Human characters get short shrift in this unimpressive effects laden superhero slug-fest

Rating: 4/10 (15 December 2013)

For those who are not completely convinced that the latest Superman reboot, 'Man of Steel', is nothing more than a bloated, overwrought mess, please consult the CinemaSins series on Youtube entitled, 'Everything Wrong With Man Of Steel In 8 Minutes Or Less'. This hilarious video summarizes all the absurdities of the 'Man of Steel' narrative as promised (In 8 Minutes Or less!). Perhaps the most absurd scene highlighted is when Superman saves Lois Lane while she's falling toward earth while everything else is being sucked into a vortex in the other direction.
Superman begins with an incredibly long twenty minute or so sequence chronicling the destruction of the planet Krypton which could have been done in a much more compact five minutes. When General Zod (played by Michael Shannon of Boardwalk Empire fame, sporting a bowl cut haircut) attempts to stop Superman's father Jor-EL from sending his newborn son, the future Superman, in a spaceship to earth, he fails to stop the launch after getting into an absurd fistfight with Jor-EL without the assistance of any of his minions (who could have easily accompanied him to the launch site and destroyed the launch console).
If all signs pointed to the fact that Krypton was doomed, why does the council of Elders sentence Zod and his crew to the Phantom Zone? The destruction of the planet means that the device that controls the Phantom Zone will be destroyed, thus releasing Zod from his eternal prison. They would have known this. Instead, Zod and company could have been put into stasis and launched in a spaceship, where it would have been much more likely they would have never been found in the vastness of outer space.
If you're expecting to see Superman disguised as "mild mannered reporter" Clark Kent, working for the Daily Planet, you will be disappointed. Clark Kent the reporter only appears at the end of the film and now you will have to wait for the sequel to see him. Instead, Clark pursues a nomadic lifestyle working in such places as a fishing trawler and using his superpowers to save lives (for example) during the collapse of an oil rig.
During these sequences, we're also treated to flashbacks detailing Clark's ostracism amongst his peers while he's growing up and how he redeems himself (again for example) by saving his schoolmates after a bus plunges into a river. Kevin Costner and Diana Lane do an excellent, understated job as Ma and Pa Kent but the scene in which Jonathan Kent chooses to sacrifice himself, to save the family dog, doesn't ring true. Why doesn't Clark try to save his father as the tornado bears down? After depositing his mother at the underpass, using his super speed, no one would have seen him, as he could have flown into the tornado and shifted its direction, so that his father wouldn't have been swept away.
Somehow Clark then manages to get a job working at a secret military site investigating what turns out to be a Kryptonian ship buried in the Artic ice. There he learns about his origins from a hologram of Jor-EL. The hologram is so prescient that he later even recognizes Lois Lane. In the sci-fi universe, I was always under the impression that the ability of holograms to communicate with humans was quite limited (perhaps answering yes and no questions, as in the film, 'I, Robot'). But here Russell Crowe's ability to communicate appears unlimited.
And another thing while Clark is down there in the ice, snooping around. Why doesn't Superman, utilizing his super hearing, hear Lois enter the cave and prevent her from being injured? Instead, he ends up using his X-ray vision to repair Lois' wound, and she's in agony while undergoing the procedure.
Even if you're willing to suspend your disbelief concerning all these contrivances, the rest of 'Man of Steel' is a big bore. The problem is that the human characters here are an afterthought. Compared to the superpowers of Superman and Zod, humans are absolutely helpless as the good guy and bad guys from Krypton, battle it out. Perry White (played by a solid Lawrence Fishburne) has little to do except save one of his employees after she's trapped when a piece of concrete falls on her. Lois Lane is given the small task of using a special key to jump start the craft that Superman came to earth in, which is used by the US military to send Zod's minions, back to the phantom zone.
Before battling Zod in Metropolis, Superman must dispose of the Krypton bad girl, Faora and another Kryptonian. Those sequences are no different than the final battle with Zod, where trucks are thrown into buildings and each principal punch one another, where they themselves end up being thrown great distances into such recognizable structures as the International House of Pancakes (IHOP).
As so cogently pointed out in 'CinemaSins' on Youtube, after the ridiculously long battle between Zod and Superman, the Man of Steel ends the whole thing by merely snapping Zod's neck. Before that, even with Zod being thrown into a building which collapses on him, that isn't enough, to do the trick. Presumably, Zod is so spent that Superman is then able to kill him by such a sleight of hand. But after all the grand CGI effects, the snapping of the neck, is a big let down (and not very believable, to boot).
If your thing is special effects, then 'Man of Steel' is for you. But if you require that Superman be all about the human interactions between the characters, then go elsewhere. May I suggest purchasing the complete collection of the original 1950s Superman TV Series? The special effects back then were nothing to jump up and down about, but the 50s incarnations of the iconic characters of Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Perry White and Jimmy Olsen, were all so endearing.