I enjoyed the different take on the Superman story.

Rating: Null/10 (11 December 2013)

I grew up on Superman and Superboy comics, and I have enjoyed all the various Superman movies. Even the Supergirl movie. Each brings its own sensibility to these stories. None of them are "the best", they are all good.
This one starts with a full 20 minutes devoted to the Krypton society, how the rebellious Jor-El (Russel Crowe) and his wife had a baby the natural way, after hundreds of years of only designed babies being produced. How the planet was dying, the friction Jor-El had with Zod (Michael Shannon), and their decision to sent the baby Kal-El towards Earth so that he might be the salvation of their race.
We see some, not too much, of Clark Kent's youth, but mostly him as a 30-ish adult (Henry Cavill) , moving from place to place and working. His dad (Kevin Costner) had cautioned him to not reveal who he really is and what his powers are, but when a catastrophe struck and he was forced into action, afterwards he moved and used a new name.
But reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) got on his trail, essentially tracked his existence, asking questions, until she found him. So, in this version Lois knew Clark Kent and knew of his super powers before he even went to work as a reporter at the Daily Planet.
The climax of the movie is when Zod eventually finds him and wants Kal- El because he figures out Jor-El had used Kal-El's blood cells to code the information needed to re-start the Kryptonian race, and Zod intended that they would take Earth for their own, meaning the extinction of Earthlings in the process. Superman resisted this and the two had a lengthy, very destructive fight in Metropolis.
And there is where all three of us said the movie simply over-did this battle and destruction of a large part of Metropolis. Yes, Superman did prevail, but seeing so much CG destruction just for "effect" seems much more extensive than it needed to be, and detracted from the overall movie.
Good movie, we all enjoyed it, Cavill makes a very good Superman. I just wish the battle near the end had not been so extensive and destructive, it would have made it better for me.
Other good characters were Diane Lane as Martha Kent, and Laurence Fishburne as Perry White.