by The Duke

Created on: February 12, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

In the immediate aftermath of Superman 2, astronomers have discovered the remnants of a planet they believe is (or used to be) Krypton. Superman promptly disappears to investigate himself, with no explanation and the world needs to adjust to his absence.

Five years later, a meteor hits the Kent farm once again. Martha Kent finds that her "adopted" son, Clark has returned. Clark has to re-enter the human world once more, alongside his alter ego, Superman. This is not as easy as it first appears, despite being given his job again at the Daily Planet by Perry White.

The only other real piece of his personal life, Lois Lane, proves to be a lot more complicated. Lois has moved on, so much so that she's now a happily married woman with a child of her own to raise. It's not too long though before Lois and Superman meet again, after Lex Luthor inadvertently and indirectly causes the plane that Lois is on to lose power and plummet towards the ground. This causes Lois to question her feelings towards Superman, which are not as positive as before, clearly shown in her Pulitzer prize winning piece "Why the world does not need Superman".

Fortuitously, Superman's return also coincides with Lex Luthor's next big attempt at world domination. Luthor has been to Superman's Fortress of Isolation, stolen some of Superman's crystals and is using these for his own gain.

Superman Returns is a worthy addition to the franchise and is set after the events of Superman 2. It appears that the director, Bryan Singer, has ignored anything that happened in the third and fourth Superman movies (although this is not really specifically stated). This is a wise move in my opinion, given their poor quality. Bryan Singer, famously a huge Superman fan, has been extremely faithful to Richard Donner's original, even gaining approval from the original's director and subsequently making use of archive material (specifically shots of Marlon Brando) and getting John Williams on board to do the score (which also consists a lot of original Superman pieces). Superman Returns also manages to pay homage to "Superman: The movie" by having a similar title sequence to the original and closing in a similar manner.

Unlike, say, the most recent X-Men movie or even Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the plot for Superman Returns is fairly basic, but doesn't suffer for it. Breaking the story into three separate strands (Superman/Clark's return, Lois's reaction to the return and Luthor's return as an arch-villain)

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