Superman Returns Review

Cast: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden, Tristan Leabu, Sam Huntington

Plot: The movie starts with a planet deep in space exploding in a supernova. This planet is called Krypton, and because of the explosion, tiny pieces of this planet have mutated and become an element known as Kryptonite. Meanwhile on Earth, an elderly woman lay on her death bed with a man beside her. She is telling him how much he means to her, and is leaving him all of her fortunes and possessions, to this man in the shadows, a man named, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey). But, in a spacey (wow, what a pun) farm land, there is another elderly woman (this one alive and kickin') washing dishes by her window when something shoots out of space. She goes to the crash sight to find her son, Clark (Brandon Routh), returning from a exploration mission. She greets him and takes him back to her house. But back to Lex Luthor, he finds the "Fortress of Solitude", where he steals a crystal and is greeted by Superman's father who tells Lex (of course he doesn't know he's Lex) all that the crystal can do, how it can destroy yet create matter. So Lex is on his way with his wonderful minions to use this crystal to their advantage. Meanwhile, Clark Kent is returning to his town of Metropolis to his job at the Daily Planet. There he sees his old friend Jimmy Olsen (Sam Huntington) and Jimmy welcomes Clark back and all that. Meanwhile, on a plane escorting a space shuttle, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) is aboard asking questions for the Daily Planet. Back with Lex Luthor, he’s in his basement where there is a play city and he is gonna demonstrate what happens when you put the crystal in water. So they cut a little piece of the crystal, and are ready to put it in water. Back at the Daily Planet, Clark goes over to Lois’ desk, and see’s a Pulitzer Prize of her article, “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman”. As you can tell he isn’t happy about that. But he still looks around and sees a picture of Lois with a young child, Jason (Tristan Leabu), and Lois’ new fiancé, Cyclops! (Ok, it’s not really the character Cyclops, but the actor who plays Richard White in this movie, James Marsden, also played Cyclops in the X-Men films. So if you don’t mind, I’m gonna call him Cyclops for the rest of the review.) So Jimmy tells Clark about how Lois got engaged to Cyclops and Clark isn’t very happy.

Meanwhile, back in the basement with Lex Luthor and his minions, the piece of crystal they cut is put into water and the power suddenly goes out. But not just in the house, everywhere, the power is out. Including, the plane that holds Lois and the space shuttle. Back there, the pilots of both the shuttle and airplane are in panic, and back at Mission Control, their power is out as well. The power comes back and they think everything is alright. They try to abort the mission, but the shuttle won’t let them and is still counting down. So the shuttle goes off and takes the plane with it and they blast crazy fast. Back with Clark and Jimmy, Clark sees it on the news and knows what he needs to do. Back on the plane, everyone is in panic and they are almost going into space. But (dun dun dun dun) Superman is here to save the day. He detaches the shuttle and throws it into space, but the plane is going crazy fast down to Earth. So he chases after it. He trys to grab it, but the wing falls off, then the other wing falls off. So he grabs the front and brings it down slowly to the ground in a baseball field. He goes on the plane and makes sure everyone is alright and Lois notices Superman, who she once loved, has returned. The newspapers go crazy with articles after that. Meanwhile, Lex is planning to use the crystals he has to create a continent. But he is scared Superman will try to stop this, so he has a plan. Back in Metropolis, a woman’s car is going out of control. Superman saves her and she is grateful. But while that was going on, Lex stole a large amount of Krytonite from the local museum. They go back to their lair to regroup. So then some other stuff happens with Superman and Lois like him taking her into the sky and all that. Then, Lois is on her way to the Pulitzer Prize awards ceremony for her, and while on the way, she wants to stop by someone’s house to get an interview about the story of the recent blackout. While there with little Jason, she sees a boat. She hears music playing so she decides to go onto the boat.

While on the boat, her and little Jason search for the person, but find no one. While searching, the boat begins to move. Lois and Jimmy are scared and try to run to the entrance. While trying to run, they are intercepted by Lex Luthor coming out of his bathroom, brushing his teeth. So, since she is there, he captures her. They start arguing, and then Lois tells him to give her an interview. He agrees and he tells her his master plan on how to use the crystal to make a continent that will wipe out most of North America and a bit of Africa and kill billions of people. Of course, they’re scared. So, Lex pulls out his enriched piece of Krytonite to further explain. He finds that little Jason has a certain reaction, and wonders who’s the father of Jason. Lois is sure Cyclops is, but Lex isn’t so sure. He puts the Krytonite closer for a minute, but nothing happens, so he starts on his master plan. He goes to the top deck with some minions and leaves one there to watch Lois and Jason. Lex inserts a crystal into a large whole in the Krytonite and launches it into the ocean. While in the ocean, it expands and is ready to create the continent. Back on the lower deck with Lois and Jason, the minion is playing some piano with Jason, while Lois tries to sneak a fax to tell her coordinates to Cyclops who is at the Daily Planet. The power suddenly goes out (due to the crystal’s affect) and so does the power to the whole city. The power comes back on, and most of the fax made it through, but the minion found out about it, and picked up Lois and threw her across the room. He came closer to her, about to hurt her, when suddenly, THE PIANO JASON WAS PLAYING FLIES ACROSS THE ROOM AND SMASHES THE MINION AGAINST THE WALL! Lois looks over, expecting Superman, but only sees Jason, arms stretched, most likely thinking, “Is that Cyclops’ child?” Lois tries to run with Jason to the top deck, but it soon intercepted by Lex and put into a room. Meanwhile, back at the Daily Planet, Cyclops, Clark, and Jimmy receive the fax and know its from Lois due to the handwriting. So Cyclops takes a water plane that he owns and flies to them. At this time, Lex and his minions are already on the already forming continent. Back in Metropolis, a huge earthquake is shaking the city (because of the crystal/kryptonite formation in the ocean) and destroying buildings and such. So Superman must save all of them. Then he goes back to save Lois. There with Lois, Cyclops opens the door to the room they are in. They are happy to see each other, but a spike flies up from underneath them from the forming continent and takes the boat up.

While the boat is going up, it’s splitting. And the half they are in submerges. Poor Cyclops, first he dies in water in X3, and now he is submerged underwater with his fiancé and child about to die. Dude seriously, stay away from water. Well anyway, Superman comes, saves them, then he flies to where Lex is. Cyclops, Lois, and Jason fly away in their watercraft. Back with Lex, Superman comes to try to stop him, but Lex pulls out a huge chunk of Krytonite, stabs Superman with it, and breaks some into Superman. They kick Superman’s natural Krytonian ass, and then throw him into the ocean. But alas, Lois, Cyclops, and Jason know about Lex’s Kryponite, so they fly back to help Superman. They get him out of the water, and takes the Kryptonite out of him. He must go destroy the continent. So he beams the source with his heat vision, then carries the freed continent away into space (Lex and his only surviving minion fly away in a helicopter.) But while Superman does this, he becomes week, due to the large amount of Kryptonite in the continent. So he falls, and lands in a park. The emergency physicians find him, and take him to surgery. They remove the final piece of Kryptonite located in his body, and he is put in critical condition. Lois visits him, and kisses him and all that. Then alas, Superman has escaped the hospital later that night. He is in Jason’s room, and says the words his father said to him. The audience now knows that Jason is SUPERBOY! Then Superman flies away.

My Comments: This movie was pretty good, but it was a bit late. It’s a sequel to a movie that came out a long time ago. But anyway, it’s still a pretty good film. Brandon Routh is a pretty good Superman, but just looks too small to be Superman. The special effects are good, and the story is interesting. So overall, it’s a good movie for Superman fans out there. Superman Returns gets 4 pieces of Kryptonite Lex Luthor stole from a local museum in Metropolis, out of 5.

-Zam