Superman Returns

Hr. A more long-winded review available here.

Undeniably, the visuals were great. Nice special effects, and bold brass cues when it's time for Superman to do super kind of stuff. I thought the shaking stuff foreshadowing some important event was rather overdone. Many, many scenes about Superman using his powers, which is appreciated in a comic book movie.

The acting wasn't too bad either - I wanted the incarnation of Lex Luthor which was a conniving and corrupt industrialist. I can't deny that Kevin Spacey looks like and played Luthor better than Gene Hackman's comedic routines, but there IS still a bit of campiness. However, the character does improve over the Superman 1 & 2 variants.

Personally, no complaints over Routh's acting, although I thought Lois Lane should e more aggressive than she was. Olsen was well-cast, ditto Richard White. Poor Marsden, however.

Spoiler:

His girlfriend kills him and makes out with another in X3, while he's engaged to a woman who didn't bear his son in this movie

The weakest element in this movie is probably the plot. There are three plot elements: Superman's adaptation to this world used to the idea without a Superman, Lois Lane's story, and Lex Luthor's story. All three were satisfactorily concluded, but the interweave wasn't as good. The movie probably ran 30 minutes longer than it should have.

Spoiler:

As Happy said, some plot elements did not make sense - particularly that of the Super Kid. Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex notwithstanding, Superman did lose his powers for a while in Superman 2, so the opportunity to yoink was there. Still, for someone of Supes' character, if he bedded Miss Lane, it would be rather irresponsible for him to take off without saying anything, and disappear for five years.

I give this movie three out of five stars. Nice popcorn, summer blockbuster, type of flick.

Jam it back in, in the dark.