Superman Returns (PG-13)
DC Comics; DC Database; IMDb; Legendary; Rotten Tomatoes; Superman Wiki; TV Tropes; Warner Bros.; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Google Play; iTunes; Max; Movies Anywhere; Vudu; YouTube

Caution: spoilers.

This came out in 2006, but I didn't see it until 2021. It's ostensibly a follow-up to "Superman II," and just pretends Superman III and IV never happened. But I'm not sure if it can be canonically considered a sequel to the Richard Donner movies or not (even if it does use the same theme music). It stars Brandon Routh as Superman/Clark Kent, and I do think he looks a bit like Christopher Reeve. Um... I want to say that I kind of liked this movie better than the first two (and definitely more than the latter two). I feel like I should apologize to die-hard fans of the first two movies, but I just can't help thinking this one has a better story and production values. Plus Lex Luthor is a much less cartoonish villain, this time.

Anyway, when the movie starts, Superman has been away from Earth for five years (and "coincidentally," Clark has been away from Metropolis for the same amount of time). He had gone to look for the remains of his homeworld, but we don't get to see anything he found (unless we're supposed to count the opening credits, which includes plenty of space debris, but we don't actually see Superman). Meanwhile, on Earth, Lex has been out of prison for some time, and conned a rich old lady out of her fortune, upon her deathbed. (I'm not sure how long he'd been living with her before that.) Now he has a team of people he'd met in prison working for him, as well as a henchwoman named Kitty (Parker Posey). They go to Superman's Fortress of Solitude, where Lex steals several crystals he intends to use in his latest evil scheme.

When Clark gets back to Metropolis and resumes his old job at the Daily Planet, he learns that Lois (Kate Bosworth) is in a "prolonged engagement" to a Perry White's nephew, Richard (James Marsden), and they have a five-year-old son named Jason. So of course he's kind of broken-hearted about that, but he accepts it as best he can. Meanwhile, Lex's first test of his plan to create land using the crystals causes a massive blackout. Lois wants to investigate that, but Perry (Frank Langella) insists she pursue a story about Superman's return, instead. Naturally, she does her own thing, anyway, and traces the blackout to its epicenter... which leads to her and Jason being captured by Lex. And when Lex carries out his plan for real, he embeds one of the crystals in a cylinder made of kryptonite, so that the land that grows from it would be lethal to Superman. It also causes a lot of destruction in Metropolis, which Superman does his best to deal with, while Richard flies a seaplane out to the yacht where Lois and Jason are being held. Unfortunately, before he can rescue them, the yacht gets destroyed, and Superman has to save all of them, before going to confront Lex and his henchmen. But Lois is aware of the kryptonite problem, and insists Richard take them to the island Lex has grown, to save Superman.

Well, I'm leaving out some details throughout the story, but I liked that the whole thing had a more serious feel than the old movies. It's definitely a 21st century film, which I think is a good thing. And... I don't know what else to say.