Alright, two viewings down. It's definitely a solid Superman flick and a great way to launch the new franchise, but that's not to say it doesn't have it's issues. Although the cinematography is beautiful, it's often much too shakey imo. The fight scenes, while amazing in scale and ferocity, sometimes seem a bit too crowded and close like they did in Batman Begins. While the film never feels slow with it's 2.5 hour runtime, there are still some things that could have been trimmed here and there. Even though the final battle in Metropolis is amazing and we finally get to see Superman do some SERIOUS damage, it could have been shortened a bit. The big event that threatens earth, while beautifully set up in the film, is a bit of a "hmmmm" situation. Nothing major, but just felt a bit too easy.
A few things that I absolutely love:
- Cavill is amazing in the title role. He totally sells it and you never once think of him as anything other than Superman.
- The fight scenes are absolutely brutal. The trailers and tv spots barely touched the tip of the action iceberg. NOBODY should complain about a lack of action and the force of the Kryptonian's powers on Earth.
- The flight scenes are amazing. Nearly all of it is the real actors, rather than the CGI character they used in Returns. They also did a lot of things with his power of flight that we've never seen on the big screen. For example, one thing I really loved is after being thrown and slammed into the ground on his belly, Superman doesn't stand up and then fly like they've done in the past, but just floats up in the lying position, turns about 90 degrees, then bolts off. I don't know why, but it really sold the idea of his powers and gave me goose bumps. There are several things like this throughout.
- They incorporated several different story elements from some of Superman's best comics/novels. Superman fans can also notice several in-joke nods to the character's history. Including some more obvious ones like the name of a certain corporation on the side of a building under construction and a tanker truck. 
- While Russell Crowe is great as Jor El, Kevin Costner is the real winning father of the two. He sells a down-to-earth mid west father in a perfect way. Some of his scenes nearly bringing tears to my eyes.
- Superman gets pissed! Although there have been a few angry moments in the past films, in MOS he's not afraid to scream at the top of his lungs and unleash complete fury. Including giving characters a beat down while screaming words at them with each hit. Real "f*ck yeah!!" moments for the men in the audience.
- The military being afraid of Superman is a great angle to introduce the character into a more modern world. Throughout most of the movie Superman and Zod's crew are only referred to as "aliens". Superman gets no special treatment and the world views him as a huge threat, as I'm sure would happen in real life.
- Amy Adams is solid as Lois Lane, but after a while she doesn't seem like Lois anymore. She ends up participating in a big way that kinda felt a bit off, but the acting is good, so it's no big deal.
- Michael Shannon is the sh*t! That is all.
Anyway.....still processing it and will probably go back to see it again in 3D. My first two were 2D. I still say it's probably a little bit under Batman Begins. It has it's fair share of problems, but as long as you can take them for what they are and move on, it's a solid picture. Definitely a very solid Superman film considering all the crap the character's movies have suffered through in the last 25 or so years. If this doesn't please a majority of the movie going audiences, I'm not sure what will.
This final thought is something I vaguely mentioned in my original review, but didn't want to address because the movie was still a week or so away. Now that the film is officially out in North America, i'm going to put it in spoiler tags. This is one big issue I had with the alteration of Superman's history...
SPOILER ALERT!!!
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Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
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Originally Posted by Neil
though you do always make negative presumptions to thing s that don't happen to make sense to you. If space is so big and ramming the satellite by mistake so unlikely, why do you assume it happened by chance? The two kryptonians were wacking each other against everything on earth, why not in space?
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