Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey
Directed by Bryan Singer

Aside from being incredibly predictable, I would have to say Superman Returns exceeded my initial expectations of entertainment value. A cleverly written screenplay provides plenty humour to keep the crowd enamored until the real action begins. At nearly three hours long, it is much needed. Don't get me wrong, though, there was never a moment in the film when I wondered if it was going to end yet. Longtime followers of the Superman films, and even non-fans, will no doubt enjoy the substantial old-style opening credit sequence accompanied by the Superman theme music. It was awfully pleasant to be told who the hell was going to be in the film before it started, something that nearly all Hollywood blockbusters neglect these days.

Superman Returns, obviously enough, sees Superman's return to Metropolis after a six year absence where he attempted to find the last remains of Krypton. Failing this, Superman returns to Earth and gets a rude awakening. Lois Lane has mothered a child and additionally has won a Pulitzer Prize for an editorial entitled "Why The World Doesn't Need Superman," and Lex Luthor is a free man. Wasting no time, Superman thunders around the world saving all humans in strife and making headlines. In the meantime, Lex and his cronies, which include David Fabrizio in a small but commendable performance as a creepy piano-playing henchman, are busy executing some extreme real estate development. Oh, and of course this 'development' involves a lot of Kryptonite.

An extremely pretty 27 year old Brandon Routh kills two birds with one stone in this film. As you well know, my gauge of greatness for actors is their ability to play vastly differing characters, and Routh pulls off the ultimate success here. Stumbling around the newsroom as the lovable nerd Clark Kent, one would never think that in the blink of an eye he would be simmering with seriousness as Superman. Hell, he even bears a passing resemblance to Christopher Reeve. Pity that Superman only gets to interact with Kevin Spacey's wonderfully stylized Lex Luthor for all of five minutes (or something) and one line of dialog (or something).

As a stand alone film, Superman Returns does a more than competent job of not relegating the non-aficionados to frustrating confusion, as the Man of Steel is famous enough for everyone to know the important facts about him. I must concede, that probably only die-hard fans of Superman will be able to delve into the deeper meanings and various homages associated with the older films and comic books. Keep in mind that this is a PG-13 comic book movie, so there will be a lot of pointless shots of people standing in the streets staring at the sky in awe.