Totally agree. Man of Steel was lousy on three fronts: it was a poorly constructed, leaden movie without levity or chemistry; and thus it represents a shaky foundation on which to build a cinematic universe; and it recast Superman as a brooding, damaged hero, which, incidentally, makes his conflict with Batman, another brooding, damaged hero, much less interesting than it should be.

Making matters worse, Snyder and Warner Brothers jumped immediately into world building with the sequel. Say what you will about the Marvel Cinematic Universe; at least Marvel/Disney took their time. They didn't trot out The Avengers immediately after Iron Man.

I much prefer DC to Marvel in general, but WB has really started off their cinematic adventure on the wrong foot. I'll give BvS a chance once it lands on Redbox or OnDemand, and decide for myself, but I don't have much faith in the decision-makers involved.

It's sliding back down a bit now. Although I don't think it could really be worse than Daredevil, that was trash.

Yes i know superhero movies nowadays should have more substance. I never went into why Man of STeel is great and has amazings substance. All i've done is compared a beloved film, to Man of Steel displaying hipocracy. 

And if we expect more from Superhero movies these days, then why is Marvel rated so high. THey are cheap popcorn flicks. THeir end credit scenes are often times more important than the whole movie was.

But lets talk Man of Steel. 

First we have an amazing intro. we get Krypton like nothing before. Not just a quick mom/pa sending clark on ship, we get a look at their culture, the world, technology, bioloogy, exposition like crazy. It was like we were watching a sci movie not a comic book movie. We get small teases like the codex looking like brainiacs ship.

Then we move ot earth and for the next hour and half deal with one of supermans staple backstory. His being alone in this world. He grows up in a world where he is so different he can't be like others. He can't form friends, he can't play sports, ect. I saw an article tryign to say batman was better cause he had dead parents to be all moody about for a characteristic and superman had nothign so batman was better. Batman could have lived a normal life after their death, he could have moved on. Superman can't change who he is. He wold always be hiding/pretending. 

Then his dad Johnathon was also a realistic dad. THe Maybe line was amazing. His dad doesn't know everything. HIs dad is trying to protect him. I mean what woudl you do if your son was superman. THe gov finds out somethign and they take him away and experiement or turn him into a weapon, ect. He is just trying ot protect him, he dont' have answers. He is doing his best to raise this alien that defies all logic. (and dont' say gov can't hurt clark, johnathon has no idea how strong clark is. I doubt he shot him with a shotgun or something to see if he was bullet proof. he has no idea if clark can be hurt and how bad)

Then the tornado scene furthered this theme of johnathon. INstead of preachign his "the world is not ready for you" he flat out sacrifices himself and is proud to do it for his son's safety.  And while I do like the heart attack lesson, i thought this was just as powerful. WHile the heart attack lesson teaches Superman he can't save everyone, this time it was clark choosing to not save someone. He could have but didn't, cause he trusted his dad. He believed in his dad and listend to him. Even though it meant his dad dying. That is more powerful than being helpless to heart attack/cancer.

NOw on to saving people. Clark saved as many people as he could in his first fight with zod/kryptonians. I don't think anyone died except those that Fiora killed while superman was fighting the other dude. Oh and pilot that the one dude squeezed his head exploding it.

But on to metroplis. Rewatch his fight with Zod. It's not as bad as people make it seem. THe first building to collapse is zod getting his vision suddenly. Hard to stop. Next big explosion i believe is the tanker blowing up on the car lot. Watch superman. He dodges the truck and then it explodes behind him. He turns around looking at it like "oh shit" then receiving a cheap shot from zod while he is dumbfounded by the casual destruction he caused by dodging something. The rest of the fight is some of him being smashed through the skyscrapers on the outside, not really causing too much damage. No buildings falling and if no one was staring out the window, no deaths. Then up to space, and back to ground and zod death.

But as for Zod's death. What was superman to do? In superman 2, superman knew of not only the power removing machine, but also of kryptonite. He had two options he could use. What does this new superman who has been wearing the suit for all of like 24 hours know? He knows of no weakness of his own. So how does he stop this guy who like himself, through all this fighting has yet to bleed even once. If he does knock him out, wherek does keep him locked up. What prison could hold Zod? The phantom zone is gone. 

I thought killing him was a smart and gutsy move. Too many writers take the easy way out and don't write themselves into a corner so to speak. Superman was written into a corner. He had no choice but to kill, and so he did the only thing he could. And he killed. Cheap writing is always having some escape, or a deux ex machina to save yourself from a hard choice. Superman had a hard choice and no escape. He made the hard choice. 

Now the movie isn't without fault. I would have l ike Lois to be more reportery. Remove their kiss. Have Johnathon run back to save a trapped person/kid or something and not a dog. Not sayign dogs aren't worth it, just saying no dog is the last person to leave a car or stays in it when others leave. Remove tentacles from machine that superman destroyed. OH and the bad cgi of his chest on fire at the oil plant. I assume it was from his shirt burning off, since he wouldn't burn at all, but still the cgi was bad.

Lastly, if you think SUperman returns was a good superman you are delusional. What did he do to contribute to the world? He saved one plane from falling. Then random city glass falling from when kyrptonite island formed. Otherwise he floating around wondering about being alone. The same theme as Man of Steel in a way, except executed extremely poorly.  Then the kicker, his final climax of the movie is him picking up a freaking island of kryptonite and throwing it into space. Let's ignore the fact the kryptonite should have made that impossible. The feat alone is boring. 

But the movie was directed by a holleywood golden boy. People love everything bryan singer does, and hates everything zack snyder does.