I did enjoy the movie overall.
I was actually a bit impressed by the decision of Snyder to, in a movie in which a city modeled after New York is being destroyed, he decides to have one of the heroes pull a Muhammad Atta and fly a plane into the ship while declaring “a good death is it’s own reward.”
I was also fascinated about how the entire IMAX theatre cheered during that scene.
I think this also shows why trying to make a “more realistic Superman” is problematic. When you’re 8, he’s totally cool. When you’re an adult, you realize that being faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound isn’t a very useful skill set when pitted against corrupt governments, greedy plutocrats, and long-simmering religious/ethnic grudges. In the real world, Superman can’t do bupkis about solving any of our REAL problems. He can get cats out of trees, stop street muggers, and help out big time in cases of disasters, but that’s about it.
Batman fares better in a more realistic setting only because his primary skill is detective work, so he can expose corruption. But Superman needs worthy physical adversaries in order to show off his abilities, and our real Earth is a bit short of those.
Can’t the big guy expose corruption with his telescopic x-ray vision and super-hearing?
Just to add, we saw it yesterday and found it too long and a little boring after such a promising opening but not completely terrible. It sets itself up for sequels, so it’s good to have seen this one once if that’s the case. Damn, but Laurence Fishburne has grown fat. Amy Adams is looking a little old too, lost some of her freshness.
Kevin Costner’s death bothered me. Why in hell would you not let Superman go retrieve the family dog in a tornado?
He should had got a hold of the dog and he would had been safe because dogs are gods.
This movie was filled with possible sequel hooks.
I thought it was odd that Zod’s ship had the gravity set to 1G instead of Krypton’s, even when it was in orbit. I mean Lois needed a breather mask, but she didn’t have any trouble moving about the ship.
Those weren’t colonist; that was just a failed expedition. And I don’t think Jor-El really understood the magnitude of the effect Sol would have on Kal-El. I do wonder how much intelligence he had on Earth’s last 20K yrs.
More like a hundred thousand years of exploring space, but apparently they were never able to establish a single viable colony.
You missed the bit where Clark was literally standing in front of Jesus’s image while talking to a priest.
Those were holographic projections, and the whole point was that Ghost Jor-El didn’t have full control over the shop, which is why he had to relay on Lois.
Yeah, it’ll be interesting how the sequels handle this.
I loved how the US military had submit to the Canadian authorities allowing Lois Lane to be there.
Hundreds of thousands dead, hundreds of billions in damage, and Earth just had it’s First Contact. Like others have pointed out this isn’t like the first movie where he already had an established reputation. The first time the world he’s about him it’s that he’s a fugitive and his people attempt to commit genocide on arrival. The US is not going to like *anyone *working with them on “his own terms”, no matter how helpful they are.
Also they got rid of her man hating lesbian tendencies. That crap would so not fly today.
Maybe a faction came to power that believed interstellar travel was against the will of Rao. It’s as good a reason as any. The Kryptonians may have been extremely advanced, but their civilization hit a wall and petrified. Everything stayed the same for millennia upon millennia of benevolent totalitarianism.
[QUOTE=artemis]
…I actually groaned when Zod popped back onto the screen for the climatic battle. There was no dramatic need for it! Evil Kryptonians’ ship gets sucked back into the Phantom Zone, The End. it would have been a perfectly satisfying ending, and one with no need to portray Superman as a supposedly REAL tough guy because “Hey! He KILLS!”…
[/QUOTE]
I don’t think that was to portray Superman as a tough guy. He’s a god-like superbeing who’s never (at least directly & deliberately) killed another person, and the first time he does he’s killing the last other Kryptonian left in the Universe. He was an emotionally devastating moment for him. And I think Zod knew understood this perfectly. He committed suicide by superhero.
(a) Zod was, so far as he knows, the last surviving member of his entire race.
(b) I don’t think he was convinced that Zod was the bad guy, here; he only killed him because it was the only way he could keep him from killing those four people.
Going to be hard to have that hold up in court, alas, since information gathered that way can’t be independently confirmed (at least not without more work). Batman tends to find evidence that stands on its own. But then again, Clark Kent IS a reporter…
Re Russell Crowe: I liked the way the ruling council all wear these close-fitting superhero costumes and everyone is incredibly fit. Jor-El has a lot going on but he still finds time to work out… 
Also he is not in the first flush of youth but he can ride his four-winged steed like he’s 25 (well, he WAS Maximus in Gladiator).
It’s already outgrossed SUPERMAN RETURNS, despite being made on a smaller budget; it’ll surely more than double that budget in another week, long before hitting theaters in Brazil and Japan in July and August; can’t see how they won’t make a sequel, unless Henry Cavill dies in a meteor strike between now and then.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. In a world in which Superman doesn’t exist yet, what kind of kid runs around with a pretend cape? Sherlock Holmes fans?
There were more than a few echos of Doctor Who there, huh? Very much Doctor versus Master.
In fact, Krypton as a whole seemed rather Gallifreyan to me, right down to the headdresses.
“And now, I strike a pose as – CIRCUS PERFORMER!”
Captain Marvel fans, of course! SHAZAM! 
I got spoiled too much for my opinions to count, so I’ll recount a friend’s opinion: too much action, not enough story. And she’s not normally the type to say that. She didn’t mind the flashbacks, saying they were easy to follow, but that it was hard to follow the modern-day parts during that time. The only thing she really liked was the stuff on Krypton, and she didn’t mind Supes killing Zod. She agreed with me that it felt like the setup to a movie rather than a movie itself.
CGI has become a virus which is killing movies. Each movie has to be bigger and more over-the-top than the last.
The last half was just an extended video game cutscene. I can barely remember what happened since it was so over the top and inconsequential. There’s no limits for what can be shown, so every whim of the director is implemented. It becomes way too cartoony and the viewer no longer has a connection to the story.
IIRC, Galifrey was supposed to be based upon Krypton.
As it is. I did not like it. There are some franchises where gritty and realistic work, Batman and James Bond for instance. Not Superman.
Product placement isn’t helping either. I’ve read that Man of Steel had more product placements that any other movie in history - over a hundred.
What product placement?
I sure was busy the day I went to watch, though.
That movie made me hungry for some breakfast, so I went straight to IHOP right after. And was also reminded I could use a new refrigerator. Good thing there happened to be a Sears store near by (no superpowered fights when I went in the store). Fortunately, there were also plenty of Nikon DSLR cameras in the store I could use to take photos of prospective appliances and superhero fights. But all that shopping made me thirsty. Just my luck that next door was a 7-Eleven, where I could wet my parched throat with a Big Gulp.
All that driving made me realize it was time to replace my beater. Good thing there’s a Chrysler dealership in town. Did you know you could look up prices and specs on new cars on your Nokia smartphone?
Finally, I got home. Clark Kent’s scuzzy face made me realize I could use a shave. Good thing I had my Gillette razor at home. But after all that shopping and eating, I could finally sit back and relax with a nice, cold Budweiser. I’ll need to pay for all that stuff, though. I guess maybe I should sign up at my local National Guard office. I hear they’re recruiting.
But no, I didn’t notice any product placement in the movie. None at all.