Superman returns is an attempt to relaunch the superman franchise in light of the recent success of the Batman resurrection with Batman Begins. Rather than follow the Batman Begins model of starting completely again from scratch, Superman returns picks up the story with Superman returning to earth after taking a holiday to visit Krypton, and it is vaguely inspired or leading on from the original films although how much is unclear.

Anyway Superman (Brandon Routh) returns from his jaunt to find the world has moved on without him, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) has been released from jail and is busy conning old women out of their fortunes to fund his nefarious schemes, and Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) is now nearly married to Richard White (James Marsden) nephew of Daily Planet Editor Perry White (Frank Langella) and has a son Jason White (Tristan Lake Leabu). Lois has also won the Pulitzer prize for an piece entitled “why the world doesn’t need Superman”. Lex has made off with his newly acquired millions to find Superman’s fortress of solitude, once there he has a chat with Jor-El (A Cgi reconstructed image of the late great Marlon Brando) and makes off with Superman’s magic crystals.

The Kryptonians technology was apparently all crystal based and so Lex has a plan to use this to create an artificial island out in the Atlantic coincidently sinking most of the states under water.

Superman’s alter ego Clark Kent is back at his old job though the only person that seems to have noticed he was missing is Jimmy Olsen (Sam Huntington).

Lex when fiddling with the crystal technology causes a massive power loss or emp pulse or some such that knocks out all electronics in Metropolis as well as screwing with the maiden flight of an experimental suborbital passenger craft piggybacking on a jet. On board the jet is Lois. So no sooner has superman got back into town he has to rush off to save Lois and the rest of the people on the jet from crashing, queue high altitude acrobatics and special effects wizardry.

Anyway nearly everyone is happy that the man of steel is back and all the press covers the return. Lois is not too happy and feels the blackout and resulting plane malfunction is a more important story, she is overruled by Perry and has to try and get an interview with Superman.

I think this film could have done with a bit more developing the main story line is alright paper thin and mostly borrowed from the first Superman film, in addition all the stuff around it is fairly poorly developed. The Clark Alter ego could more or less not be there he has no real role in the film apart from to become Superman at opportune moments. No one seems to notice that he returns the same moment as Superman but then I suppose that is his purpose to blend into the background and not be noticed. The Superman Lois dynamic is reasonably well done with Richard White the current boyfriend and supposedly the father of her child adding some tension. The kid is another element of the story and there is some question as to whose son he really is.

One part that was a bit disappointing was Spaceys Luthor I had high hopes for him as the criminal genius but he comes of as a bit whiney, petulant, and crazy rather than brilliant. He has some good lines now and then (most of them were in the trailer) but in the end he seems to not be what I would imagine Luthor to be.

There is very little background the implication is that it was taken care of in the original films but given that its unclear where in the films this is set and at which point in the original story its picking up. For the most part this doesn’t matter but it might have made the film more rounded if there was more background.

Some of the set Superman stopping crime or natural disasters are very well done they underline how tough he normally is by having him stop a bullet with his eye. One thing I like is how they have depicted the balancing act when thing are really going wrong. He can’t save everyone and he is constantly flitting backwards and forwards for the good of the many.

The special effects are generally quite good, though I was a bit disappointed by the use of the CGI Brando they spent a lot of effort to recreate a reasonably convincing version then they spend most of the time looking away from it or obscuring it in frosty crystals.

Brandon Routh is fairly good as the man of steel managing to pull of the tricky invulnerable super hero and mild mannered reporter dichotomy.

Kate Bosworth is ok as Lois with good chemistry between her and the two love interests.

James Marsden is good as Lois’s current flame, in the xmen series he often seemed to blend into the background but he seems to have much more of a presence in this role.

Kevin Spacey has his moments as Lex Luthor but as I mentioned I don’t think he pulls it off.

Most of the non main characters a fairly two dimensional Lex Luthor’s henchmen barely get names let alone lines. Jimmy Olsen has some dialog and so does Perry White but mostly they are background for the main characters.

It is quite a fun film with some nice action and special effects set pieces which is all that saves from being another in a long line of failed super hero films. Some of the bits where it works best are when Superman’s out their doing his thing the rest of the time it is somewhat let down by some dodgy performances and somewhat weak story.

Still, enjoyable if not exceptional in any way.

I have a bit of a problem with the setting of this film. Its not a remake, but its really not clear at what point it deviates (if at all) from the original Superman films.

It all runs as pretty standard, Superman returns (shocking) from a long leave of absence just in time to go and save several people including Lois from impending doom. This is, of course, caused by Lex Luthor getting up to mischief.

I don't normally pick films apart too much, it spoils the immersion, but one notable thing was that in a fairly blatent product placement move the plane used as a carrier for a rocket craft was Boeing's new 777 Dreamliner.

This is, for want of a better word, bollocks. The Dreamliner is a small, light, fuel efficient jumbo for point to point trips as opposed to hub transportation. The small size and composite construction make it a very very bad choice as a carrier aircraft. There's a reason that NASA uses the 747 as a carrier. Its big and has a high load carrying capacity. What makes it worse is that the interior passenger cabin is apparently intact and full of press. If we ignore the fact that it would have had to be structurally modified to the point where you couldn't fit a full width cabin in, what sort of idiot puts the press in a carrier aircraft? They ahould be in a chase plane where they would be safe, have an actual view of the thing launching (the point...) and don't have to wait for the lumbering carrier to get up to launch altitude...

(Ahem)

Anyway, back to the film. The plot is of the same calibre as Superman plots generally are. No problem there. I was very disappointed by Spacey as Lex... he just doesn't have the deranged genius thing down at all. If you've seen the trailer, you've seen him play one bit quite well. Unfortunately that was pretty much the only time he does so.

Overall, I wasn't particularly impressed with this film. If I was on a plane and it was the film I'd watch it, but I wouldn't choose to do so in most other circumstances. Of course, given there's a plane falling out of the air, I doubt they'd be showing it anyway...