George Taylor While it's nice that Singer wanted to keep the spirit of Chris Reeves alive, this story is a bit lame. We didn't need Lex Luthor in what is a rip on Superman The Movie, or the love story and the half kryptonian child. (Although when the kid squashes that guy with a piano, that's hysterical). The one thing they did right was Superman's powers. He's truly Superman in this movie. Shot in the eye, lifting a yacht, listening to the entire world. The movie needed more of this, and less of Lex Luthor. A good attempt.

Alan Smithee Esq. An under appreciated and often over looked comic book super hero movie. Superman's track record when it comes to films is all over the place, and this flick seems to get forgotten in a time where Superman is now dead after killing countless people in epic battles with General Zod, facing off against Batman, then teaming together because their mother's are both named Martha and finally sacrificing himself to kill Doomsday. And before all that nonsense Christopher Reeve was best known as the man of steel who started off the franchise strong with it's first two films by Richard Donner and then got ridiculous with the second two. In hindsight this a breath of fresh air for the Christ-like alien from krypton. Sure this movie has it's problems but it's a very interesting take on Superman. It makes the odd decision of being a sequel to a couple movies made decades earlier and ignoring the last two Superman movies that were released. But it works and it works well. Although it may be lacking in the action department it has some great ideas like Supes being a pseudo-stalker of Lois Lane and fathering a child with her. But Singer's direction and a stand out performance by Kevin Stacey as Lex Luthor (revisiting this movie is a great way to forget about Jessie Eisenberg and his jar of urine) make this one of the better Superman films.

Leofwine_draca Bryan Singer's much-heralded continuation of the SUPERMAN series turns out to be a vacuous, poorly-paced nonentity of a movie that adds absolutely nothing new to the genre – aside from some nifty, state-of-the-art special effects – while rehashing lots of genre clichés and staples and some poorly-contrived laughs at the same time. For some reason, Singer decided to pad out an hour and a half movie with an extra hour of people standing around talking, lots of incident surrounding the diabolical Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane – making the viewer question why anybody would love her character – and plenty more, well, routine stuff. I'm a fan of comic book adaptations now, but Singer fumbles the ball completely, preferring to concentrate on plot rather than action – pretty much the opposite of the tightly-woven and utterly entertaining SPIDER-MAN flicks.Things begin on a particularly bad footing, and people who are unfamiliar with the Superman story will find themselves scratching their heads in confusion. An idiotic scene of a boyish Clark Kent jumping high into the air through a cornfield brings back unfavourable memories of HULK and it's not until an admittedly entertaining run-in with a jumbo jet that the film really begins to move. However, the comic-book hero staple – fighting bad guys and crims – is almost non-existent. The film's best moment, in which Superman faces a thug with a Gatling gun – the biggest I've seen on film – seems to be over far too fast and there's not a great deal else in the film in the same spirit.Brandon Routh is perfectly able in the role of the titular hero, and he's nothing to complain about. While he's overshadowed by the late Christopher Reeve, he proves to be a dashing hero for the millennium. Not so the awful Bosworth, whose blandness sucks life from the movie. James Marsden – coming over from his role as Cyclops in Singer's X-MEN films – is equally wooden as a major supporting character, while Frank Langella must be reminiscing over his youthful roles of the 1970s as he's given nothing to work with here. Kevin Spacey lifts the movie as the ultra-villain, Lex Luthor, but he's too 'nice' and charming for the part; you end up sympathising with him when you really shouldn't be. Parker Posey is as awful here as she was in BLADE III.The film progresses in a run-of-the-mill fashion, with only a couple of entertaining moments. The first sees Superman losing his strength – darn that Kryptonite – and taking a vicious beating at the hands of Luthor's thugs. This scene feels like it belongs in a different movie. The second is the admittedly spectacular finale, in which Superman levitates a whole continent and throws it into space. While the special effects are superb, the characterisation and plot isn't, and as a result you can't get worked up or excited about any of this stuff. Style over substance is the best way to describe this disappointing wannabe-epic.

Paul Magne Haakonsen With my track record of not being overly keen on superhero movies and superheroes in general, then I can't claim that I was particular thrilled when this movie was first screened in 2006. But of course, as I had grown up with the Christopher Reeve's "Superman" movies in my childhood, I would eventually get around to watch "Superman Returns". And hand on heart, then I have actually watched it twice by now.The story told in "Superman Returns" is by no means groundbreaking or overly innovative in terms of superhero movies, nor even for the "Superman" movies franchise. But still, don't get me wrong here, it is still an enjoyable movie for what it was.The acting in the movie was good, although I think that casting Kevin Spacey for Lex Luthor was perhaps a bit odd. He is a good actor, for sure, but he wasn't cut out for the Luthor role. Brandon Routh was good for Superman and Clark Kent, and bears a striking resemblance to Christopher Reeve. And he managed to hold his own well enough and did justice to Reeve's "Superman" legacy.The effects in "Superman Returns" were good, and they really helped the movie along quite nicely.However, I must say that this 2006 movie wasn't particularly outstanding or memorable. But still, it is worth watching if you enjoy the "Superman" franchise. It is a movie that you can watch more than once, albeit with some years in between each viewing.As such, then I am rating it six out of ten stars.