Who's your Daddy? - Superman Returns Review

I went and watched Superman Returns last night in IMAX and that's exactly where you should be watching this summer blockbuster.

The Plot:
Quite simple. Superman had 'disappeared' for 5 years as he tried to find any remaining surviors from Krypton. When he realised he was the 'lonely' one, he decides to come back. While he walks into his old job at the Daily Planet, everything else around him has changed. Lois Lane has moved on and is in a 'long engagement' with the Assistant Director, Richard White, who is the nephew of Perry White. She also has a son, Jason. Lex Luthor who was captured earlier by Superman, gets a get-out-jail card as our Man of Steel couldn't make it to the witness stand! Hmmm. So anyways, with renewed viguor Lex enters Superman's Fortress of Solitude and steals the crystals which has scientific data from across the galaxy. His aim? To generate real estate - as in, make himself a new continent as land is expensive. Quite an insight. Oh and if you do generate this land, new mass has to replace new mass. Physics. And no points for guessing that North America will go under water! So the battle begins and good prevails over evil - not a spoiler is it? The biggest spoiler, and I'm sorry that I can't keep it under wraps, is that Jason is Superman's son. Basically when Lois Lane wrote 'Spending the night with Superman', she did just that literally.

What's in it for you? What's new?
As far as the story is concerned, it's quite lame. But Singer does few things right. Superman is supposed to fly and he gives him enough opportunities to ring up the miles. He keeps it simple. The Clark Kent-Lois Lane-Superman triangle is played out well. Routh doesn't come close to the goofiness of Reeve but there is on-screen chemistry. But they both look quite young. Spacey as Luthor fits into Gene Hackman's shoes perfectly. IMAX gives you 10-15 minutes of 3D film runtime which is quite good. Special effects are quite good. So if you grew up with Superman and walked into this expecting some of the same fare, you won't be disappointed.

Singer has a huge problem. When the last Superman came onto the screens, hardly character flew. Now you find almost every character flying around. So Superman's got competition. But there's a nice style which has been blended into this film. The platform's the old Superman movies and mannerisms but with a fair share of good special-effects. It's as if Singer's testing his audience. Want some more of the same? Or something new next time? And there is defintely a next time - Superman and son. Watch out for that one.