Man of Steel is the superhero movie equivalent of eating your vegetables without any seasoning—technically good for you (heroism! moral complexity!) but kind of a joyless slog.

Zack Snyder took Superman and drained all the hope and fun out of him, replacing it with brooding, Jesus imagery, and approximately 847 hours of buildings exploding. Henry Cavill is great, the visuals are stunning, and there are genuinely interesting ideas about power and belonging buried in here. But the final act is basically 9/11 times ten, and watching Superman solve problems by punching Zod through another skyscraper gets old fast.

The critical split (57% critics, 75% audience) tells the story: if you're a teen who loves dark, intense action and doesn't need your heroes to smile, you might dig this. But if you want the Superman who inspires hope and saves cats from trees, this ain't it. It's competent but exhausting, and a decade later, it feels like the movie that launched a thousand think-pieces about whether superhero movies should be fun.

For families: wait until at least 12-13, watch together, and be ready to talk about all that destruction and the moral ambiguity. Or just rewatch The Incredibles instead.