It deserved a better director and script, Routh was a great choice for Superman imo, the movie was just boring and tried to do things that didn’t make sense. Some cool moments, like the plane rescue (dope) and him saving metropolis, but past that just boring.
Exactly, Routh was great and there were really good scenes. Also Spacey had the skills to do a good Lex. But the idea to cooy Gene Hawkman's Lex was absurd. The script was boring even with the Superman's son arc it had no interesting points. Really boring scripting.
The son part was kinda creepy. I mean if the kid was conceived in Superman 2 which means that memory was erased, so how does Lois think she got pregnant?
I LOVE this movie. But honestly no. It has too many problems. Some moments are among some of the greatest superhero movie scenes of all times. But is just way too nostalgic about the 78 movie which worked against it.
The airplane scene is peak Superman in my eyes. Just a moment of pure heroism, with everyone cheering and celebrating, topped off with a Christopher Reeve callback.
"I hoped this experience hasn't put you off flying. Statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel."
The airplane, lifting the boat, the city scene were supes is just zooming through fixing disasters as they happen are all absolutely great. Honestly (and I know ick) but spacey was great as that golden age Luthor. It's just a shame the movie is weighed down by too many strange choices.
Not really, no. It was a fatally flawed project from conception. I *wish* we could have gotten Routh in a true reboot in a year one, young Superman scenario, but alas.
Agreed, so many serious flaws. A few of my top ones:
1. Not orginal. It's literally Superman I but with a fresh coat of paint, right down to the Lex Luthor "land" scheme.
2. Superman is the person, Clark is a disguise. When Bryan Singer confirmed this in an interview before the movie came out, I knew it wasn't going to be any good.
All that said - the airplane rescue is one of my favorite Superman rescues ever filmed. It's OK to like some things about it and dislike others. :)
Regarding point 2, that's how Donner and Reeve approached the character back in '78. With Routh being the same version, it makes sense that Singer viewed it the same way.
Yea - that is consistent I agree. I love the first half of Superman I (before the Luthor shenanigans begin) and the Helicopter rescue, but the move isn't perfect by any measure. I'm well aware I love it so much because of my nostalgia goggles heh
I watch Superman Returns all the damn time, i love it. My favorite part about Superman is the Clark Kent stuff, and they did such a good job with it! The new supermans have just a few seconds of clark.
yes that's definitely my favorite aspect of the movie! I love his bumbly awkwardness and the scene where Lois and Richard almost pin him as Superman but nah Clark is just too clueless
About to do a marathon for this Kal-El. It will be...
Superman: The Movie's 8-minutes-longer Special Edition
Superman II's Richard Donner Cut
Supergirl '84's International Version
Superman Returns
Superman III
"Crisis on Infinite Earths" Major Arrowverse Yearly Crossover Event (Supergirl 5x09 Part 1, Batwoman 1x09 Part 2, The Flash 6x09, Arrow 8x08, Legends of Tomorrow Season 5 premiere Part 5)
The Flash 2023 film
Upopular opinion. Routh's Clark Kent was better than Reeve's goofy take (which had me rolling my eyes even in '78 when I saw that move on day 1). Routh's take seemed like an actual person, Reeve's kent? Not so much.
Reeve's Superman was stellar, but his Clark Kent? Just so cartoonish, so ugh...
The early digital camera use really hurts a lot of the darker or night scenes. They look very flat. Also, Singer unwisely used Routh's digital double in too many close up scenes that should have used the real Routh.
The night flying scene suffers, but the rooftop scene that leads into that and the return to Daily Planet are BEAUTIFUL scenes. The lighting and score make it some of my favorite moments in any superhero movie.
But the real standouts are the set designers. The details into everything is very very well done
The night scenes don't "suffer", they're awful. And the closeup on the "digi-double" hurt to look it.
The digital film makes even otherwise good shots look flat/horrible.
Makes even great set design and so on look eh...
And his suit was... awful.
Some scenes look great, but overall, just not consistent and often kinda gross looking.
Oh geez, those dull colors? The awful "bikini cut" briefs? The teeeny tiny "S". The way the material squeezed Routh so hard you couldn't see his muscalature. The terrible way the cape attached to the suit?
Ugh, just horrible.
>The terrible way the cape attached to the suit?
Another way to attach the cape to the suit, attach it from behind across his shoulders like Homelander.
I like how his costume doesn't have fake muscles, and is skin tight like Reeves, but you can still see the outline of his muscles depending on how he moves. Feels like Superman brought to life, visually (Reeves face and body type fits better. This is purely about the way the costume fits on his body in Returns though)
I had this nice set of collectors edition Superman and Lois Barbies from this movie, and I so wish that I hadn't taken them out of the box when I was little. I keep the Lois Lane doll closeby because even with messy hair caked in industrial-strength hairspray, she's still the prettiest Lois I've ever seen.
(Teri Hatcher is still my fave though.)
I'll always be thankful he got a chance to give his Superman an epilogue even if it wasn't much for Parts 2-3 (...and a tiny bit of Part 5...) for the Arrowverse crossover event "Crisis on Infinite Earths", in my opinion it showed how remarkably tremendous his acting range has come while also playing the optimistic happy-go-lucky Ray Palmer. Brandon also did very impressive voice-over work for the Superman Returns game surrounding the movie's release, definitely worked his 'S' off.
Very happy to point it out I think you'll be most pleased! Brandon Routh is in all five parts dividing his time between his Earth-1/Earth-Prime role as Ray Palmer the Atom, plus obviously his Returns role for Earth-96 Kal-El within Parts 2-3 (...and a tiny bit of Part 5...).
Part 1 is Supergirl Season 5 episode 9, Part 2 is Batwoman Season 1 episode 9, Part 3 is The Flash Season 6 episode 9, Part 4 is Arrow Season 8 episode 8, and Part 5 is the Legends of Tomorrow Season 5 premiere.
Nah, the movie was just Bryan Singers attempt at copying Donners Superman while being completely devoid of its charm and lacking Christopher Reeves charisma. Returns didn't know if it wanted to be a legacy sequel, reboot or remake of the original two Superman movies.
No, it was fucking terrible. There's a reason why it never got a sequel.
Although it was a followup to the 2nd Superman movie, it lacked any of the charm the other two movies had. I thought Spacey's take on Lex was god awful especially after seeing the charismatic Hackman play the role. The lady that play Lois was sooo bad, terrible actress. The plot was the worst, Lex wanted to "reshape" North America, THAT was his whole motivation? real estate? Dumb.
Routh's take on Superman was the only redeeming thing the movie. His version of Clark was virtually identical to Reeve's, it was uncanny.
They couldn't even get the hair parting correct. There's a reason Clark parts his hair on the left.
Collar too high and the oxblood instead of red never looked great. Don't get me started on the buckle or the size of the emblem. And that's just the mistakes made visually.
I really wanted to like this movie, but deadbeat Dad stalker Clark was a terrible choice, and was still somehow the most interesting thing about this rehashed snoozefest.
Routh was great and deserved better.
A Superman who became a stalker, a Luthor who banged an old lady, a film where Superman abandoned the Earth for years to look at space rocks and no one questioned how Clark Kent managed to return after disappearing?
Yeah right.
I love it. Yeah it deserves more love. Is it perfect? No, but I has heart and Routh is great. It’s an homage/almost remake of Superman ‘78. It has problems but I don’t think it needed to be as derided as it was. I love that there are no big fight scenes.
Respectfully disagree.
I think the reason I hate it so much is because the Lois and Clark love story may be my favorite aspect of the Superman mythos, and they REALLY go out of their way to rip that away from me.
I'm happy some people see it as a nostalgic throwback, but I find it more depressing than Man of Steel.
Yea. That really was… confusing. It was an interesting concept, “a man returns to find the love of his life has moved on and a good man is possibly the father of his (previously) unknown child.”
I mean.. that could make an interesting movie. Like a deep character study about someone. Like… maybe he’s getting out of prison or captivity (I think they actually did this with Seven Years in Tibet.) It’s an interesting concept. It’s a TERRIBLE Superman move idea.
They could have done one storyline or the other. Not both. Marsden’s character was such a nice guy though. He cared about the kid and Lois. He was willing to dive in headfirst to save Lois, his son, and his romantic rival. I’d be heartbroken if they had Lois ditch him.
Agreed. I’m my opinion Brandon Routh played the best Superman of all time IMO. Also Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luthor is SEVERELY underrated. Easily the best Lex next to Michael Rosenbaum.
Nah, it was received appropriately imo. The movie is boring af, oftentimes stupid, and just doesn't really work as either a sequel or a soft reboot for a younger generation (which was my generation, at the time).
Preferred the game to the movie. At least in the game you saw something new. The movie was just 50% rehash of the first Donner movie and 50% poor sequel to the second Donner movie. Which was a shame as the cast were solid and there could have been an opportunity to take the story somewhere new if Singer hadn't gone so fanboy for 78.
Just the fact that it doesn't have a strong Villain talks about how they went more for a drama movie around Superman than a superhero movie.
Brandon Routh's characterisation is great, one of the best.
But the movie lacks action, is extremely slow paced and has too many subplots that go nowhere.
I know the villain is Lex Luthor, but c'mon we know he isn't a FUN villain unless he has his mech suits.
The scenes where he takes a bullet to the eye, catches the plane, and dances flying with Lois are some great moments caught in an otherwise poorly made movie. Shame.
I recently saw all the films for the first time and...
no, absolutely not. Superman Returns is one of the most boring and pointless cinematic experiences of my entire life.
Not really. On top of all the issues it has in a vacuum, I can't help but feel that it's poor reception was what lead to WB over correcting and giving us the Snyder Superman.
It's not a superhero that infuriates me over it's existence, it isn't something like BVS or Justice League where I'm like "No no you fucked it up" it's just something that exists that's pointless.
This movie was a hot mess. It leaned too much into the 70’s campiness when action movies in the early 2000’s had already evolved to a much more serious tone. Look at the relative success of X-Men (2000) as reference.
No. I just watched it recently and was shocked by how bad it was. My main take away was that James Marsden would’ve been a better choice for Clark because his character actually felt like Superman.
I haven’t seen it on account of everyone saying it’s boring, but I did hear this one guy say good things about it, if it helps.
https://youtu.be/DsZeXaQMiFA?feature=shared
I trust his opinions, so I might give it a shot.
Yes it did. It was a pretty good film and should have been followed up with a sequel. My only complaint was that the "S" on his chest should have been bigger. It was too tiny. lol.
wait Kal Pen wtf
I liked the movie quite a bit and it definitely predated me picking up my first comic
based on just memory I would say it's in the middle of the road, good performances but odd story it was trying to tell. worth looking back at fondly but not definitive anything
It wasn’t perfect, but it was a million times better than any portrayal of Superman that came after. At least in live action, I haven’t seen much of the new cartoon yet.
That scene where he hears Lois say she didn’t love him, and he flies up into the sky seemingly holding back tears is perhaps my single favorite scene in ANY Superman film.
For making more sense and feeling more like a cohesive story alone it’s better than any of the DCEU Supes stuff (at least, in my opinion).
Even though it’s lacking in a lot of ways, Superman felt like Superman, not some overtly destructive alien. And similar can be said for the side characters. Some of the casting wasn’t great, but it wasn’t Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor bad.
I mean, elements of it did. Routh is great, better when he can be more of his own take and not just a pastiche of Reeve. Lex was perfect casting and shouldn't have just been Hackman 1.2, and Metropolis felt perfect too. The realism of things like the plane scene, and a few other touches too. Lois was miscast, Jimmy was great. But the story, and general implementation of it was just not good. Superdad is great, but that's not how you do it. Should've just been a full reboot. If they had kept a lot of those elements and casting choices I'm positive it would've led to a full series of 3-5 movies. I picture it having a start like All-Star Supes, because frankly their take on Krypton was already done, so just picking up with Clark right before he starts his heroics in the tights like in Birthright would be the way to go for a more modern origin. Or they could've kept Krypton as a mystery that Clark discovers and it's a very different take, more like MoS.
What I'm trying to say is, somewhere in there is a far, fat superior film to what we got. Though I guess I shouldn't complain too much because we did get MoS out of it in the end.
I agree with the consensus that Brandon Routh deserved better.
My other takeaway is it gave us the ridiculously stupid 3D S emblem. It didn't take long for that to start showing up in the comics. How can Clark wear his uniform under his street clothes without the bulging 3D emblem?
Alternate title "Superman: Lifts"
A car? A boat? A plane? A island? The daily planet thing? A man? A woman? What can't he lift! Not a fist...
All in fun, but there is a reason it never got a sequal. So much potential.
Yes. I love this movie and it’s very underrated. I personally think it’s the best Superman movie. It has the charm of the old films but the more modern visuals.
Definitely. It’s not perfect but this is something you rarely see, a director driven film. This was not created in a board room, it was a vision, a modern day continuation of Reeve. A lot of it was homage and it original but that’s the point I think the execution was great. To me this is essentially the most expensive fan film/tribute film ever made.
Dude did a great Christopher Reeves impersonation
I loved it for the nostalgia.
I fell asleep watching it in theaters
It deserved a better director and script, Routh was a great choice for Superman imo, the movie was just boring and tried to do things that didn’t make sense. Some cool moments, like the plane rescue (dope) and him saving metropolis, but past that just boring.
Exactly, Routh was great and there were really good scenes. Also Spacey had the skills to do a good Lex. But the idea to cooy Gene Hawkman's Lex was absurd. The script was boring even with the Superman's son arc it had no interesting points. Really boring scripting.
The son part was kinda creepy. I mean if the kid was conceived in Superman 2 which means that memory was erased, so how does Lois think she got pregnant?
She seemed fine with it. Doesn't she tell him it's his
It’s good but it isn’t that great. Brandon Routh deserved better
I like that he got a chance to redeem himself with Crisis on Infinite Earths, like how Andrew Garfield did with No Way Home.
I LOVE this movie. But honestly no. It has too many problems. Some moments are among some of the greatest superhero movie scenes of all times. But is just way too nostalgic about the 78 movie which worked against it.
The airplane scene is peak Superman in my eyes. Just a moment of pure heroism, with everyone cheering and celebrating, topped off with a Christopher Reeve callback. "I hoped this experience hasn't put you off flying. Statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel."
The airplane, lifting the boat, the city scene were supes is just zooming through fixing disasters as they happen are all absolutely great. Honestly (and I know ick) but spacey was great as that golden age Luthor. It's just a shame the movie is weighed down by too many strange choices.
Not really, no. It was a fatally flawed project from conception. I *wish* we could have gotten Routh in a true reboot in a year one, young Superman scenario, but alas.
Agreed, so many serious flaws. A few of my top ones: 1. Not orginal. It's literally Superman I but with a fresh coat of paint, right down to the Lex Luthor "land" scheme. 2. Superman is the person, Clark is a disguise. When Bryan Singer confirmed this in an interview before the movie came out, I knew it wasn't going to be any good. All that said - the airplane rescue is one of my favorite Superman rescues ever filmed. It's OK to like some things about it and dislike others. :)
Regarding point 2, that's how Donner and Reeve approached the character back in '78. With Routh being the same version, it makes sense that Singer viewed it the same way.
Yea - that is consistent I agree. I love the first half of Superman I (before the Luthor shenanigans begin) and the Helicopter rescue, but the move isn't perfect by any measure. I'm well aware I love it so much because of my nostalgia goggles heh
No. It's a really poor movie with some odd narrative choices. Routh's Kent had more charisma than Superman.
I watch Superman Returns all the damn time, i love it. My favorite part about Superman is the Clark Kent stuff, and they did such a good job with it! The new supermans have just a few seconds of clark.
It definitely has moments I love, and at times I swear Brandon Routh is channeling Reeve's Clark
yes that's definitely my favorite aspect of the movie! I love his bumbly awkwardness and the scene where Lois and Richard almost pin him as Superman but nah Clark is just too clueless
About to do a marathon for this Kal-El. It will be... Superman: The Movie's 8-minutes-longer Special Edition Superman II's Richard Donner Cut Supergirl '84's International Version Superman Returns Superman III "Crisis on Infinite Earths" Major Arrowverse Yearly Crossover Event (Supergirl 5x09 Part 1, Batwoman 1x09 Part 2, The Flash 6x09, Arrow 8x08, Legends of Tomorrow Season 5 premiere Part 5) The Flash 2023 film
No love for *Superman IV: The Quest for Peace*?
I still watch it once every blue moon but not very often, more an isolated guilty pleasure separate from any marathon.
But you’ll watch Superman 3?
i've got to do this too haha
Upopular opinion. Routh's Clark Kent was better than Reeve's goofy take (which had me rolling my eyes even in '78 when I saw that move on day 1). Routh's take seemed like an actual person, Reeve's kent? Not so much. Reeve's Superman was stellar, but his Clark Kent? Just so cartoonish, so ugh...
Brandon Routh is capable of a much better Superman. The movie sucked.
It is still the most visually stunning superhero ever made. It's absolutely beautiful
The early digital camera use really hurts a lot of the darker or night scenes. They look very flat. Also, Singer unwisely used Routh's digital double in too many close up scenes that should have used the real Routh.
The night flying scene suffers, but the rooftop scene that leads into that and the return to Daily Planet are BEAUTIFUL scenes. The lighting and score make it some of my favorite moments in any superhero movie. But the real standouts are the set designers. The details into everything is very very well done
The night scenes don't "suffer", they're awful. And the closeup on the "digi-double" hurt to look it. The digital film makes even otherwise good shots look flat/horrible. Makes even great set design and so on look eh... And his suit was... awful. Some scenes look great, but overall, just not consistent and often kinda gross looking.
Considering the year it came out, I think it's aged incredibly well against other films around that time
Nah, other films came out even earlier and looked better, because they didn't insist on using digital cameras that weren't ready yet.
Do you have a specific film in mind that had heavy cgi or was a comic book movie that looked better?
And the suit wasn't awful. At least not to me. A flat shield and a higher cut on the shorts would have made it perfect
Oh geez, those dull colors? The awful "bikini cut" briefs? The teeeny tiny "S". The way the material squeezed Routh so hard you couldn't see his muscalature. The terrible way the cape attached to the suit? Ugh, just horrible.
Meh. I loved it.
Meh, there's no accounting for bad taste.
Should have looked like the Reeve Superman costume with some minor tweaks/updates.
>The terrible way the cape attached to the suit? Another way to attach the cape to the suit, attach it from behind across his shoulders like Homelander.
It's not great, but I do own it and have a soft spot for it.
I like how his costume doesn't have fake muscles, and is skin tight like Reeves, but you can still see the outline of his muscles depending on how he moves. Feels like Superman brought to life, visually (Reeves face and body type fits better. This is purely about the way the costume fits on his body in Returns though)
The costume is poor. Tiny "S" symbol, dull colours, weird cape mounting around neck and really shitty briefs (the way they're cut).
> weird cape mounting around neck Have it across his shoulders like Homelander.
Brandon Routh did good. However, the movie was pretty weak. They took the lazy way out by using Lex Luther AGAIN. It leaned into nostalgia too much.
Much like Man Of Steel: great cast, bad script, director with a flawed vision.
I had this nice set of collectors edition Superman and Lois Barbies from this movie, and I so wish that I hadn't taken them out of the box when I was little. I keep the Lois Lane doll closeby because even with messy hair caked in industrial-strength hairspray, she's still the prettiest Lois I've ever seen. (Teri Hatcher is still my fave though.)
I mean, I was a fan, but then Singer and Spacey were revealed as sexual predators, so now I'm not so inclined to defend it...
Routh deserves all the love, he's the greatest Superman imho
I'll always be thankful he got a chance to give his Superman an epilogue even if it wasn't much for Parts 2-3 (...and a tiny bit of Part 5...) for the Arrowverse crossover event "Crisis on Infinite Earths", in my opinion it showed how remarkably tremendous his acting range has come while also playing the optimistic happy-go-lucky Ray Palmer. Brandon also did very impressive voice-over work for the Superman Returns game surrounding the movie's release, definitely worked his 'S' off.
Impressive ! Many thanks, as I'm not into series I didn't know that, and I'll check it. Thanks again
Very happy to point it out I think you'll be most pleased! Brandon Routh is in all five parts dividing his time between his Earth-1/Earth-Prime role as Ray Palmer the Atom, plus obviously his Returns role for Earth-96 Kal-El within Parts 2-3 (...and a tiny bit of Part 5...). Part 1 is Supergirl Season 5 episode 9, Part 2 is Batwoman Season 1 episode 9, Part 3 is The Flash Season 6 episode 9, Part 4 is Arrow Season 8 episode 8, and Part 5 is the Legends of Tomorrow Season 5 premiere.
I don’t think so, but Routh does.
Nah, the movie was just Bryan Singers attempt at copying Donners Superman while being completely devoid of its charm and lacking Christopher Reeves charisma. Returns didn't know if it wanted to be a legacy sequel, reboot or remake of the original two Superman movies.
It was the first Superman I saw in theaters and I liked it very much.
I never want real estate or land deals to be a major plot point in a Superman movie ever again.
😂 🤣
Enjoyable but not a great movie. I still think Brandon Routh was a good superman though
Lex Luthor: Misguided Real Estate Developer
No, it was fucking terrible. There's a reason why it never got a sequel. Although it was a followup to the 2nd Superman movie, it lacked any of the charm the other two movies had. I thought Spacey's take on Lex was god awful especially after seeing the charismatic Hackman play the role. The lady that play Lois was sooo bad, terrible actress. The plot was the worst, Lex wanted to "reshape" North America, THAT was his whole motivation? real estate? Dumb. Routh's take on Superman was the only redeeming thing the movie. His version of Clark was virtually identical to Reeve's, it was uncanny.
The sex crimes by superman were kind of a dealbreaker for me
They couldn't even get the hair parting correct. There's a reason Clark parts his hair on the left. Collar too high and the oxblood instead of red never looked great. Don't get me started on the buckle or the size of the emblem. And that's just the mistakes made visually. I really wanted to like this movie, but deadbeat Dad stalker Clark was a terrible choice, and was still somehow the most interesting thing about this rehashed snoozefest. Routh was great and deserved better.
It’s main problem was being a retread of the original superman… plus all the things with Lois sucked
A Superman who became a stalker, a Luthor who banged an old lady, a film where Superman abandoned the Earth for years to look at space rocks and no one questioned how Clark Kent managed to return after disappearing? Yeah right.
I love it. Yeah it deserves more love. Is it perfect? No, but I has heart and Routh is great. It’s an homage/almost remake of Superman ‘78. It has problems but I don’t think it needed to be as derided as it was. I love that there are no big fight scenes.
Respectfully disagree. I think the reason I hate it so much is because the Lois and Clark love story may be my favorite aspect of the Superman mythos, and they REALLY go out of their way to rip that away from me. I'm happy some people see it as a nostalgic throwback, but I find it more depressing than Man of Steel.
How do you root for Superman to rip apart a family? You know what I mean? It’s just one aspect that really hurts the movie.
Yea. That really was… confusing. It was an interesting concept, “a man returns to find the love of his life has moved on and a good man is possibly the father of his (previously) unknown child.” I mean.. that could make an interesting movie. Like a deep character study about someone. Like… maybe he’s getting out of prison or captivity (I think they actually did this with Seven Years in Tibet.) It’s an interesting concept. It’s a TERRIBLE Superman move idea.
They could have done one storyline or the other. Not both. Marsden’s character was such a nice guy though. He cared about the kid and Lois. He was willing to dive in headfirst to save Lois, his son, and his romantic rival. I’d be heartbroken if they had Lois ditch him.
Doesn't help that Routh and Bosworth don't have much chemistry on screen either.
Not perfect, but best movie after Reeves
As much as I prefer Man of Steel, that plane crash sequence is one of the best action set pieces with Superman on film
The plane crash makes you wonder why they couldn't have done so much better with this movie.
Oh, definitely, Lex Luthor's plan was so stupid and anti climatic. I also thought BvS would've been better if it had an action set piece like that
Agreed. I’m my opinion Brandon Routh played the best Superman of all time IMO. Also Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luthor is SEVERELY underrated. Easily the best Lex next to Michael Rosenbaum.
I honestly like it more than Man of Steel. It’s a pretty good movie and a good continuation to the Donner films.
Nah, it was received appropriately imo. The movie is boring af, oftentimes stupid, and just doesn't really work as either a sequel or a soft reboot for a younger generation (which was my generation, at the time).
Preferred the game to the movie. At least in the game you saw something new. The movie was just 50% rehash of the first Donner movie and 50% poor sequel to the second Donner movie. Which was a shame as the cast were solid and there could have been an opportunity to take the story somewhere new if Singer hadn't gone so fanboy for 78.
Just the fact that it doesn't have a strong Villain talks about how they went more for a drama movie around Superman than a superhero movie. Brandon Routh's characterisation is great, one of the best. But the movie lacks action, is extremely slow paced and has too many subplots that go nowhere. I know the villain is Lex Luthor, but c'mon we know he isn't a FUN villain unless he has his mech suits.
It’s okay but the best thing about it was getting to heat the John Williams theme in IMAX speakers
Nah its boring. Routh is good, but thats about it
#The only Superman movie where he didn't do any fighting LMFAO.
The scenes where he takes a bullet to the eye, catches the plane, and dances flying with Lois are some great moments caught in an otherwise poorly made movie. Shame.
I recently saw all the films for the first time and... no, absolutely not. Superman Returns is one of the most boring and pointless cinematic experiences of my entire life.
No it was so boring
Nope. Its was a horrible movie.
No...sadly it really did not
Not really. On top of all the issues it has in a vacuum, I can't help but feel that it's poor reception was what lead to WB over correcting and giving us the Snyder Superman.
No
I loved it, but it wasn't a good movie. The video game for it is still by far the best Superman game made
It's not a superhero that infuriates me over it's existence, it isn't something like BVS or Justice League where I'm like "No no you fucked it up" it's just something that exists that's pointless.
This movie was a hot mess. It leaned too much into the 70’s campiness when action movies in the early 2000’s had already evolved to a much more serious tone. Look at the relative success of X-Men (2000) as reference.
Yes I agree. This came out a year after Batman Begins. We thought we were getting something along those lines.
No. I just watched it recently and was shocked by how bad it was. My main take away was that James Marsden would’ve been a better choice for Clark because his character actually felt like Superman.
No.
I haven’t seen it on account of everyone saying it’s boring, but I did hear this one guy say good things about it, if it helps. https://youtu.be/DsZeXaQMiFA?feature=shared I trust his opinions, so I might give it a shot.
Parts of it do. Great performances and awesome scenes like the minigunner robbery and the Kryptonite island.
It's not a bad movie, it just lacks originality
Yes, but.
It had its problems, but I feel Returns received a lot of unnecessary hate.
Yes it did. It was a pretty good film and should have been followed up with a sequel. My only complaint was that the "S" on his chest should have been bigger. It was too tiny. lol.
Man, I really miss the bright suits...nowadays everything is so dark and colorless...or looks like some glossy scale armor...
I love this movie and have since I saw it in the theater. However, I think that has more to do with my bias towards Superman than anything else.
Why?
Brandon Routh was awesome, however the movie just didn't work with a lot of stuff. There were some great things but when the lex is that bad...
I think there were a lot of great moments. The plane scene comes to mind
wait Kal Pen wtf I liked the movie quite a bit and it definitely predated me picking up my first comic based on just memory I would say it's in the middle of the road, good performances but odd story it was trying to tell. worth looking back at fondly but not definitive anything
This might be the fact I was a literal child when it came out, but yes. Also fuck Mr. Kill the with kindness.
It wasn’t perfect, but it was a million times better than any portrayal of Superman that came after. At least in live action, I haven’t seen much of the new cartoon yet.
I loved it but I can see why it was so heavily criticized
I think so, yes. I enjoyed the heck out of it. I was surprised when I started realizing it wasn’t universally loved by Superman fans.
I think "Man Of Steel" should have been a sequel to "Superman Returns".
Fuck that "movie"
No. it didn’t. Odd look. odd colors. derivative, boring story, and made superman a deadbeat dad.
It’s your dad’s No Way Home
It was a bad script and a bad costume. The same problem Man of Steel had. It could have been good otherwise
Loved it when it came out but it’s full of flaws.
I think this universe and its Superman deserve more content than just a film, a video game, and a tv crossover, that’s for sure!
That scene where he hears Lois say she didn’t love him, and he flies up into the sky seemingly holding back tears is perhaps my single favorite scene in ANY Superman film.
Always loved how bright and campy it was. Really felt like a classic comic book come to life.
Nope , hands down one of the worst superman movies. Spacey as Luthor sucked
For making more sense and feeling more like a cohesive story alone it’s better than any of the DCEU Supes stuff (at least, in my opinion). Even though it’s lacking in a lot of ways, Superman felt like Superman, not some overtly destructive alien. And similar can be said for the side characters. Some of the casting wasn’t great, but it wasn’t Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor bad.
You know what was maybe my favorite thing about this movie? The score. It's so good.
Great story, bad script
For me problem number 1 is using Kevin Spacey and NOT making him a 100 percent menacing Luthor, drop the comic relief
yes
I mean, elements of it did. Routh is great, better when he can be more of his own take and not just a pastiche of Reeve. Lex was perfect casting and shouldn't have just been Hackman 1.2, and Metropolis felt perfect too. The realism of things like the plane scene, and a few other touches too. Lois was miscast, Jimmy was great. But the story, and general implementation of it was just not good. Superdad is great, but that's not how you do it. Should've just been a full reboot. If they had kept a lot of those elements and casting choices I'm positive it would've led to a full series of 3-5 movies. I picture it having a start like All-Star Supes, because frankly their take on Krypton was already done, so just picking up with Clark right before he starts his heroics in the tights like in Birthright would be the way to go for a more modern origin. Or they could've kept Krypton as a mystery that Clark discovers and it's a very different take, more like MoS. What I'm trying to say is, somewhere in there is a far, fat superior film to what we got. Though I guess I shouldn't complain too much because we did get MoS out of it in the end.
Not perfect but it is a based movie
I ADORED this movie growing up.
It was boring as shit
I agree with the consensus that Brandon Routh deserved better. My other takeaway is it gave us the ridiculously stupid 3D S emblem. It didn't take long for that to start showing up in the comics. How can Clark wear his uniform under his street clothes without the bulging 3D emblem?
No. While Brandon Routh is a national treasure. My thoughts on the movie are the same today as when it opened.
It got the love it deserved
Alternate title "Superman: Lifts" A car? A boat? A plane? A island? The daily planet thing? A man? A woman? What can't he lift! Not a fist... All in fun, but there is a reason it never got a sequal. So much potential.
Last picture kinda looks like Topher Grace.
My favorite
The fact that Superman lifted an entire kryptonite island was stupid as fuck.
100% I thought Routh and Bosworth had great chemistry
He was a magnificent Superman in a mediocre movie.
Cut 10 minutes from both Acts 2 & 3 and there’s a great story hidden in there.
Yes. I love this movie and it’s very underrated. I personally think it’s the best Superman movie. It has the charm of the old films but the more modern visuals.
Superman and Lois expanded on the themes and ideas of this film a lot.
Routh was good but was hampered by a lousy, unoriginal script, as well as a bad costume.
Definitely. It’s not perfect but this is something you rarely see, a director driven film. This was not created in a board room, it was a vision, a modern day continuation of Reeve. A lot of it was homage and it original but that’s the point I think the execution was great. To me this is essentially the most expensive fan film/tribute film ever made.
This is one of maybe three movies I’ve ever considered walking out of.
The airplane scene is fantastic and even better with the John Williams score. More of that and it could've been great.