Superman Returns

I was not overly impressed.

With that said, it was a good movie. Maybe the hype I’ve been hearing since before the movie hit theaters had built it up too much.

Superman/Clark Kent (Brandon Routh) returns after a five-year search for his home planet. He comes home to find Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) with a kid and a boyfriend living with the two. Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is out of prison and hatching another diabolical plan that would endanger billions of lives. And the man of steel must reintegrate himself into the life of a superhero and a reporter.

I like the direction that Bryan Singer took the movie in though. He modernized it in a way that fits in better with my generation. However, he lost me on the Justice angle. There wasn’t much of one, unless it was supposed to be implied. The few bits from Jor-El helped it a little. But not enough.

He focused most of the film on the Superman/Lois story, which is what many of us wanted to see anyway. Singer portrayed it well, and didn’t fall into a Hollywood-love-story-cliché.

Routh’s performance was on. He was the embodiment of Superman. But, Spacey was better. Mostly, because I was never fond of Gene Hackman’s performance as Lex in the previous films. Bosworth played Lois’ character well enough. And I feel a bit sorry for James Marsdon, who played Lois’ boyfriend. Singer keeps putting him in these roles where he can’t keep his woman.

It is another great story in the Superman saga. Not as great as Christopher Reeve’s Superman I & II, but a story worth seeing.