Objectively speaking, it is incredibly dumb but...

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2013)

Simply put, this movie rocks, and it rocks harder than anybody would expect.
Let me share a little back story before I continue with the review. I don't like Superman. I never liked him. Even when I was a kid he was a joke to me. More importantly, I was never a huge Zack Snider fan. I liked the animated movie with the owls but I hated '300' with passion and before I saw 'Man of Steel' I hadn't seen any of his other movies. That's right, I hadn't seen even 'Watchmen'.
What drew me to this movie then? I read some reviews describing it not as a comic book based superhero movie but as a sci-fi tale about a superhuman. I read that the creators of the movie approached the character differently. And indeed they did. This time Clark Kent is really confident, he knows that he is god-like compared to the humans and he knows that it is his choice to do good and no one else's. As you can see in the trailer, the dynamic between Kent and Lois Lane is dramatically changed, which I also like. Kripton is now shown differently, it is not the blue crystal planet we were used to seeing since the 70s. The way it is shown is cruel, cold and beautiful, rich in color and epic in scale. A lot of attention is paid to Kent's childhood and him getting to know who he is and what he is capable to do. The action scenes are just sweeping. Frighteningly epic scale, massive destruction, probably way too much death - millions of people die like flies. It is getting ridiculous at some point but it is still beautiful to look at.
And yes, the writing is really not very good. Some parts of the dialogue are just laughable. But the movie is wonderfully filmed, the pacing is perfect and the acting performances are simply great. This is the Superman that I can like. And I like it. Give it a chance, even if you don't like comic book based movies. This is not a superhero movie, this is a science fiction movie and despite the flaws in the writing it is just wonderful.