Really, there is a way to do a flawed, imperfect Superman (Byrne’s first Man of Steel issues showing the post-Crisis Superman’s formative years), but this just isn’t the character. You can have Superman making mistakes but in the end, he is the ideal towards which we strive (as the MOVIE ITSELF SAYS BUT DOES NOT SHOW). Even if the world is dark, Superman should show them the light rather than stoop to their level of anger (Smallville scene) or violence (neck break). His parents, normally essential to forming Superman’s heroic nature, are wasted in this film, with Costner’s diatribes coming across as truly confused.
While some may reasonably argue (and Zack Snyder even stated) that Zod’s death at the end was the key moment in which Superman learns the horror of taking a life, the opening of BVS shows this to be a fallacy. The VERY FIRST thing we see Superman do in the sequel is kill another guy, and, again, there are no ramifications in subsequent scenes.
All those so-called inspirational speeches fell flat to me because they were just words without actions to back them. Jor-El’s big speech at the Fortress, lifted verbatim from the magnificent All-Star Superman, didn’t have any resonance with a Superman, who didn’t seem particularly heroic. Even with all the obnoxiously on-the-nose savior/god imagery, I didn’t really see the example that the human race would supposedly follow. All words, no actions.
Worst of all, I just found the film horribly dull and boring! The action sequences just seemed endless, and I wasn’t sufficiently interested in the characters, none of which I found particularly charming or likable (despite the fact that the cast is filled with memorable actors). The cinematography was absolutely garish, horribly desaturated and filled with drab colors (even the BD copy). Shaky cam was employed too frequently. Never did we get a great, nice flying shot, which wasn’t either an extreme close-up or a long shot.
I daresay that I enjoyed BVS more than this because, though qualitatively worse with a muddied plot line, it was at least new and entertaining.
Honestly, the worst part of MOS was the writing.