Superman Returns A Movie Review	MPAA Rated - PG-13 It's 2:34 Long A Review by The Dude on the Right

"Superman Returns" gives us a world in which Clark Kent/Superman (Brandon Routh) has been away for five years. It seems some astronomers found the planet Krypton, and Clark decided he needed to do some soul-searching and see if there was any chance of his family not really being gone, but alas Clark is still left wondering if he is the only one of his kind in the universe. And so, Clark finds himself back in Metropolis, back with his job at The Daily Planet, but things aren’t the same as when he left them. He even wonders if Superman is needed anymore, thanks in the most part to an editorial that Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) wrote questioning if the world needs Superman. It seems Superman left Lois as sort of woman scorned.

Also in the meantime, Clark finds out that Lois has a son and that she is engaged to Richard White (James Marsden). But just as quickly as Clark wonders about Superman’s place in the world, Superman is called back into action, in part thanks to his longtime nemesis, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), even though no one realizes this, even Lex. It seems for this movie, that while Superman was away looking for his old planet, Lex was able to find Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, learned a lot about those magical crystals of Superman’s, and hatches a plan to build a new continent because it’s always about having prime real estate. Again, kryptonite becomes a problem for Superman, but a woman will save him from it, Superman will save the day, and it will be debated which kiss actually saves Superman’s life.

Now as much as I did sort of like the total klutziness when Christopher Reeve was playing Clark Kent, I totally appreciated the fact that Bryan Singer didn’t make Clark as much of a goofball. Sure, he had some moments, but by not being nearly as clumsy, that helped to keep the movie with the more serious tone that I have been liking of late in my comic book movies. As far as Brandon Routh, I thought he did a fine job as Clark and as Superman, especially with the plot line he was given. You see, unlike the Superman movies you might remember, for this one Clark is really confused, and Brandon did well showing this. I also found Kate Bosworth’s version of Lois Lane refreshing versus the version played by Margot Kidder. Kate’s Lois was much more, well, reporter-like, rather than the sort of scatter-brained version of Lois Margot had to work with. And probably most refreshing about this take on the Superman franchise is that Lex Luther is actually a villain, rather than just a goof with a thing for real estate. Part of that goes to the character they gave him, but part of that also goes to a great job by Kevin Spacey showing that Lex can, and probably should be, truly evil, especially when your plot for world domination involves the killing of billions of people.

I will admit "Superman Returns" is a tad long, clocking in slightly over two and a half hours, and some of that could have been trimmed by getting rid of some of the scenic/artsy-ness of the film, but it doesn’t really hurt it much. The addition of Lois’ child was an interesting twist, but it really pulled things together at the end and nicely sets up a follow-up film. And so in wrapping this review up I will just put things like this: If you are looking for more of a campy film like the first Christopher Reeve version, you probably won’t like this take on the Superman character. But if you are like me and have been enjoying the comic book adaptations that take themselves seriously, my guess is you will enjoy "Superman Returns." It’s a solid 4 stars out of 5 for "Superman Returns."

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!