StunnaKrypto
Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
Konterr
Brilliant and touching
Payno
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
mikemulligan
I saw it when I was 11. This movie is too badly intense. I cried at the scenes when Superman is beaten up by Lex Luthor and his henchman on the "kryptonite landmass", and when Lex stabs (YES, "STABS") him with kryptonite.This was unbelievably bad and too intense for a superhero movie. This was the worst movie experience I ever had in my life.THIS IS THE WORST SUPERHERO MOVIE.
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.
ethanbyrd
Superman Returns was a valiant effort by Brian Singer but sadly both the director and the lead actor Brandon Routh's careers haven't flourished. The film was criticized for its length upon release but it wasn't a disaster either critically or financially. This is what this film eventually is- a middling affair that would soon be forgotten in the deluge of superhero films that were to follow that decade onwards. You can give it a watch though and there are some great scenes scattered throughout.
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.