Superman Returns 2006 Directed by: Bryan Singer Cast: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey

Written by: Ricardo Barberini January 2, 2007

We all need fantasy in our life every now and then.  Otherwise life would be too glum.  Some fantasize by reading books and imagining themselves as heroes or heroines of the novel while others fantasize by thinking of sex symbols while making love to their wives, husbands or partners.

Some of us read comics about Superheroes such as Batman, Superman and Justice League of America.  Movies provide a wonderful medium for fantasy and Superman along with Batman and other Superheroes have been providing us with a nice happy dose of fantasy since our grandfathers' times.

In this movie Superman returns after a five year hiatus, to find a different world.  Lois Lane has a boy and is living with the assistant editor of the Daily Planet.  The dismayed Superman finds that Lex Luthor has, once again, gotten away from justice and is now planning another grand scheme to destroy half of the planet and make himself the master of the World.  A Superman movie would not be complete without a dose of Kryptonite and here Superman gets a mega dose of it when Lex Luthor combines it with one of the crystals that he has stolen from Superman’s North Pole Fortress of Solitude to create a new land mass near the eastern seaboard of the United States.  This new continent will, in time, grow and destroy most of the United States making Lex the great ruler of the world. Superman rushes to the rescue and as usual is initially defeated by the forces of evil only to win the day again with the help of Lois’s son whom he discovers is really his son from when they were together over five years ago.

Brandon Routh proved a worthy successor to Christopher Reeve.  He even looks and acts like Christopher did.  Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, Frank Langella as Perry White and Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olson gave acceptable performances.  Kate Bosworth came on as rather feisty compared to Margot Kidder who displayed that inner vulnerability which in later life almost destroyed her life.

I have always liked Kevin Spacey.  I did not frankly like him as a bald headed Lex Luthor but I guess we all have to make a living.

We give this movie.  It is definitely worth seeing.