UNCUT - Superman Returns (2006)

One thing I like about this movie now that I didn't appreciate then: People made a lot of jokes at the time that he didn't even throw a punch. But the market is crowded with that now. Tons of superheroes can throw a punch or zap you with lasers. Superman can punch harder and has better lasers sure but that's not the point Many superheroes can rescue people, defend people and attack bad guys. Superman can lift an island into space even when it's made of Kryptonite. He can fix the San Andreas fault. He can destroy tornados and change the course of mighty rivers. Even Thor with his command of the weather can only do some of that. Many heroes can help survivors if a volcano erupts. Superman can stop it from erupting or direct the flow away from buildings and people. That already makes him a different category than most superheroes in movies. There's another benefit, if you're in trouble, he's more likely to notice and more likely to get to you in time. Look at the Avengers roster. If they're there, they can help. But if they're in Sokovia, they're not going to get to you in time. Superman actually might. Now people focus on his exemplary character paired with his extraordinary power and yes the idea that a humble and caring figure can have that much power without it corrupting him and use that power to help is a big appeal. But he can catch planes all day long and Spiderman stopping a train or holding a boat together is an extraordinary climax for him. For Superman, it's a Tuesday morning and he doesn't even need to catch his breath. People say that makes him boring but you don't write the tension around "is he strong enough?" You write it around the choices he has to make. So yeah, this movie sucks. It got that geological scale of the character right but the deadbeat stalker dad look isn't good for the character. And Kevin Spacey was wasted. I had my hopes up when I heard he was Luthor for two seconds before I realized he was going to be playing Gene Hackman's Luthor. "WRONG!!" You hire Spacey to play a Lex Luthor in the same neighborhood as John Shea and Nicholas Hoult. Hoult finally gave us a good live action Lex Luthor based on his moreodern characterization. Gene Hackman gave us the Bronze Age Luthor with a dash of Adam West camp. It's not that I am a purist. I just think modern Lex is a more interesting character

The bartender in this movie and the old lady who died in this movie and left Lex Luther all the money are actually the original Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen from the George Reeves series of my childhood

The thing that hurt this movie, the most was that Christopher Reeves and his wife Dana had not been dead for very long and their ghosts if you will hurt the Box Office but it’s a good Superman movie

This picks up was Supergirl the movie leaves off guys like to see you do that reaction to

Until the latest Superman this was my favorite Superman movie. I watched this before I watched the Reeves Superman movies and when I first saw Reeves as Clark Kent I thought, holy shit he looks just like Brandon Routh

Always had a soft spot for this movie. Reeves' run ended before I was born, but I grew up watching those movies on VHS. I was in my late teens when this came out, and at the time I loved it. It felt like it captured a lot of the tone of the originals, but with 20 years newer filmmaking techniques a a much bigger budget to back it up. Loved seeing the Superman sonic boom in the trailers. I think sticking to Williams' score and keeping Superman an optimistic character(unlike much of what they wrote for Cavill) is a big part of what worked for me. Obviously the movie has it's flaws. Ignoring Superman III and IV, this is the 3rd straight "Luthor Land Grab" plot. I believe there were plans to bring in Bizarro and Brainiac for the sequel. Actually sounds like it could have been a solid film with the right execution. I think Routh did a decent job here and was mostly held back by the script. Way too much focus on the kid and they made Superman just a tad creepy. I think if he had another shot at it he could have delivered something better. While I think Cavill could have been and in many ways was a great Superman(zero grasp of playing Clark though). The tone of those movies never really worked for me though. I'm fine with a grim tone like that for Batman or Watchmen or Wolverine, but it just doesn't fit Superman. Returns did strike the kind of tone I was looking for. Regarding the MCU breaking open the superhero genre, I think it was more a matter of making superhero movies accessible to normies. I think the first couple Reeves films drew huge audiences because they were so groundbreaking at the time. But by and large I think if you were watching the comic book movies of the 90s and early 2000s, you were a certified nerd. A lot of the old batman movies really didn't take themselves seriously at all, X-Men was more niche at the time and you were either a fan of the comics or perhaps a big TNG fan keeping up on PS's work. The Spider Man and Dark Knight trilogies were well enough made they garnered some wider appeal. My aunt who is in no way a comic book fan took me to see Dark Knight simply because of the critical acclaim it got. Nolan made a much more grounded in reality superhero movie. Nobody with actual superpowers, and more focus on characters and drama. But I think Iron Man especially was just a well enough made and most importantly fun enough movie that people who had never read a comic book in their life said "that looks cool". Now given SR preceded that by a couple years, most of the audience would either be people who saw the CR films on the big screen decades earlier, or who like me saw them on VHS. I think they assumed with 19 years since the last one, they could get away with rehashing essentially the same story at 1978, but they forgot they weren't appealing to a new audience. This very much was a safe route to go, and they really needed something novel. All this to say, I think there was a ton of potential here, and they really needed to hit the ground running, and they didn't. I still like it though.

Other than Superman 1 and 2 I loved this movie. I hate that BrandonRouth didn’t get to play Superman again in the movies. He also did a great Clark Kent in my opinion. I still consider the airplane rescue scene as one of the best action Superman scenes in the movies ever. I am sure this movie was built for sequels and it does feel like that but I still watch it as a standalone.

Overall, this movie has its issues, but it's fine. Brandon Routh did a fantastic job in the role of Clark/Superman, Spacey was good as Luthor, but Kate Bosworth had zero charisma as Lois Lane IMO. And the kid was terrible. Great F/X, especially for the time, but damn. What a lot of weird choices in the writing. The action beats - especially where Superman saves Metropolis near the end - were great. But the movie's biggest WTF moment was making Superman a deadbeat dad.

If The story I heard is that Fox killed off Cyclops as punishment for Marsden appearing in this movie, and working with archrival DC.

In some of the comics storylines a few years ago, Lois Lane (who at that point was publicly married to Clark Kent) was subject to a tabloid scandal after she was photographed canoodling with Superman.

Wait... am I correct that Superman 2 erases Lois's memory of their time together, therefore... as far as she knows/remembers... she never had sex with Superman... right? If so, what the hell is going through her mind after the reveal of who Jason's father is?? Anyway, before that thought hit me, what I was going to say is I had not watched this movie in a long time, and I was surprised that I still enjoyed it as much as I did. I agree with a lot of the criticisms of it, yet I can't help but be emotionally invested between all of the tie-ins to the Christopher Reeve movies / continuity (well, except maybe what I just wrote above, now...), using the classic theme paired with a very solid new score by John Ottman, and somehow I always get emotional over the Lois/Clark stuff as well, both individually, as a couple, and as parents, and I think getting me in the feels so strongly does a lot of heavy lifting for making me like this one as much as I do. Because, yeah, other than that, it's... fine. I will say because of my emotional investment (and the Reeve tie-ins) I still prefer this to Man of Steel. That movie just doesn't do much for me other than it has a lot more flash and fighting. I do like Henry Cavil more than Brandon Routh, however. I haven't even bothered to watch the 2025 Superman. From my familiarity with James Gunn's other work (some of which I like), the trailers, and word of mouth / reviews, and the general state of most (all?) super hero movies these days... I just am not that interested in it, unfortunately. It would have been interesting if Superman Returns had gotten a sequel to explore the family dynamics more and presumably to have a different villain (Braniac?) to deal with to give Superman a different challenge. I think back then I was hoping that sequel would be the jump up in quality from this as X2 was from X-Men.

Marlon Brando's voice and image was used. The arrangement with the Brando estate for this paved the way for the eventual release of the Donner cut.

I think this would have worked better as a reboot. To me, I couldn't get past the fact that this is supposed to be like 5-6 years after Superman II, which would make it like 1986. The technology, the vehicles, and the feel of this movie doesn't line up with that, at all.

I felt when it first came out that Brandon Routh would be fine and show glimpses of Reeves, but they all seem held back by the director in my option. The tone in colors and feel just was not the same as Superman I and II, so it just felt like it wanted to pay homage to the others but also wanted to change the tone to a bit more serious. I did like it more then Man of Steel

You hit it on the nose, this felt like they made the movie just to reveal the kid. Making it a sequel that takes place after superman II and they have to send him away from earth so he does not know about the kid. Lex thinking the kid was superman's I think was just because Lex is super smart and should have guessed it. but ruins the piano scene.

The bartender actor played Jimmy Olsen in the 1950s Superman TV show, if I remember correctly.

This was on the dull side. Also, Routh was more like Superboy than Superman. The melancholy tone became a drag. Routh deserved better, and it took years but he finally got his due.

The old lady who dies at the beginning (with the two dogs) was played by Noel Neill, the original live-action Lois Lane from the two Superman serials in the 1940’s, opposite Kirk Alyn as Superman. Noel Neill also had a cameo in the 1978 Superman movie, as the mother of the girl in the train that Clark was racing against in Smallville. The girl’s father was played by original Superman Kirk Alyn. A deleted scene cut Noel’s dialogue, which reveals the girl watching Clark run to be a young Lois Lane. Noel Neill stepped in to reprise her role as Lois Lane with a different Superman, George Reeves, in the 1950’s Adventures of Superman tv series for seasons 2-6, because Phyllis Coates left the role of Lois after the first year. The old bartender with the bow-tie in Superman Returns was played by Jack Larson, who played Jimmy Olsen in that same 1950’s series. Both Noel Neill & Jack Larson also had cameos in the 1980’s Superboy TV show & the 1990’s Lois & Clark series.

I dig this film. I grew up on the Donner ones and rushed out to see Returns when I was in college. Yeah, it’s flawed but I prefer this interpretation any day over the Snyder one.

I was not a fan of the camp humor in the Donner films. That is my 1 main criticism. We had plenty of that with the Adam West Batman TV series; we didn't need more camp, especially on the big screen.

For years I used to only rewatch this movie up to the end of the airplane/shuttle scene. I remember many people regarding that scene as still holding up decades later. Nowadays I see reactors gloss over it, unimpacted. Seems to be happening with lots of similar moments in film. Makes me wonder how anything considered "good" survives the test of time. Also - this movie sucks.

Imo, Christopher Reeve's greatest strength was his Clark Kent performance moreso than his Superman performance. Hard to top.

These days Kevin Spacey seems to be persona non grata probably because he in real life is closer to LEX Luther than any of the other roles he ever played, however I think he was born to play the role of Luther, that scene where he is brushing his teeth looks like it was animated straight out of the comics.

It was not well received by most comic book/Superman fans. I personally like it - I think it is a good movie, just not a good superhero movie.