The relentless action tramples a story that never finds its footing.

Rating: 3/10 (24 June 2013)

Let's get right into it, and say that the story leaves a lot to be desired, and is ultimately the film's greatest downfall.
This to me feels like they wanted to get Superman to Earth as soon as possible, so that we can get the obligatory origin story in there in the first 10-15 min so that the real drama can make way for the fake drama of the rest of the film.
The problem is that the intro sequence on Krypton was rather interesting, and could have been done up a little more. Here we have a civilization that mirrors ours to a certain extent, and it implodes on itself due to careless leadership and mismanagement. That's pretty good stuff, and could have been built upon.
As soon as Kal-El gets to earth he starts doing Superman like things but his parents try to hide him for fear of excommunication, but that is never directly addressed, as to how he is going to be an outcast, as he is basically invincible and above that, morally and ethically infallible. And this is nowhere more evident than in the scene where his earthly father Jonathan Kent is killed by a tornado (out of nowhere need I say...).
Then General Zod manages to track him down, using some very questionable writing decisions from David S Goyer and then we are in full on action mode that doesn't stop, and surpasses The Avengers in its nonsense approach and execution.
Superman is a tough character to write because he is non-confrontational, and when confronted he can basically solve any type of situation that requires the use of the body, while his mental reasoning will almost always benefit almost everyone. He must then be put into positions to force him to commit an act that will (hopefully) have an adverse effect on his mind and will make him question his moral high ground. But he is not like Batman who can be pushed into doing something he doesn't want and this happens here, when he kills Zod in their final showdown, at least it looks like it.
We get a character that basically doesn't want anything for himself except to be left alone to find his purpose and to enjoy Lois Lane's company, and I'm sorry but that's not enough for a Superman film. Every other action he undertakes he is forced into by other characters. He is shipped to earth by his Kryptonian parents, he is hidden by his Earthly parents, he is sought by Zod and by us. He is a reactionary character and therefore he gets "roped" into everything, while never really declaring what he wants for himself, until the end of the film, but at that point it's really pointless, because everyone should know who he is, he showed his face so many times it's ridiculous.
Everyone seems to make the point for him, he's not like everyone else, and he should act like it, because there is no drama here to be had in a film that would focus on forcibly revealing his identity, because everyone again should know him by the end of the film.
Furthermore, Snyder directs this like a dilettante and his direction looks like this "Press REC, stuff explodes, Jesus Christ Pose, stuff explodes, nonsense plot, CUT". That is not film directing and he half-a**ed this at least in my opinion, because no one involved in the film behind the camera understands the character. I don't know if this can be salvaged in subsequent films because it's on a such a bad foundation.