Man of Steel (B+)

Starring Henry Cavill, Amy Adams (PBA), Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane (PBA), Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Harry Lennix, Richard Schiff, and Christopher Meloni.
Screenplay by David S. Goyer
Directed by Zack Snyder.

Rated PG-13 for prolonged intense sequences of violence, action and destruction, and for some language.

It's impossible for me to write objectively about a Superman movie. Especially one I've anticipated as long as this one. A friend asked me whether I loved it or was disappointed.

Yes.

After 2006's middling, milquetoast Superman Returns, which tried to be a direct sequel to 1980's Superman II but retained far too much of it's campy humor, the Man of Tomorrow was in dire need of a theatrical reboot. This film is that and a ton more. In some ways it totally re-imagines the Superman mythology.

My greatest concern about Man of Steel is that Clark/Superman is almost entirely reactive for the whole film. He never formulates a plan to outsmart the bad guys and then executes it. He simply responds to outside forces as they enter his flight path and takes instructions from others. "Hey Clark, your dead alien dad told me how you can fix that ..."

All in all, it's a good, exciting movie and an interesting new take on Big Blue. But it seems more a like a prologue to a real Superman movie than the genuine article.