Loved Superman Returns

While I can understand how people might be bored expecting an all out action movie, Superman III+IV were comedy and action movies and that's why they sucked, especially IV. Superman fundamentally is and always shall be a human story. So for Superman Returns they pretend III and IV never happened. Superman Returns is technically Superman III.

Superman gave up his powers in Superman II so that he could have a normal human relationship with Lois Lane. Both to be devoted to her and not go off saving the world all the time (hence equal) and to have sex. But it's never that easy. Zod shows up and the world needs Superman. He is mankind's hope. He gives up his personal happiness to be the hero that he is. Hence he is the worlds savior.

(BTW I have to give props to the TV series for addressing the sex issue, imagine Superman getting some and then in the heat of the moment bam!, "Oh $..!+, sorry for breaking your pelvis honey". Sure he could have sex but he could never really let go and have at it and lose himself in the passion of the moment.)

Anyway, after that movie astronomers discover the supposed location of star where superman came from and Superman goes in search of signs of survivors from his destroyed home world. It's a two year journey one way and hence by the time he gets back it's been five years.

He left to find someone like him, to not feel so alone. To not feel the weight of the world squarely on his shoulders. And by the end of the movie he finds out he isn't alone. He finds the very person and purpose he has been looking for here on earth.

The script might have been better but to you can't satisfy everyone. The movie is primarily a rebirth and foundation for more movies. The big problem for me was everyone looking so young, specifically Lois but let me say she is way prettier than Margo Kitter ever was.

I've always wondered about Superman's powers. I think his powers and abilities are not strength (though he is very strong) but rather the ability to warp the laws of physics. Specifically if you think in "Star Trek" terms he has... the ability to change the mass of an object (i.e. "inertial dampening" and magnifying). He can impart "structural integrity", so if he carries someone flying at supersonic speed they won't burn up from friction or freeze to death and he can lift cars by their roofs without necessarily ripping off the canopy, or why his clothes don't get torn up too badly even if they are a super advanced material. As far as his X-ray vision and heat vision he is sensing and affecting subatomic particles maybe in ways similar to his inertial and integrity abilities.

As far as X-ray vision he doesn't generate X-rays as that would actually be lethal. More than likely he might be affecting neutrinos or another subatomic particle to artificially increase their mass in a harmless way such that they give off infrared radiation when they collide with ordinary matter which he can see and detect. Whatever radiation superman is projecting it would have mass and behave like X-rays and hence lead would be too dense.

To fly he isn't generating anti gravity but rather gripping the fabric of space in some special way. If he did generate anti gravity then lifting something like the artificial island the size of New Jersey in the latest film or moving something like the moon would affect earths orbit. It would also mean he could only push up and not sideways or down. Not to say that he couldn't produce artificial gravity but for flying there is just more to it than that.

Lastly he gets his powers from the yellow sun. By and large we are not really talking about visible light (except for maybe a small portion) but rather his powers come from subatomic particles like neutrino which are produced in a sun. A red sun is a colder star than a yellow star, so it is entirely possible that back on Krypton Superman's people still had the same abilities but they just weren't as profound.

For all we know Krypton might have been a white dwarf (dead star, extremely dense, extreme gravity) circling a red star, hence an inherent ability to modify the laws of physics would be vital.