SPOILERS BELOW
Original forum post:
I think I'd say it's better than Superman Returns.
The trouble I had with the spectacle (mostly the superfights) was not the amount of it, but that it was all very Transformers-y - disorienting handheld shots of rapid sequences of big things getting destroyed, with untold collateral and property damage but no sense of weight or consequence to it because we're already onto the next thing being smashed up.
Plus the Krypton sequence immediately reminded me of Revenge Of The Sith.
The other problem with the spectacle for me was that the film feels very front-loaded. You get this exhausting Krypton opening rebellion battle then Zod/Jar-El fight then Zod sentencing then planet destruction then you get about a minute before you're into an oil rig disaster sequence. The best part of the film for me was when it calmed down and started doing flashbacks to Jon Kent talking about the decisions Clark will have to make, intercut with Zod broadcasting creepily and Supes deciding to trust humanity and communicate with the military. Unfortunately, it then switches back to a load of boring fights and Superman grimacing a lot while flying into things, the military suddenly turn into cardboard cut-out, gung-ho idiots, and presumably hundreds if not thousands of people getting killed off-camera while we're supposed to give a shit if some Daily Planet intern or random family die.
There were good bits, and they gave it some depth (eg Zod could easily be interpreted as a criticism of US foreign policy) although it gets a bit heavy-handed at times (Clark goes into a church and asks a priest's advice while being framed next to a stained glass window of Christ - the easiest and most pointless of all metaphors!), but I would like to see a more measured director take the next one, someone like Spielberg.
Finally, I totally knew they'd put a Lexcorp sign in there somewhere!
Rating: Fine
Re-watch 2021:
I was far too generous to this movie! I suspect that, much like with Snyder's Dawn Of The Dead and Watchmen adaptations, I was so relived that it wasn't as horrible as it could have been that I gave it a free pass on a lot of stuff. Watching it again now, I realise how bad it actually is.
This movie does not care about humans, and barely feels like it was made by them. There is zero characterisation, and the dialogue is stilted, didactic and frequently nonsensical. The death of thousands is window-dressing and Clark blithely destroys the entirety of the Kryptonian race while the movie attempts to put emotional weight on the death of an anonymous family or a genocidal monster.
What's more, the action is poorly-directed, and the storytelling is rushed, overloaded and confusing. Perhaps if they had cut the Krypton prologue and the Genesis Machine stuff, focused on a story about Clark deciding whether to trust humanity and have Zod show up to create tension within that framework, this could have been an interesting movie. Or maybe if they'd spent more time with Krypton, developing it as a forboding reflection of humanity.
The best thing I can say about this movie is that there's the occasional nice-looking shot.
Rating:Awful.
