Poor Metropolis. 
Metropolis : Superman :: Tokyo : Godzilla
My impression: “You will believe a super-model can pout.”
All I saw was that enormous grin on his face when he first figured out how to fly.
I saw it today. I concur with the general consensus of “meh.” But I kind of have that reaction to Superman in general.
I recognize on an intellectual level that Man of Steel is a good movie in almost every respect, but I still was not really thrilled about it, the same way that I recognize that Arrested Development is humorous, but it still does not make me laugh, if that makes any sense (and obviously on both points YMMV).
The acting was good, the script and plot was actually quite good, but I guess it just comes down to my own personal feelings about the Superman character and story in general, in that it is somehow less plausible to me than say, Batman or The Avengers, even though I am fully cognizant that intellectually, they are all at least equally implausible.
If the movie has any faults, I did have a similar reaction to the OP as to the extreme level of destruction to Metropolis, even though the actual level of destruction was similar to that which New York experienced in The Avengers (and for whatever reason that did not bother me), and the whole “shaky-cam-close-up-fight-scene” thing that annoys me in a lot of movies. Seriously, why choreograph a fight scene if you’re just going to shoot it in such an extreme close-up that it’s impossible to tell what’s happening at all?
Here’s where you are wrong. It was a pretty ham-fisted, formulaic, explosions-for-the-sake-of-explosions summer movie with very little meaningful story. Most of the scenes on Krypton - which went on way to long - were totally pointless except to elicit an “oh cool” response in the audience. I felt like the story was laid out by a Hollywood executive and the script by a ninth grader.
Well, I feel that if that is true it is because the Superman story itself is inherently ham-fisted and formulaic. I feel that it was handled as well as the source material can be, and that is ultimately the problem with the overall Superman story.
Although I hear all this criticism of the damage Supes does in his fight in Metropolis, it still really does pale in comparison to what the terraforming machine was doing. That wasn’t taking chunks out of buildings–that was leveling whole blocks. I think any of the city’s inhabitants would realize the difference (despite the obvious collateral fatalities involved).
Smallville, however, is another story…
Aw, you’re only saying that because the three biggest employers in town are IHOP, Sears, and 7-Eleven.
Were.
I liked it, but I thought Amy Adams was hotter back when she was sucking the fat out of roadkill in Smallville Season 1.