if Snyder dropped the script on the ground one day thus messing up the pages, then decided, "ah, never mind, let's just shoot it like this". Your head will explode trying to make sense of this thing, man.
And then there's the second half, filled with nothing but action, explosions, Superman pushing General Zod through several buildings (I laughed several times). The action itself is bloated, boring and incomprehensible too. Shaky camera and quick cutting combined with 3D, when I wasn't falling asleep, I was wondering what in the hot frak was going on. And then the climax, or lack of was just laughable.
So, are there any positives? Well, the cast do a good job. I did like Henry Cavill a lot and I think given the terrible script that he had to work with, he did a decent job. Diane Lane and Kevin Costner are also great, but the highlight of the film is easily Michael Shannon as General Zod. He really knows how to make a bad guy scary- watch the film "Bug" for proof. But he shines here and he plays the villain in such a way that you both feel bad for him and hate him at the same time, which is proof of a well executed villain.
Otherwise, stay away from this turkey at all costs. Don't believe the positive reviews, the critics are right for once. I figured it was just the unhealthy and unfair hate-on they have for Snyder, but nope. They're right. I'm guessing WB hired plants to write reviews, because a lot of the reviews do seem very much vague. This film will ruin everything you love about Superman, so avoid at all cost.