In today’s ever-changing marketplace, the way to decipher a film’s success—or failure—has become increasingly elusive. Sure, there’s Rotten Tomatoes, which helpfully collects the criticism thrown at each film to give us a composite score representing its general reception. But that’s just the critics—and this critic knows, reviews do not a film make (or break, for that matter).

There’s also, of course, the box office to consider: with the advent of multiple new platforms upon which to view films, from your iPad to any number of new VOD formats and services, even the films which ‘bomb’ have the potential to meet the necessary monetary quotas that make the studio bigwigs happy. (This is the reason we see sequels to films we thought…and hoped…we’d never hear from again.)

Still, it should come as somewhat of a shock to know that Man of Steel, Warner Brothers’ big opening summer bid for box office dominance, has shown sure signs of faltering on both the box office and critical fronts. After an understandably strong showing its first weekend—the film made $116 million in the US alone—it already fell to the number 3 spot immediately afterward, behind Disney Pixar’s Monsters University and Paramount’s World War Z. So the question is, what gives? Where are all those young boys—and young girls, for that matter—who were expected to come out in droves to watch the reboot of one of the most American, wholesome superheroes out there, Superman??

Well, word of mouth surely had something to do with it, since it became pretty clear from early on that this film lacks flying power. Man of Steel has scored a paltry %56 on Rotten Tomatoes, with tepid-to-mixed reviews at best.

So what were Superman’s main hurdles here? For one, the gritty real urban feeling may have worked well for Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight franchise (it is this reviewer’s humble opinion that it didn’t work there either), but for Superman, producer Nolan’s characteristically heavy touch might very well have acted as kryptonite for Man of Steel. Laughs, which arguably should have a place in a comic book film, were non-existent here; the first undeniable funny moment showing any depth of character whatsoever happens about 15 minutes before the end of the film. And a dark, dark film it is, with intense 9-11 overtones throughout, especially in the second half.

Another misstep: as lovable as Amy Adams is, the darling actress is the victim of Worst Casting Ever as Lois Lane. The role simply doesn’t fit her; she plays Lane as a take no prisoners gumshoe, but one just a bit too old to be that hungry. And the chemistry with Cavill (who does a good enough job, for his part) is all but nonexistent.

But guess what—Superman isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Enough unsuspecting, curious moviegoers went to see Man of Steel to justify a soon-to-be-announced sequel as well as a Justice League film, a mega-mashup in the style of The Avengers.