This is easily the most palatable Zack Snyder action movie to date.  The cast of characters as written and acted are all solid, from Amy Adams in the hard to pull off role of Lois Lane, to Michael Shannon as the surprisingly sympathetic (but menacing) villain Zod, to Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe as alternating father figures.  As for the Man himself, Henry Cavill very much has that essential sincerity and noble quality, not to mention the square jaw and astounding physique.  Also credit writers David Goyer and Chris Nolan for neatly packing an origin story, a coming of age story and some city smashin' action all into a single briskly moving film, along with one of the most poignant scenes from a movie in recent memory.

That said, Snyder still has difficulty filming action and effects that don't look like a video game (except in the prologue, where he's clearly copying Avatar).  Even that most staple of Superman effects of our hero levitating in the air looks like Cavill plastered over a background.  There's a good deal more superhero action - specifically more superhero *fighting* - than the last Superman movie, but while seeing characters zip across the screen too fast for the eye to follow until they're walloping someone upside the head looks cool at first, it loses its zap the fifteenth time around.  There are certainly a few fantastic visuals on display but all in all it's a decent action movie not a great one, and despite the respectable attempts at installing human drama come the end of the film that's the impression that remains. -- 3/5 stars

Did your audience laugh heartily at...... "I just think he's kinda hot"?

It was okay.  I dunno, the movie felt distractingly more sci-fi than superhero, what with the large emphasis on Krypton, the Kryptonians, and the genetic codex.  The story was good; I liked the nonlinear narrative approach with the flashbacks showcasing Clark's life.  The action scenes were fun to watch, up to a point.  I think the movie climaxed during..... the battle at Kansas (Faora kicked so much ass, by the way), but then proceeded to overstay its welcome with...... the one-on-one Zod fight in Metropolis.  At that point, I was getting uncomfortably fatigued -- the same exact feeling I had during those final actions sequences in Transformers 3.

I didn't really like it that much. I mean, it was okay as far as CGI porn goes but it was lacking character and people to care about. And the whole thing felt so self-important. It's easily the best Snyder film I've seen but given the competition, that's not saying much.

The Zimmer score really pissed me off, just utter trash, permeating every frame of the movie with loud, wallpaper bombast. I know he can do much better than this (At World's End, for instance) so why phone it in this time, especially with the specter of John Williams looming over him?

I went with my parents, an uncle, and a cousin. My parents and cousin found it deplorable, while my uncle and myself found it pretty good. My cousin complained about the script and the fact the aliens were able to understand English. I had to explain that if aliens don't know English, then the crowd has to read subtitles. He also didn't like the rating of PG-13. Again, I had to explain that PG-13 ratings typically make more than R ratings. Snyder wants money, clearly. My Mom didn't like the fact that the military nicknamed him "Superman"; she pointed out that since the movie followed our reality, they should've already known about Superman. But this movie takes place in a universe where Superman is not a comic book character - he is real. Therefore, the coinage of "Superman" would indeed be original.

I would argue that your mother is correct, and you are wrong..sort of. The concept of a "superman" was first introduced by  Friedrich Nietzsche around 1883 or so in Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thus_Spoke_Zarathustra

Sure, Nietzsche's superman was very different than the comic book character, but nevertheless his work is very popular and that is where we get the term "superman", and I believe Nietzsche's work also inspired the comic book character (although I'm not 100% sure on that).

Never knew about that. I had read that the novel "Gladiator" by Philip Wylie was the original inspiration for Superman, in this book:

http://www.amazon.com/A-Readers-Guide-S … 0871964732