The Superman franchise has been half-dead for years. The pacing of the films have been stunted, the result of a refusal to give the classic Superman his due and a spineless jealousy of the more popular and dark Batman flicks. At six films, you'd think Superman would be beating a dead horse, but the franchise seems to have fallen off the horse and into a sort of coma, occasionally broken by delirious mutterings of better days. When I was younger, Superman movies were *exciting*, they were cheesy and clever, and I remember fighting the urge to leap out of my seat. With Man of Steel, even more than Superman Returns, I felt practically paralyzed by the sheer lack of any level of charm, wit, or personality. The movie is so stupidly scripted, so poorly-shot, so pointlessly dim (in all senses of the term), that it's attacked and killed the heart of this series. 5/10