the 'gay thing' as you call it, is only an issue with idiot teenage bigoted american caveman fanboys. And they created it in the first place. They have no place commenting on anything if you ask me.
Horrible studio ad campaign, really? That must be an america thing, because over here in the UK EVERYBODY knew about the film and i thought it was marketed just about right. If that's the case over there then that IS a shame, so you may be right on that one.
Not enough action? This film has more action than the original films! The difference here is that this one is supplemented witha good dose of emotional content and performance. (although I know that's not what those teenage fanboys want to see)
Pretty much everyone we've spoken to over here thought the film was perfectly crafted, beautiful to watch, had way more emotion than the first 4 put together (bear in mind that i LOVE the original films), and was just a joy to watch.
The only problem (over here at least I dont know about your release dates) it came out at the same time as Pirates. And all the kids (little kids I mean) wanted to see Pirates. So therefore their parents went with them. (I know this because we actually saw both Pirates AND Superman Returns in one day... and pirates was FULL of kids, with parents. While Superman had about a tenth the amount of kids in it (but relatively more people my age - 34)
Now for us that's not an issue, we'll see multiple films in one month, or one week... or as we sometimes do in one day! lol ... but a lot of people only go to see one thing a month, so I think over here that affected it slightly. Although it's still popular and as far as I remember was/is second in the charts, only behid pirates. Both of which are light years ahead of anything else in the weekly takings