Superman Returns with his tight blue, red and yellow outfit and his black hair helmet, ready to fight Lex Luthor and his pesky minions once again. I liked this movie and that surprised me. I guess I liked it in the same way as I liked the first two Superman movies. In fact, I kind of liked this one more, even though this one didn’t have the cheesiness factor so beloved by the Superman franchise- like that lovely poem spoken in the mind of Lois Lane when Superman brought her up for a ride in the sky in the first one: “Can you read my mind?”*The poem is below in case you’re interested.
So Brandon Routh was a pretty decent Superman. He seems a much better choice than Nicholas Cage**, who was rumored to have landed the role when Tim Burton was to direct it. Routh actually looks and sounds a lot like Christopher Reeve, which I think was a nice way to bring back Superman. Kate Bosworth on the other hand, seems totally miscast. She is a little too ‘Sandra Dee’ to be Lois Lane. Lois Lane is a tough career gal who keeps doing these crazily risky stunts to get her story, which is why Superman is always saving her. With Bosworth, I just didn’t buy it- she just isn’t spunky or feisty enough. Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey are always good, even though they could’ve been given more to work with. It seems that their talent was a bit wasted for the lines that they were given. The story was as silly as the first one. In fact, as far as Lex Luthor’s part goes- it was almost the exact same story. I didn’t mind since I hadn’t seen the first one in quite a few years and I would recommend waiting until you’ve seen this movie to go back and see the old ones. All and all, I thought it was a pretty solid blockbuster type movie. It was fun to watch and really went by fast. I hadn’t even realized it was 2 1/2 hours long until I was out of the theatre and looking at a clock. I give it 3 1/2 out of 5 butters- one for using old Brando footage as Jor-El, one for the cinematography, and 1 1/2 for bringing back Superman and making me feel like a kid again.

*Lois Lane's poem: “Can you read my mind? Do you know what it is that you do to me? I don't know who you are. Just a friend from another star. Here I am, like a kid out of school. Holding hands with a god. I'm a fool. Will you look at me? Quivering. Like a little girl, shivering. You can see right through me. Can you read my mind? Can you picture the things I'm thinking of? Wondering why you are... all the wonderful things you are. You can fly. You belong in the sky. You and I... could belong to each other. If you need a friend... I'm the one to fly to. If you need to be loved... here I am. Read my mind.”

**I can’t imagine who thought that Nicholas Cage would have been a good Superman. Isn’t he just way too hairy to be playing the clean cut man of steel? I can just picture the hair sprouts from the collar and cuffs coming from the blue tights, or the rashes that would incur after so much body shaving when wearing that thing- ewe.