You'll believe that a Superman film can be satisfactorily done

Rating: 8/10 (14 June 2013)

Right now you need to ignore most critics if you're a fanboy. This isn't the Dark Knight by any stretch of the imagination but it still is a pretty cool adaptation of a huge cultural icon. Since it's explosion from the beginning of the millennium, superhero films are being taken more seriously and are even becoming more plot driven. Now unlike Batman, it's quite difficult to get a proper story for Superman due to him being what fans call "over-powered", so it's hard to present a challenge. Superman's more of an image of the perfect being rather than a character for good storytelling.
However this film actually managed to get a plot going, and just like all the recent superhero films it even ties the story arcs of the hero and the villain. That is why the film actually spends a good amount of its beginning in Krypton. And this has to be the coolest depiction of Krypton yet, as it actually looks like something out of the Lucas pages.
Because it spent some time on Krypton, when baby Kal-El lands on Earth, it immediately cuts to him as an adult. It presents him discovering his powers and coming to terms with his origins in the form of flashbacks. This causes some pacing issues though and you sort of get lost in some scenes. And all of a sudden he comes out as Superman with no big reveal like the 1978 film.
He isn't shown flying around Metropolis saving cats from trees, stopping bank robberies and just flat out messing with Darwinism. And this is what I actually enjoyed. It's a very different take on Superman, he isn't the boy scout Christopher Reeve portrayed, he is this flawed individual who has to step up when Earth faces a Kryptonian invasion. And Henry Cavill was a really good choice to portray this version of Superman, his undersized height notwithstanding.
Yes time to get to the actors. Amy Adams as Lois Lane, not the best choice because Lois is supposed to be feisty and Adams doesn't give that kind of vibe. But her Lois was still well portrayed and thank god she's not an idiot. She actually figures out Superman's identity and you should've picked that up in some of the featurettes. Michael Shannon as Zod, while to me he was still the best choice to play him, it wasn't necessarily a part exclusive to him. Russel Crowe was good as Jor-El. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane were good as the protective Kents, and it was nice to see Costner again. Fishburne was good as Perry White. And Faora, wow, she sort of stole the show when it came to the bad guys. Every line she delivered oozed sensuality. So the cast was solid.
While the film had some Nolan influences you could still tell Snyder was in full creative control. However because of Snyder's penchant for the visual the throw-down scenes between Kal-El and Zod got a little excessive almost delving into Michael Bay territory.
While the actual tone of the movie wasn't actually emotional, like it was presented in the first 3 trailers, and instead more of a sci-fi action flick, my majority feelings were positive. I enjoyed the hell out of this and it easily washed away the bad taste Iron Man 3 left. It was really awesome to see a very headstrong Superman that actually threw punches and was not a complete dork. This is the proper launching pad for sequels and possibly now DC's movies can compete with Marvel. Justice League movie anyone?