Ignore ratings lower than 4 and higher than 8

Rating: 8/10 (19 June 2013)

First off I want to point out the ratings issue I'm having with this. The movie wasn't terrible to the point where it deserves less than 3 stars, it wasn't Battlefied Eart level of bad. Also it's not in anyway a 9+ movie, just too many small issues that really bring it down a bit. I think this movie is plagued with either Hate it (1 star! This movie literally gave me cancer now I have to schedule surgery) or love it (OMG! 10 STARS! Beats Citizen Kane!) syndrome.
The movie itself has some issues that really seem to deter from the enjoyment of the film.
Zod as a villain was a good pick and he was almost a great villain. He had the actor and the motivation, but the execution was off from becoming what could be one of the best movie villains. Zod begins the movie trying to save Krypton just like Jor-el but with slightly different execution, this is great. Zod and crew escape Krypton's death and go to search for any other signs of Kryptonian life only to find themselves alone, again wonderful and really sets the tone for his desire to save his race. When he appears on Earth he demands Kal-el to surrender or he will attack the planet, could have been a bit more soft spoken here. When they began their message they start with the message "You are not alone" which is delivered in a rather ambiguous way, had they followed it with "we are the last survivors of our planet and search for Krypton's lost son" and had Zod been interested in bringing Kal-el into his ship's crew it would have set a better tone. The final issue is that Zod wants to terraform the planet and kill all humans. Why? There is no motivation for him to do this outside of inconvenience to Kryptonians in Earth's atmosphere. There are several ways to handle this. Say Earth's atmosphere is poisonous to Kryptonians and shorten their long life span, or say that his ship is out of fuel for interplanetary travel and Earth is their absolute last chance to bring about a new Krypton. It could have been about two men trying to save their people, but only one of their people can survive. Instead Zod is almost comically evil at this point when he was an otherwise amazing villain. There is even a scene when Zod begs Superman not to damage one of the ships because it's the only one with a Genesis chamber (which will allow future Kryptonians to be born) and Superman lasers the ship in half. They portrayed both Superman and Zod's struggle rather poorly at this point.
The romance between Superman and Lois Lane is a bit forced in there. Zod even has Lois Lane brought in with Superman, despite having absolutely no reason to do so and they just throw her into a storage room at their earliest opportunity. Then Superman decides to make out with Lois at ground zero of an alien invasion where there are several skyscrapers and office buildings in rubble around them. Nobody even seems to care that thousands are probably dead or injured.
However the movie has many positive aspects going for it. The story and pacing can be a bit jarring with the changes in setting, time, and tone but overall is pulled off fairly well. The story itself sets up a good foundation for a franchise with an injured nation wondering if they can trust our adopted alien guard. Overall I think it's pretty good for a superhero movie and definitely worth seeing.