Is it a bird, is it a plane, is it a new, younger Superman? Yes, the Man Of Steel is back in this adventure that sort-of picks up where the Christopher Reeve-starring Superman II left off in 1980. Our hero in the red pants and blue tights (Routh) has been off sulking in space for a few years, and returns to Metropolis to discover Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has a new man and a son, and that bad guy Lex Luthor (Spacey) is up to his old criminal tricks.
While it’s not edge-of-the-seat stuff, there are a few jaw-dropping sequences and nice slices of humour throughout. Routh, however, is no Reeve (even if he looks uncannily like the late actor), and one can’t help but wonder if this would have been better with either Smallville’s junior Superman, Tom Welling, in the lead, or one of the actors originally considered for the role (Hayden Christensen, The Vampire Diaries’ Ian Somerhalder and Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki among them).
Is Superman Returns suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
This is aimed at children over the age of 12. There’s nothing really scary here, just a few violent moments.
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