Countdown to Superman: Superman Returns (2006)

 Twenty or so years later Legendary Pictures revives the Superman series. Complete with opening credits just like the Salkind movies and John Williams' score.  Bryan Singer is one of our producers.

Brando is back, posthumously, using some of the same lines/voice tracks we would also see/hear in the Donner Cut of Superman II (out the same year).

Also, back are Noel Neill and Jack Larson (Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, respectively, from the TV series of Superman), and weirdly enough, Martha Kent is back too, who was supposed to have been dead in Superman IV.

Oh, the plot. Ok, so Superman has been gone for five years, seeking out the remains of Krypton, looking for any survivors. Lex Luthor married a tycoon (played by the above mentioned Noel Neill), and Lois has a Pulitzer Prize for writing about how we don't need Superman anymore. Oh, and a five year old son. 

Lex is played, rather well, really, by Kevin Spacey. Spacey is *problematic* but damn, he is great here. While he is certainly channeling Gene Hackman, he is 

Brandon Routh is not just a good Superman, he is a good Clark Kent in the style of Christopher Reeve. He is wearing blue contact lens as Superman, which is a nice touch.

Both actors embody their predecessors fairly perfectly. It goes beyond saying the only actor who can pull off Brando as Jor-El is dead, CGI Brando.

The movie is good, better than I remembered to be honest, it just doesn't bring anything new to the table. It has "rebound relationship" energy about it, which was never fair to Brandon Routh. He really redeems himself in the Arrowverse. The movie has the problem of being slow and a little boring in places. 

Sadly, I never bought Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane. I mean, she is a good actress, just not as Lois. Parker Posey, though, is great as always. I know she can be an acquired taste, but she is great.

The special effects are good, what you would expect from the 2000s, but this look really good. The first Superman movie had the tag line "You Will Believe a Man Can Fly," and this one does exactly that, but it takes a lot more than special effects to tell a story, and this might be a good case in point. 

BTW. HOW is that Lois, who historically has a penchant for getting into trouble, lived for 5 years without Superman? I guess Lex was still in prison. 

I do like the idea of the Fortress of Kryptonite, very Lex. 

The movie's ending scene is very much the same as one of the Christopher Reeve's one. 

Cameos

I mentioned Noel Neill and Jack Larson already. Brandon Routh would later go on to play Ray Plamer "The Atom" in the Arrowverse to what I felt was his redemption arc. He also plays an older Superman in the Arrowverse. This Superman is a combination of this Superman and the Kingdom Come Superman. 

The "Gotham Knights" baseball team is a nice touch in the post Batman-movies world. And Perry White's "Great Ceaser's Ghost!" was fun as well. 

Jason, Lois and Superman's son, suffers from asthma, which I think is a nod to Christopher Reeve himself who suffered from it as a child. 

There are also plenty of scenes in this movie that feel cribbed right out of Grant Morrison's and Frank Quitely's "All Star Superman." No surprise, it was a big hit back then. 

The biggest cameo is, of course, the Salkin Superman movies look and feel. This is part love letter, part homage. 

This movie, such as it is, marks the end of the first "Cinematic Universe"that began in 1978.