Good production values but a terrible script

Rating: 3/10 (23 January 2016)

Man of Steel (2013): Had avoided this one due to negative buzz but finally rented it. I thought this was reasonably well-made in terms of production values, but just an awful, awful movie with a terrible, horribly flawed script, riddled with illogical and poorly thought-out elements. I read a lot of comics and wanted to like this movie-- but I just couldn't.
My other major complaint is that Superman is just not terribly admirable in this one. He's supposed to be the greatest hero in the world, but here, he just isn't terribly heroic most of the time. Not a great 'role model' in any sense of the word. So much so, that I don't at all recommend this movie for younger kids, particularly given the film's depressing and violent elements. For older viewers, particularly fans of the character, the 'dark' elements aren't the major problem; rather, the poor script is what ruins it.
Corny as it was, I much prefer the original Christopher Reeves version to this one. I'm all for a more modern take on Superman with better effects, just with a better written and better thought out script than this one (and with a more heroic Superman).
(WARNING: SPOILER-HEAVY commentary follows).
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First of all, I thought the back story was fundamentally flawed. As finally explained at about the 45 minute mark, over its thousands of years of history, Krypton colonized many, many other worlds, then inexplicably imposed population controls and just neglected the external outposts (basically just letting them die off). WTF? Then they exhausted their own planetary (Kryptonian) resources leading to incredibly unwise use of Krypton's planetary core's energy, which accelerated the planet's destruction. Huh? Isn't the whole purpose of colonization to expand one's resources? Why not populate the other worlds and use their resources, and thereby avoid the whole problem in the first place? This was just stupid.
There really should have been a better excuse given for the cause of Krypton's impending destruction rather than this self-inflicted idiocy.
This illogical element wasn't just a throwaway idea; it was an important plot element, in that Clark only learns about his past when he accidentally activates an ancient Kryptonian colonizing craft that had landed on Earth some 20,000 years ago. This activation is also the very thing that alerts Zod to Earth's existence.
Also, if the Kryptonians knew their planet was on the verge of destruction, what was the point of sentencing Zod and the others to the Phantom Zone? Why not just imprison them on Krypton, where they would just die with everyone else? This idiocy is the only reason Zod's crew survives at all (while everyone else dies). Why not just put the entire freakin' population into suspended animation in the Zone, where they would survive Krypton's death and at least have a chance of survival?
And why did Zod even bring Lois aboard the craft with Supes? That just gave her the means to set him free, but made no sense-- what did they need Lois for?
Then this whole nonsense with the Codex. Why put all that genetic info in some stupid, single device like that? Why not make a million backups of it just in case? And what the heck was it even supposed to do? That was very unclear. Zod vaguely suggests that they would somehow use the Codex to kill everyone on Earth. Huh? How would that create new Kryptonians? Why did they even need the stupid Codex? Why not just create new life the old-fashioned way?
Then the whole bizarre situation with Clark never doing a good job keeping his identity secret. Come on, someone decades ago would have figured it out.
Superman not only is not terribly helpful most of the time (other than very occasionally saving lives), but he is also the very one who inadvertently brings Zod to the Earth in the first place. Earth would have been better off without his arrival.
And that silly ending with him adopting the Clark Kent identity AFTER everyone on the freaking planet pretty much knows exactly who he is.
Suffice it to say, this was just too lame, illogical, and poorly constructed of a story for me. Superman's killing of Zod was actually one of the less bothersome aspects of the story by the end. There wasn't much choice at that point, and he was still a planetary threat.
I will give it this much, the effects were reasonably good, but that was hardly enough to save the movie, for me. The constant barrage of CGI effects toward the latter part of the movie actually got tiresome after a while.