Out of five stars I would actually give the movie a 4.5 but that option is not available so take it as that. Just before watching Superman Returns in 2006, I delved into the history of the character and was astounded by how much had been ignored by the Christopher Reeve movies, the 50s TV show that came before it and other popular media too, with the exception of Smallville, which spent way too much time operating on ridiculous premises of Clark as an adolescent.
With the exception of the John Williams theme there wasn't much to look forward to after SR and when the rumored sequel never took off, I was afraid of Superman dying off as a relic in popular media.
So the expectations from this movie were tremendous but I am glad to say that it delivered. The movie seemed to reference different parts of Superman's previously unexplored history in comics and put them all together to produce an extremely satisfying movie which was treated more as a 'real' story of an alien from another planet than a comic book movie.
Non-linear story telling served to fill in a lot of blanks and show how Clark developed from boy to Superman (thankfully Cavill looks more like a man than Brandon Routh, even though he is four years younger).
But slowly you could tell how the film morphed into a Superman movie especially at the end when the Man of Steel appears in his more commonly seen human guise in the offices of a metropolitan newspaper :)
There's a bright future for this franchise from what I can tell and one that will finally feature Superman in action in a way we have never seen him before. He REALLY cuts loose in the movie thanks to modern day movie technology although you get the feeling the studio was overcompensating on account of Superman movies being way too light on action since Superman II in 1981.
Due to the realism of the whole storyline of an alien invasion strived for the throw downs and collateral damage get pretty serious as the stakes are shown to be really high while Superman attempts to stop General Zod from wiping out humanity from the face of the planet.
If you are unflinchingly loyal to what has come before this in movies then this film may not be for you. Especially given Superman is portrayed in a far tougher manner in Man of Steel, much like during his first ever appearance in Action Comics #1 in 1938.
The gripes I have with the movie are to do mainly with the pacing during the extensive and detailed scenes on Krypton and with one action sequence prior to the second and climactic showdown feeling unnecessary.
All in all though, director Zack Snyder, producer Christopher Nolan and writer David Goyer have done good and left me curious and eager to see what lies ahead as Nolan takes a bit of a creative back seat.
A definite 4.5/5 (9/10) from me for a Superman movie befitting of his modern day incarnation.
