Saw the new Superman movie. It was quite good aside from the obnoxiously overused christian iconography; but it's a superman story, so that's to be expected. Great use of special effects, really well put together plot which goes through Superman's past, in general, it was much much better than that bad last one (Superman Returns).
Also, Superman has a beard for a bunch of scenes near the start. It's awesome. How he managed to find a razor able to trim it, we will never know.
Also, J'rel makes the best turn-by-turn navigation system ever. That ship scene, lol. Louis Lane has quite a good portrayal, being less damsel-in-distress and more sidekick. The side-characters were made very relevant. Usually, superhero movie side characters are sort of these check-boxes for the plot; these ones were that, but were given enough personality that you got to like them, or at least think of them as something other than foam cutouts.
The movie itself was quite well done; much more so than I would have expected. Gratuitous CG at the start got things going fast, hampered only by some of the silliness inherent in Superman mythos; some details of the half-century old sci-fi of Krypton don't age well when put alongside modern effects work. The final "Big Fight Scene" was pretty well done. It had more of The Avengers' "Big Fight Scene" feel to it. A change from Superman Returns which was simply HUGE. Superman returns felt like a movie made with little more than greenscreen technology; this felt like a full-budget film with a full battery of CG to back up the action. Additionally, the mood of Superman himself changes a pretty good amount from previous superman works. Usually, it's "Superman saves the world (and every last person in it)." In this movie, it ends with a city half-razed to the ground (let's be honest, this is how almost every superhero movie ends these days); Superman himself being responsible for some of it (a minority, granted). It's a Superman who is focused on what is best for humanity, not one who is too distracted trying saving every last person that it ends up allowing even more to be harmed. The movie sends an unequivocal message that this is a Superman who is absolutely willing to kill a villain if it will save the lives of many others.
Additionally, I loved that fact that there was no Kryptonite. It always felt like a cop-out when kryptonite got pulled into a Superman story. Superman's ultimate weakness is a rock. Rocks are not interesting story devices by any stretch of the imagination. And when they are used, it's usually in some over the top bond-villain plot which ends up being entirely ridiculous. Superman Returns had a plot which was literally "I want to kill Superman, so I will build a continent using my very own 'just add water' build-your-own-continent kit." Whereas this film shows a Superman who very much has limits; and tying his powers into atmospheric conditions was sheer brilliance. They got a way to de-power Superman without the need for bond-villain plots.
And one side note: that battle on the mainstreet of Smallville? That's when they should have sent in XCOM. And in fact, that's what XCOM games should feel like. Superpowerful aliens with impressive equipment who chew through soldiers like butter. The makers of the next XCOM games need to look at that scene, then reverse engineer it into a feel for the missions. Because that would be awesome.
All in all, it was not what I expected from a Superman film; but in a very good way.
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