FanUnity B(uzz)log

Superman has been away for a long time. Not only on cinema screens, but in the world of "Superman Returns."  The cause for his absence was a five-year space quest to Krypton.  Once scientists discovered its location, he had to go himself to see if anything, anything  at all, was left.  Upon his return he discovers an Earth changed, and his life changed.  Lois Lane, now the mother of a 4 year old boy, is engaged to the father.  And as much as Superman may want to dislike the  guy, Richard White, Perry's nephew, he's  nothing but  a great guy through and through.

Some things may have changed, but some things remain the same.  Lex Luthor has once again escaped from prison, this time legally through the system, since Superman did not show  at his trial as the key witness.  Shacking up with an elderly billionaire, Lex weasles her into signing all of her wealth over to him before she passes on.  Now with the resources  he needs, Lex leads mission to the North Pole to the Fortress Of Solitude, the location of which was revealed to him in "Superman II."  There he logs on to Superman's super-encyclopedia filled  with the scientific knowledge of 28 galaxies. After Jor-El does his introduction thinking Lex is his son, Lex simply commands him to tell him everything.  From there Lex's dastardly plan is launched.  Still obsessed with land ownership,  Lex is going to use the same crystals that caused the large, architecturally complex  Fortress itself to construct itself in a matter of minutes to grow a new continent in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, which would ultimately overtake existing land masses and put them under his new earth.

Brandon Routh picks up seemlessly where Christopher Reeve left off.  His Superman performance is a channelling of Reeve. It doesn't miss a beat.  Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor is excellent as well.  Menacing, charming and fun yet not pathetic like Gene Hackman's Lex.  This Lex is truly dangerous, but undone once again by  his apptitude  for surrounding himself with incompetant minions.   Before seeing  the film, I  was suspect  of Kate Bosworth's casting as Lois  Lane.  I hadn't actually seen a movie that  Bosworth  was  in prior to this and she seemed too young for the role.  However, she actually  works out  very well.  You get an appropriate  sense of maturity from her Lois, and she's a lot prettier than  Margot Kidder ever was, so  that's nice too.

"Superman Returns" is a fun action movie and a welcome reunion with the  Man of Steel.  It's not great, and pales in comparison to the big screen return of Batman last year in the classic "Batman Begins."  You could even debate that the movie that director Bryan Singer  abandoned, "X-Men: The Last Stand" is better than "Superman Returns."  However, one thing to take away from this is that Singer's first "X-Men" was not nearly as good as "Superman Returns" but his follow up was a classic in "X2."  Maybe Singer just can't hit  the home run in his  first at-bat.  He  did hit a solid double into  the  gap with this though.  My  bet that he'll knock the sequel to "Superman Returns" out of the park.

4.5/5 Stars.