This new film is better than the last film, Superman Returns... though that's not saying much. In fact, it still leaves a considerable distance to go to reach being a "good" film, and unfortunately Man of Steel falls within that margin.
The first hour is pretty great. The origin story of Superman is told once again, which I would have thought we surely didn't need to see another time, but enough details are changed to make it interesting. This is the first Superman movie ever that really depicts both planet Krypton and Superman himself as truly being alien. It does this so effectively, in fact, that the movie could have stood on its own without even being a Superman movie. It paints a crystal clear picture of an entirely different alien culture, and then goes on to truly show what an outcast young Clark Kent is within Earth society. The film also makes an excellent choice (spoiler here -- but only a vague one, if you know the backstory of Superman) in changing up the death of Jonathan Kent; it's considerably more dramatic than having him simply drop dead of a heart attack, and plays much more into Clark Kent's psychology.
The villain of the film, General Zod, then arrives on the scene around the halfway point. And at first, this too is working well. His motivations for villainy make a great deal more sense here than they did in Superman II, and his arrival at Earth is also given an explanation (rather than the unlucky contrivance of that previous film). But then things slowly begin to slide downhill. And then not so slowly. And then the film accelerates into 45 minutes of ear-splitting, eye-numbing, destructive nonsense.
It's as though having seen last summer's The Avengers, which trashed New York quite thoroughly in its action-packed climax, the writers here decided they had push all-in in an effort to one up it. First, Smallville Kansas is trashed from end to end in a battle that leaves no product unplaced. (Oh no, we've destroyed the IHOP and the Sears!) Then seemingly every last building in Metropolis is brought to the ground, one at a time. And then, because we're running out of places on Earth to destroy, we head up into space to knock a satellite from orbit just for good measure. Briefly, at first, this is all entertaining... but by the end of it, it literally gives you a headache.
And part of the reason for this wall to wall nonsense seems to be to keep you from questioning too much what's happening. Because when you think about it after the fact, it makes very little sense. I'm not clear why what they're trying to do will stop Zod, and I'm even less clear on why, when they finally pull it off, it actually stops everybody working with Zod and not Zod himself. (Well, I'm clear that the writers thought we needed a Superman-vs.-Zod hand-to-hand battle. I'm unclear on how the "stop Zod" plan stopped everybody but Zod.)
They did at least assemble an excellent cast. Henry Cavill is a wonderful Superman; he's relatable and sympathetic despite being essentially invulnerable -- this answers the major problem Superman has always had as a character. Amy Adams is a wonderful, strong Lois Lane who isn't a shrinking victim. Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe, two actors I've never particularly liked, are actually compelling as Superman's two fathers, Jonathan Kent and Jor-El. Michael Shannon as Zod manages to be about as nuanced as a comic book movie villain is ever allowed to be. Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Christopher Meloni, Richard Schiff, Harry Lennix... everyone is solid.
But ultimately, Man of Steel is half of a great movie, followed by a one-hour highlight reel of every explosion in every Michael Bay movie ever made, back-to-back-to-back-to-back. It's too much of what I'm not even sure is a good thing to start with. Together, great movie and terrible movie average out right in the middle and result in a C in my book. I'm hoping that when this emotional launching point is used to spawn a sequel against a simpler, Earth-bound villain, the results will be better.
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