I couldn't agree with you more, this was a Superman film for manic depressives.

It really seems like that. I actually have no problem with more 'realistic', and less child targeted super hero movies. I prefer that type of thing, if an action movie doesn't take itself seriously, it is no good to me. But it doesn't have to be boring and depressing and everything be so underplayed. Those old 70s/80s Superman films still had some darkness to them, it has terrorists trying to blow up a huge bomb in Paris, a chemical factory fire that could wipe out millions of people, the cold hearted murder of some astronauts, a madman stealing nuclear missiles, a woman falling from a skyscraper, a money obsessed corporate scumbag blackmailing and conniving to get his way, etc.. Most of that stuff is really happening in this crazy world today, and those films had plenty of real and dark stuff. But Superman saves the day which is the whole point of the character. And it wasn't cheesy either. They made great films even with dodgy background screens and toy sized models etc, they can do so much more now but the stories and screenplays are just so dire. It makes no sense to me. All the talented people in the world, and they end up with a story like that...

It is. Even a year later I'm still amazed.

I don't have any strong feelings either way, though I think Zach Snyder is an incompetent director and anyone who's expecting Justice League to be any better are deluding themselves. I think it's rather telling that the studio is having a hell of a time getting Affleck's Batman off the ground.

I hope people are finally realising how good Superman Returns is, now that Snyder's miserable efforts have shown exactly how not to approach Superman.

Returns has its share of melancholy, but its offset by showing the joy and heroism of Superman - especially during the jet-rescue - one of the finest action scenes ever put to film. You need to show the awesomeness of being a superhero if you're going to show the miserable side of the job - which is all Snyder cares about in his attempt to ape Nolan.

It has problems - Bosworth's Lois is dry, charmless and moody (Amy Adams is better) and the Superkid subplot is annoying, but other than that the film has a great central portrayal by Brandon Routh, who captures the pain of Superman's immortality curse, kicks ass in the action scenes, and is uncannily Reeves-like when he's goofy Clark Kent. Spacey is great as Luthor (much better than bratty Eisenberg) and there are nice comic flourishes from Parker Posey.

Singer totally gets it, he even imported the iconic Williams score. Snyder has no clue. WB backed the wrong horse with him, and their rush to build a DC universe has backfired.

i wish i could agree with you but i thought superman returns was pretty awful. i tried watching it again recently and could not get through it. routh was dull as superman, he had zero chemistry with bosworth. did not care for the superchild storyline or clark's attempts to undermine lois' relationship with her new partner, spacey's luthor was underdeveloped, and clark as a awkward goof is very old hat. i just found it cheesy.

regarding the original post, i think bvs is what happens when you put a director at the helm that does not get who superman is.

@Drooch said:

I hope people are finally realising how good Superman Returns is, now that Snyder's miserable efforts have shown exactly how not to approach Superman.

I'll admit that I have only a passing interest in superhero movies. I'm old enough to have seen the 1978 Superman movie in the theater and I enjoyed it as a kid. (Though more memorable than the movie to me was the pizza parlor we ate at before the movie.) As such, I know there's a lot of nostalgia for that portrayal of Superman. And I think that's why I find Superman Returns so forgettable.

Bryan Singer was TOO faithful to the Donner/Reeves film, imo, so that Returns felt more like a charcoal rubbing than a film in its own right. Routh resembled Reeves and did his level best to mimic his behavior. Spacey was a decent, more threatening Lex, though the portrayal want so different from Hackman's that at times you couldn't help comparing them. And the plot was so overwrought that I felt it actually worked against itself. (A kryptonite island?) In the end, and though I own it on Blu-ray, I've watched it only once.

Snyder HAS no original ideas. As you said, all he can do is ape Nolan and produce pretty pictures. His most successful comic book film was Watchmen, which was a panel-by-panel recreation of the novel.

What the franchise needs is a director that can ignore ALL of the DCU films made so far, including the Nolan, Donner, and Burton movies and strike a tone both visually and thematically different if they want fans to embrace Superman again. Copying won't cut it.