I think we can all agree that whoever says blockbuster doesn’t necessarily mean subtlety and intelligence. That’s a fact. On the other hand, he who speaks “Christopher Nolan” speaks resurection, restoration and myth reinvented. “The Dark Knight” trilogy behind him, Nolan has been re-emerging as producer and screenwriter, on “Man of Steel,” which to have added some zest and some pep. And who better than Zach “300” Snyder in the director’s chair?

Between the grey matter of the former and the fondness for pyrotechnics of the latter, sparks were going to fly, no doubt. And yet, they didn’t. The New Beginnings, Profound-to-serious realism ethos does not always work, and that’s particularly the case here. Chalk it up to an excessively dense script which piles one incoherent scene upon another, especially in the action scenes, which were made to just explode your eyeballs apparently.

Weirdly, “Man” comes across as a great concept gone to waste because of the poorly-developed narrative arcs and key sequences that are treated in way too much haste.

Sure, there are some great things happening visually but we’re at the movies, and the kind of argument based on one-upping the previous action movie and CGI 360 degrees isn’t compelling anymore since all big productions are capable of similar feats now. Some good things are at play here: it’s evident that “Man of Steel” raises more questions than your run-of-the-mill cape movie, and yet it’s still weak, too superficial and too calculated. Snyder seemed a lot more at ease directing”Watchmen” and Nolan should be mindful not to slide toward decline again as this film does not do much for his reputation.