"This man is not our enemy."
So, there. =)
There's some good points here, but most of this is overthinking it. Are people seriously still ragging on product placement? Everyone does it, that's a part of how these expensive films get paid for. Plus, you see this stuff all the time IRL, so why's it a problem for movies to have it?

the next is michael shannon.. the brilliant actor that he is, they just did not write his part well. i believe there should have been more on the relationship between Zod and superman. he is one of the only surviving people of his planet and the fact that he knew Kal's father and killed him. i wish there was more

the last thing… the action was way off. i would like to see the death toll next time.. random buidings falling off and shit like that is not always necessary. Remember the final confrontation between Spider-man and Goblin, its fucking personal is what it is…. and brilliant.

Between the closing of the prison and Zod's death, it became preachy. I didn't mind Zod's message, but it really seemed contrived, almost as if Snyder wanted him alive long enough to make a speech. I felt it was commentary on the United States government, using military to dictate policy. That's fine, but make it part of the plot. Zod has to return to the prison. To me that had to be his end. Make the grand 1-on-1 between Superman and Zod in the context of returning him to the prison, saving Lois and to some extent saving himself, trying to escape the force of the black hole.

I hated the drone scene. We're to believe that Superman is going stop genocide to save the planet, but when asked how the US military will know whether or not he'll act in the US's best interest, suddenly Superman is an American? The whole struggle of Superman was an issue of humanity not nationalism. I think this could've easily been part of struggles in future movies, such as Superman stopping or hindering the plans of aggressive governments (such as a scene in X-Men First Class). Not to say it can't be part of future plots, but again, it seemed too staged.

I love that he takes the job at the Daily Planet. He explains his motivation behind it, and I don't have a problem with Lois Lane knowing his identity. It could become part of future conflict, and just like in Superman 2 and X-Men First Class (Dr. Xavier), a little light memory wipe via a kiss can cure the identity issue. After all, if you're "Superman" wouldn't you rather a woman love you as Clark Kent so you know it's real?

We can still see plot lines dealing how the world and Superman interact with each other. There can be future flashbacks dealing with how Clark came into dealing with his powers.

Sidenote: I LOVED how flashbacks were handled in Man of Steel. Now, if we can just get George Lucas to revisit how this was done, gut Episode 1 so we can get more Clone War action, it could help redefine Anakin's angst, giving us more time to see his life away from his mother, instead of him just being a spoiled brat 50% of the time, and…oh…by the way…his mother died in his arms.

Your points about how Superman and Earth relate to each other is excellent, as is your point about how we could've seen more about how Superman reacts to the realization of his powers. That can still be played out in future movies.

I agree with your takes on the devastation of those fight scenes. I wasn't bothered by them in a 9/11 sense. It just seem overdone, and the one point you had about it not being very compelling is spot on!

Funny how you always know Superman's going to win the fight no matter how many cars, buildings and roads get smashed up.

Funny how EVERYONE out saving each other in superhero movies. Oh my, the humanity.

Like why were the Krypton refugees so immediately powerful on Earth if they were wearing gas masks? When Superman breathes their ships' air he's immediately weak, but they were just automatically strong, fast , indestructible, etc even with gas masks?? Doesn't make sense. Superman' power was supposed to be a product of weaker gravity, sure, but also of years of our young sun's radiation, years of our air, etc. To me the whole movie was a write-off from that point alone.

Why doesn't he just snap Zod's neck an hour earlier and get it over with? That would save like half the city too. So they can punch each other so unbelievably hard with no effect, but somehow their necks are vulnerable to a twist?? Laughable.

And speaking of Zod's death scene, are we to believe that Superman was finally goaded into killing Zod only after he threatened to kill that young family? Really? How about the tens of thousands that must have been killed by their city-destroying fight? Their lives didn't count I guess. Wow.

I could go on and on with these absurdities. I was rolling my eyes by the last hour or so. Lame movie. I was hoping for it to be good, but….. No.

But he takes on the name "Clark Kent" when he joins the Daily Planet. It felt like this made no sense, and an incredibly poor screenwriting choice.

The Lois/Superman kiss complaint is also a bit strange. He saved her life. They saved each other's life. It was more of a, "Holy crap, we almost died but we didn't and you know, you're kind of hot" kiss than a "I want to have your super babies and love you forever" kiss. It leaves room for more and, honestly, I'm ok with that now that Lois isn't a dumb groupie who thinks it's ok to be rude to anyone without a cape and who is too stupid to figure out the guy she was sucking face with is that guy because he put on a pair of glasses. The new Lois has potential to not hurt the franchise the way the old Lois did.

As to the product placement, I kind of thought it was hilarious that the guy who tormented Clark as a kid worked at IHOP as a grownup. Product placement helps pay for both tv and movies, it's not worth griping about.

Yes, Terrance Stamp was awesome and those are some mighty big shoes to fill. However, Michael Shannon does a good job and the character wasn't written so that the shoes even had to be filled.

Everything about the story in this movie changes and expands on the originals so that comparisons should not be made. Hopefully, the sequel will take this and run with it. The movie is not without flaws but it was what it was supposed to be… a good superhero summer blockbuster. It didn't have to be high art and very few movies are close to perfect.

In regards to the Clark at the Planet end, I liked it, sans one point; we didn't get the iconic shirt rip, which the writers at DC comics have even said is "just too iconic to let go", so why was in not in this movie? It was like "Yeah, you're the Man Of Steel… but you're not Superman yet, you've not balanced the two alter egos". I'm hoping this will be addressed significantly in the sequel(s) (maybe even make 60+% of the second film revolve around Clark Kent rather than Superman, show the differences and nuances in the character, more for Henry Cavill to sink his teeth into.)

One main issue I had; Lois knowing EVERYTHING. It eliminates the best source of comic relief from the comics; the love triangle between Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Superman. Hoping that they'll find some way to wipe her memory of it in the sequel, and that he'll be smart enough to keep her unknowing. However, I did like the fact that she was more of a reporter than we've seen in some of the more recent Superman films (I refer you to the second half of Superman 2 through Superman Returns). Hopefully, this will persist and she won't fall into the "heroes girlfriend" rut we've seen good characters in other super hero movies fall into (*cough* Gwen in amazing Spider-Man *cough*).

Overall, though, it was very good; Cavill was amazing as Superman (though we didn't really see him as Clark, even when he was out of the suit), with his part at the ending being evocative of the ending of the Superman: Earth One graphic novel. Nice little nods to both of the main billionaires in Clark's life (Bruce Wayne, his best friend, and Lex Luthor, his arch Nemesis). Something of a rushed relationship between Superman and Lois Lane, but when they had a 2 and a half hour movie and wanted it established by the final act, as abhorrent as it is to rush such a thing, I understand why. Russell Crowe reminds us why he's thought of as such a great actor, and Michael Shannon does manage to do relatively well, despite not being given a great deal to work with. Faora was a nice addition, if feeling slightly under developed as a character given her screen time (was it more than Zod's? I lost track) though she was true to her sadistic persona from the comics. The one thing that I felt was a shame; a lack of scenes between the late teens Clark (though, having Cavill play that was a slight error in judgement in my honest opinion) and Jonathan Kent. I'm hoping that there were more and they'll simply appear on the DVD / Blu-Ray special features. I have other gripes, granted, but that was a true shame, especially given how well Kevin Costner played Jonathan (I won't lie, I nearly cried during the scene where he reveals Clark's origins to him, being met with "I just want to be your son" and responding with "You are my son.", beautiful scene). Hopefully, we'll see more material with Jonathan through flashbacks in the sequel(s). Yeah, I think that's it… think I might've just given massive spoilers and a review xD

1. "We invented space ships a long time ago but we refuse to use one to escape this planet about to explode because we have no time to evacute but there's still time for war??" – Face Palm!

2. Your telling me that a race that expanded to several planets (Which I'm assuming have cores) used it's own core for power? – Who the hell is running this planet JAR JAR BINKS??

3. There is no time to evacuate! except for insane criminals who they punish by sending them AWAY fom a planet about to explode on a bloody unguarded SPACESHIP!! – yes that will teach them.

4. "Wow! those prisoners escaped from the unguarded prison and found superman, what a suprise!!" – Said absolutely no one.

5. Superman's mom just had a baby and doesn't try to go with him to earth!!!??? She stands there and let's herself die because jorel was right it's the end??? – Mother of the year.

6. How about superman not wanting to out himself just to save his father, right after a scene that has him saying that he isn't his real father making superman look like a douche! nevermind the fact that several people already have seen him rescue people many times including all the kids on the damn bus, but he can't save his father??? what?- Superman is a douche.

7. Superman wants to save mankind but not without killing a few million people first. -WTF?

8. Let's blowup New York again! Ooops I mean Metropolis which strangely resides on a peninsula and looks exactly like New York.

9. Superman snaps zods neck! he has the strength to snap his neck but not the strength to push him away from the people. – Cool scene but I now view Superman differently.

Aside from the errors and the glaring WTF? moments Superman was very entertaining to me and my friends were laughing the whole way through it, I would give it a 6.5 to 7 out of 10.

I do love Reeve as Superman, and he did a wonderful job, but that has nothing to do with my opinion of this movie. Cavill was good enough to make it work. I also don't mind a different take on the character. What excited me about the previews was that it was a different take, and seemed to be more dramatic dealing with interesting realistic themes. What let me down was that they didn't follow through. They introduced some ideas like how the world would realistically react to someone like Superman. But, as pointed out in the article, they didn't see it through.