Superman Returns opened yesterday. It stars Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth as Louis Lane.  It will blow away every other movie at the box office this weekend. Here is a review of the film I came across by Scott Weinberg that is a bit mixed. Almost every other review has been very positive.  If you have seen the film then please comment on it below.

Here are some exerpts from Weinberg’s review:

I honestly can’t remember the last movie that tore me right down the middle like Superman Returns does. On one hand there are wonderful special effects, a few truly juicy performances, and an infusion of sincere emotion that manages to elevate the film beyond simple escapism. On the other hand we have a bunch of distressingly convoluted plot holes, several cute-yet-pointless in-jokes, and long stretches of indulgent yip-yap that’ll have you reaching for your watch. The “good stuff” (and I don’t just mean the action bits) is really good, but the “in-between stuff” is pretty damn dire.

The problem stems from too much reverence and not enough ingenuity. Singer and company are clearly smitten with the Superman: The Movie (1978) and Superman 2 (1980), which means that every other scene is stuffed with sights and sounds “borrowed” from the earlier films. (John Williams’ original Superscore is used to flawless effect early on, and then recycled ad nauseum.) Unfortunately, it seems that Singer has taken his inspirations and turned them into crutches. By leaning too heavily on the first two films, Superman Returns leaves itself open to a lot of second-guessing. If, for example, Clark, Lois, and Jimmy Olsen simply do not age, regardless of how many years go by, then fine. They’re iconic comic characters and they’re supposed to stay the same age, OK. How, then, does one address the addition of Lois’ 5-year-old boy? The kid’s certainly not going to stay 5 forever, right? And how is it that all the main characters now look … younger? (I know it all sounds like geeky nitpickery, but you lay down your rules and you stick to them. Singer should certainly know this by now.)

Superman Returns is by no means a bad movie, but when you stop to consider how many years its taken to get this flick to the screen, it’s pretty alarming to realize that this is the absolute best they could deliver. Gorgeous to look at, appreciably warm and sincere, and boasting at least two really dazzling set-pieces, Superman Returns wants to be a throwback AND a modernization at the same time — and while it does succeed at being both things, one suspects it could have been a brilliant film if Singer had just stuck with one or the other.