I actually liked this better than a lot of the reviews. Not on the level of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, but also nowhere near as bad as many reviewers thought. (Putting aside the Perry White casting! Though my favorite Perry White is actually Jackie Cooper's because I like better the overall lighter tone of Richard Donner's Superman.)
Totally agree, right down to the casting of the White character (again, I absolutely loathe when they make changes like this for the sake of "inclusion" when there's no need for it; the character has been established, and that should be that). I like Fishburne as an actor, but his casting here was strange. I totally agree about Jackie Cooper as White, as well -- just nailed it (I said the same thing about Terrence Stamp and his rendition of Zod compared to Shannon's ham-fisted take on the seminal villain).
There will also never be another Luthor like Gene Hackman's.
I, too, enjoyed
Man of Steel for exactly what it was -- a kind of
Superman/Superman II hybrid that allowed Snyder to do what couldn't be done back when the originals were being made because of technology limitations. There are so many parallels to
Superman II in this if you look carefully -- the fight between Zod and Kal-El, especially when Zod grabs him by the cape and tosses him through buildings (in
Superman II, Supes does this to Zod, so it was reversed) and some other nods.
You can feel, though, Goyer and Nolan's influence on this film...right down to the darker, off-canted take on the origin material and the way they designed the Krypton sequences and such; makes sense, since they were on the production duties roster.
