The good:
- Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman.
- Michael Shannon as General Zod.
- Russell Crowe as Jor-El.
- Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Ma & Pa Kent.
- The updated Superman suit.
- The opening Krypton sequence.
- The Jor-El hologram introductory/expository sequence with Clark aboard the ice ship.
- The Jor-El hologram sequence aboard Zod's ship in Earth's orbit.
- The final battle between Superman and Zod (despite all the mass casualty controversy at the time).
- The overall production design.
- The overall story/vibe, in broad strokes.
- The incredible Hans Zimmer score, which, against all odds, somehow didn't make me miss Williams' classic theme at all.
The bad:
- I like her as a person/actress in general, but IMO, Amy Adams simply does not work as Lois Lane in this iteration. Story-wise, Louis being a badass, in-the-field reporter, tracking down rumors of some kind of superhuman, is cool on paper and even in execution, but once she finally meets Clark, she and Cavill have ZERO chemistry. It nearly kills the movie for me, how mis-paired they are. I simply don't buy these two as ever being in love. Adams is NINE years older than Cavill in real life, and I think it would have worked so much better with a relatively younger actress who shared more of a spark with Cavill.
- Pa Kent not letting Clark save him during the tornado. I'm sorry, but this is still such a dumb sequence. I get the thematic point/need for it, but it just doesn't work at all in execution. I remember people laughing out loud in the theater - myself included - as Costner waved Clark away and just let himself get sucked up into the twister.
- Zod being Earth's first introduction to an alien race. It's a great, even creepy/scary sequence in and of itself (Zod's voice on all the TVs), but, big picture, it bugs me that Superman doing some kind of public, heroic act isn't how Earth learns of his existence and that we're not alone. I wanted more of that vibe - the "fun and games" of Earth reacting to the existence of Superman, news clips excitedly talking about him, our government speaking publicly about him, the general curiosity about him, etc. And then comes Zod to ruin the party. But the fact that Zod showed himself first, and that Superman's actual introduction to the world is him surrendering to the military, just feels completely off to me.
- The dim, handheld cinematography. A Superman movie should be stark and vibrant in terms of its color palette; like something shot by J.J. Abrams or Tony Scott or even Michael Bay. It should be Americana come to life. And while I don't think any blockbuster of this scale should have gone with the handheld look, any other director would have likely handled it better, as Snyder does a terrible job with it. Half the time the camera looks like it's vibrating for some reason, as if the camera operator is a 90-year-old man. It just doesn't work, and so much of my actual watching of the movie is spent wishing every other shot was locked down on a damn tripod.
Overall:
There's a lot to like, and I still find it to be an enjoyable movie overall, but for me, some real bone-headed decisions keep it from being great. That said, I'm genuinely looking forward to a back-to-back rewatch of this and the director's cut of Batman v Superman (which I've never seen) in the lead-up to the Justice League Snyder cut next year.
