Proof there is no God....or at least that Satan is winning the war.

Rating: 2/10 (11 July 2013)

OK let's start by making a few concessions just to pre-empt at least some of the flack that my naughty 2 out of 10 vote might provoke. Firstly I'm a comic fan and have been for many years, predominantly Marvel but not exclusively. Secondly I'm one of those awful people who likes Batman as a character more than Superman and who was wowed by both Nolan's take on Batman and The Avengers (though for slightly different reasons). Lastly I went into MoS pretty enthusiastic although I'm not a the biggest fan of the character or Zack Snyder.
*phew*
Now that's all over, let's get on with talking about just how much I hated Man of Steel.....err.....I mean my glorious review. Ta-daaaa!!
Let's start by saying to all of the people who haven't seen this movie who are excited because of Lord Christopher of Nolan's involvement...hold your horses buddy (or buddette?). This film is very Zack and very little Chris. Any film about Superman is obviously going to have to stray far more into the fantastical than a Batman movie, but this film not only revels in Superman's super-dooper powers, it rubs your face in them.
Now on any other day I'd try to be pragmatic and weigh up the good and the bad, but in this case I think that would be difficult and misleading. Let's be clear and say that this isn't a film that started well and then 'Jumped the Shark'. No, no, no. It's a film that's started very badly, briefly failed in an attempt at interesting backstory, completely fumbled it's build up to the final act and then totally obliterated the entire film with the most horrifically tedious final battle that I have ever seen. How many times have you wanted to ask for your money back? I wanted my money back, a shoulder to cry on and a bottle of Optrex to wash my eyes out with.
If I say this is the worst film that I have seen in the last 10 years you will either not believe me or think I'm an exaggerating fool. But this was easily the worst (big budget) film I've seen in 10 years!! It was truly terrible in every way. The script was appalling, the direction was abysmal, the concepts were hackneyed and ill thought out. The special effects were surprisingly awful. Golden opportunities were squandered, actors were wasted and the final 40 minutes of the movie was so shockingly terrible that I swayed between open-mouthed shock at how bad things had become....and just sitting there laughing. Yeah this film made me start laughing my arse off. I ended up reaching a stage where I was bored, laughing, shocked and depressed all at the same time....whilst all the while knowing that none of these emotions were what the director had intended.
'Less is more' might not be a sentiment that Zack Snyder is familiar with and it may not be something that Superman fans would expect from a movie about a character who is super powered to such an extent, however this film ends with a fight sequence so relentlessly ludicrous it was like Fast Forwarding through 10 hours of footage from a strobe lit 1980s rave party interspersed with a montage from a WWE computer game.
In an effort to make each sequence even bigger Zack Snyder seems to have forgotten somewhere along the line that he had a story to tell. He certainly seems to have forgotten those early sensitive, thoughtful trailers that enticed us. This film is nothing like that for 95% of the time and not at all for the last 40 minutes of the film. Instead it's just more explosions and destruction and fighting and more fighting and explosions and fighting and blah and blah and blah and blah.........until you just want to go home and scream.
A truly terrible film.