Man of Steel, but where is Superman?

Rating: 6/10 (14 June 2013)

I am split exactly between the middle with this film. A two-and-a-half hour film that is split into three obvious acts. First being destruction of Krypton, second being an awkward mix between modern day scenes and flashbacks to his childhood/teenage years and third being the almost-destruction of Earth as it morphs into a new Krypton being formed by General Zod.
The concept of Superman/Clark Kent/Kal-Al being a hidden hero around the country is great as he helps save people but always disappears and him being an 'urban legend'. They focused on it briefly but not as much as they should have, the concept of this is great, and then focus on how when he is revealed to the world he struggles coping with his new found fame. Lois Lane is nosing into this and isn't particularly likable or even interesting, same actually goes for every other character. Even Superman doesn't talk much in the film, and he is way to serious. The geeky 'Clark Kent' isn't even in the film, and I was really disappointed by that. It was like watching a Spider-Man film if Peter Parker's alter ego was never in it, and just focused on him himself.
The acting is good, especially by Ayelet Zurer who plays Lara, Superman's mother who I was very impressed by in her short screen-time, even felt she over-powered Russell Crowe's acting in the film, who I felt was obviously putting on an accent. Superman is well acted by Henry Cavill, but there is no emotion in the character and when there is, he screams exactly the same way every time, like they repeated a sound-bite.
The last hour of the film probably more was all action-packed, literally. In a town in the country-side as Superman is about to battle Faora and some other dude he tells the scared people to go into the houses as it is dangerous in the streets. Then there is a huge battle that causes couple of plane crashes and the military not thinking of civilian lives and most of the town gets destroyed. It isn't said innocent people died, but how could they not have? Also later on when General Zod sends down the badly and cringe-worthy titled 'World Engine' to transform Earth into a new Krypton, he just happens to also settle one half of this machine in Metropolis, and tens of thousands of lives must have been lost. Buildings collapsed, because of the machine gravity rose up then suddenly dropped, resulting in people going up in the sky then suddenly slammed down into the ground. In one line, 'Faora' says "for every life you save, we will kill a million more", that is a bloody accurate line! Superman is terrible in this film and tons, and tons of people get killed.
Also, I was annoyed with how Superman never realised he could fly, only once he put on his suit. And I didn't like the Jor-El 'ghost' walking around, I preferred the Marlon Brando hovering head as he teaches his son.
The film is half awkward mix between modern day and flashbacks and then full blown Michael Bay (except more interesting). The camera work at times I didn't think was very good at all. And in one flashback scene as Jonathan talks to teenage Clark the camera is really shaky and hugely distracting. This could have been an emotional scene but the hugely shaky camera was terrible. If it was 50% less shaky it probably would have been fine. Also there were too many close-ups at times and you could hardly figure out what was going on in any action scenes. At the end of the film once the world has been saved Superman tells Martha, his Earth mother that he is going to 'fit in' with Humanity and has a job. Then it cuts to Lois Lane being introduced to a new young journalist called Clark Kent, but because she has already several times spoke and been right next to Superman, she knew who Superman was before she knew who Clark Kent was, so she knows that this new journalist is Superman, which takes out for me the 'love triangle' between Superman, Clark Kent and Lois Lane.