A really good SUPERMAN movie

Rating: 8/10 (22 June 2013)

I'm tired of the complaint that this is not a SUPERMAN movie by people who claim to be 'life long' or 'true' Superman fans. I'm not really sure what most of them are talking about because they all seem to be hung up on one particular version of Superman, either Chris Reeve or the animated series or Smallville or whatever, but their vision seems to be pretty narrow.
We'll start at the beginning and go from there. Some of the stuff on Krypton was a little weird, like the riding of flying animals. That's okay. It looked cool and honestly, there have been so many interpretations of Krypton that if Snyder (I assume he was responsible) wants to do his own thing with it that's cool. On to the codex and guided reproduction or whatever they called it. The idea that Krypton has a clearly defined class system is nothing new so this makes a lot of sense to be and goes a long way to define how Zod sees Kal (he flat out calls him an abomination).
I enjoyed how they handled the flashbacks, mostly because I really liked the Kents and was glad that those scenes weren't over and done with in the beginning of the movie. The death scene was... frustrating, even I will admit that. I will say it's not completely out of character for Jonathan Kent as far as him being stubborn and overprotective. It's still a little stupid though. Other than that I thought Costner and Lane were great as the Kents and the Sprayberry kid was phenomenal as a young Clark.
The nomadic Clark was fun and an effective way to see the trail he was leaving for Lois to eventually track him down. Highlighting Lois as a capable investigative reporter (she did win a Pulitzer) instead of a lovesick idiot was a good move. And I may be in the minority, but I feel like the movie developed Lois and Clark's relationship pretty realistically especially when you consider just how little time elapses during last half of the movie.
Which brings us to the action. The thing you need to remember is that Clark isn't really Superman yet. He strong, but he's not a fighter. He's smart, but he's not a strategist. This movie shows just how unprepared he is to handle the situation he finds himself in. He lets his emotions get the better of him especially when Zod threatens his mother. So yeah there's collateral damage and there's poor decision making and there's gratuitous violence but we're talking about a Superman that's never been Superman before. He's using his powers for the first time at full tilt. For all the people that say, "It's not Superman. He wouldn't do that" you're right in the sense that he won't let it happen AGAIN, but this is the part where he learns what he's capable of how he needs to handle that.