I wasn't keen to see this film when I first heard about it. Part of my reluctance had to do with half of the people that I talked to praising this film and Henry Cavill's portrayal of Superman as being so much more superior to Superman Returns and Brandon Routh's portrayal of Superman. I was also reluctant because it seemed that I heard from the other half of people that I talked about this picture that this movie was bad.
I also wasn't keen on Amy Adams as Lois Lane. I like Amy Adams in the films that I have seen her in. She just didn't seem like Lois Lane. I'm more accepting of her as Lois Lane than I am of Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane but Amy Adams is still not quite Lois Lane to me.
What little that I saw of this film at first didn't sell me on Henry Cavill as Superman. It took the film Batman versus Superman: Dawn of Justice to convince me that Henry Cavill is in fact a very good Superman.
The plot of this film involves Superman's origins. Through a series of flashbacks we see how Superman experienced growing up as Clark Kent. Superman is trying to find out more about himself and comes across a Kryptonian ship in Antarctica. While there he meets and saves for the first time, Lois Lane (played by Amy Adams). Later, General Zod (played by Michael Shannon) comes to Earth looking for Superman and demands his surrender to General Zod's group. With reluctance Superman submits to General Zod at which point Zod reveals his plans for Earth. Superman decides to defend Earth from General Zod and then we see how Superman deals with the U.S. government and his formally adopted home and how the U.S. government feels about Superman.
It has some slight similarities to the first of the Richard Donner Superman films but that makes sense considering this is reintroducing Superman. I thought that all of the performances were great. The story was good. The writers put their own variations on some aspects of Superman but their adjustments made sense and were well done.
I have to agree with the common complaint of there being too much destruction in this film in the battles between Superman, General Zod, and Zod's group. I couldn't help but feel sorry for Smallville and Metropolis and it just further added to Batman versus Superman: Dawn of Justice for me.
I still don't understand the controversy of Superman killing General Zod other than perhaps that being out of character for Superman. While Superman isn't known for killing people (at least not deliberately) him killing General Zod in this film made sense to me. What was he supposed to do given the circumstances? General Zod made it abundantly clear that Superman had taken everything from him by that time so it wasn't like he was going to stop harming the people of Earth.
I thought that Russell Crowe's portrayal of Jor-El and Kevin Costner's portrayal of Jonathan Kent were very good and interesting because they both showed Superman's guidance, what drove and continues to drive Superman's actions. Why he does the things that he does and so on and so forth.
Overall this film was better than I had hoped for (that may have been because my expectations were really low but anyway). If you are reluctant for any reason to see this film I would suggest that if you decide to watch it keep expectations low. You might be pleasantly surprised.
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