Man of Steel..What Went Wrong.

Rating: 6/10 (20 June 2013)

Man of Steel in the trailers seems promising with an immersive story line and an all-around developed film, but it fails to deliver.
Man of Steel has many choppy scenes (gaps are big between some scenes), low character development and emotion. Story script is under developed. Story is rushed very fast and packed in just over two hours.
It starts off great with the visual effects on Krypton. Jor-El tries to convince the authorities to find a solution to save the Kryptonian race then all of a sudden Zod and his crew burst in and shoots some people and demands to know where the codex (blueprint for kryptonian DNA or something like that) is. Michael Shannon plays General Zod and although he looks like a good fit for the role but there seemed to be missing something with his acting. He does try to show emotion but sounds like a wimp while delivering his demands. The whole movie has him delivering weak lines and weak delivery tone. The only thing that boosts him is Hans Zimmer soundtrack score that is played after him yelling like a cartoonish sort of character.
Where did Zod and his friends all of sudden come from? Where were they before the coup at the hall meeting? All of this is just dropped on you and you are supposed to understand where, why and how they are all fighting. To top it off the scenes here are acted with less intensity that we would have imagined it to be. The atmosphere seemed more casual and sort of relaxed in what is supposed to be highly intense scenes except of-course when fighting itself took place(which was actually good part of the krypton scene).
After Zod kills Jor-El Laura doesn't even scream, again empty character. Aside from the first tears that we see Laura showing when she is about to give the baby up, her acting was emotionless, We would've gotten more emotion from Data (the Android Robot from Star Trek).
There are Flash back scenes to where Clark goes through problems that he relates to what is going on currently, and it looks a lot like scenes out of Smallville TV series. I thought it was out of place and was unnecessary and didn't contribute to making an effective motivating exhilarating story line and you might find this a little boring. These scenes are topped off with these two tone piano score which added to the despair of a good script.
There is a fight scene at the bar, 'ol Clarky doesn't say much. There were a few words spoken, but it was mostly looks, and stares. It almost seemed as if he was mute. Again, he's an alien but grew up in Kansas right?
Clarky goes from hitch hiking on the highway to all of a sudden to becoming a helper worker on high level military helicopter headed for the ice region without a connecting scene, it just jumps and everyone is supposed to accept it and without any sense.
There is a fight scene at gas station, Superman goes, "My parents taught me to home my senses, Zod". This to me was a little adolescent type words, Superman talking like he's a teen rather than a man, the script needs help here. Superman needs to play an assertive adult position rather than telling his enemy about his parents upbringing values.
Major fight scene in downtown Metropolis, when superman is fighting the giant machine, the scene here looks a lot like transformers, too much clutter and can't make out the threats, the attack movies and the Superman CGI here was lacking a little when he was in the middle of the light.
Superman and Clark seemed to be celebrating their new-found love by kissing amidst the destruction of the city and the skyscrapers that were destroyed. You can't help but to wonder what about all the people? did they die?
The love between Superman and Lois is under-developed throughout the movie. They have a few words and few eye-contact but nothing really to make you believe that he fell in love with her and vice versa.
In the end there is a scene where Lois Lane pops up at Union Station where Superman and Zod are ending their fight scene. In the start of the fight they were somewhere else and far because Lois looks way up into the air at Zod and Superman fighting, and when Superman and Zod land in the Union Station, she somehow manages to pop up out of nowhere, (or could she fly too?)
The movie has some good points like excellent visual effects, design set, and acting by Russell Crowe, Henry Cavil, Amy Adams and of course Kevin Costner. If your solely looking for high visuals, action and could care less about the plot then this movie is for you, but if you want or need to follow a story and make connections between scenes to enjoy a movie, then you won't be missing out. This movie is better than 2006 Superman Returns in my opinion but could be compared to it in many ways.
My biggest annoyance is, Superman doesn't talk much, just a few statements here and there -- some scenes have very short conversations (reminiscent of Superman Returns, short, soft(shy) and reserved character). The only time I felt Superman talked was at the end when he was talking to the major. I feel the same thing with the Clarky character. Again, we could have more dialog from Android Data from Star Trek.