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You know, I initially enjoyed Superman Returns. It's a fantastic looking film, and at times it feels like a classic Superman flick. But then there are just too many issues that sink it for me.
-The basic plot has been done before. Lex Luthor given a real estate scam as his evil scheme? Seen it. That said, I absolutely LOVED Kevin Spacey as Lex. Guy was frightening, and the seething HATE in his performance is impressive.
-Lois Lane. Lois has none of the spiky personality that her character is known for. She's just a lovestruck little girl here instead of the tough lady reporter that every other version of Superman gave us. Plus the actress is too young looking. I don't believe this woman had a child.
-Brandon Routh is alright as Superman, but he has almost no dialogue in most of the film, so we get no sense of him as a character. Clark Kent is nearly a mute in his short screen time.
-None of the characters are really well fleshed out, except Lex. The film just expects us to care about them based on past films, and that's lazy.
-The plot is a total violation of the character of Superman/Clark Kent. If this is supposed to replace Superman 3 and 4, it makes NO sense that he would leave earth totally unprotected for years after Zod's invasion in 2. He could have flown to space and back to earth in a matter of HOURS. Superpowers! And it also makes no sense that he wouldn't have known that Lois was pregnant after their night together. Superpowers! He could have either seen it with his x-ray vision or heard the child's heartbeat, right? And I'm sorry, the big ol' farmboy who was raised in the heartland of America wouldn't have left his pregnant girlfriend. Making Superman the world's strongest deadbeat dad was lame.
-Finally, there was NO action. Like at all. We got the Super Jesus metaphor, we got the adoption metaphor, what we didn't get was Supes throwing down with a bad guy.
Man of Steel was a vast improvement. It had a fresh take on Clark/Superman, giving us a new version that doesn't also contradict what we know of the character. It had some fascinating glimpses of Kryptonian society, which was really well thought out. It had some edge of your seat action scenes, the first time he flies is pure joy, and yes, it had it's divisive ending that some really hated, but I think it will pay off in the sequel.