I liked Superman way more than I expected. I am not sure Routh can actually act, but his limitations worked for this role. I loved Posey and Spacey and the snark. I don't thik I have ever seen the Jimmy Olsen actor before, but I thought he nailed it without being too much of caricature. I even liked Bosworth which I wasn't expecting.

There were lots of logical lapses, but one choice I liked a lot was that there was very little talking during the action sequences. People are trying to stay alive, and don't make long speeches or profess true love or describe epiphanies. That felt real to me.

Olsen and White were both very good, although I suspect Langella could do that character in his sleep. Spacey felt more like a collection of oh-so-clever ticks, but for all that, I didn't feel he was that clever. And I was a little thrown by a departure from the Lex with whom I was familiar, who was astute and powerful in his own right, and didn't have monumentally stupid plans like the one shown here. But putting the crystal in a kryptonite core was sheer genius.

Speaking of crystals, didn't a bunch go down/up with the ship? Poor Kal El--he's still robbed. Visually, I'd have liked a distinction between the growing crystals and the info crystals. Too many times I was flinching thinking that either the crystals left in the piano room or the ones that Parker dropped from the helicopter were going to cause more trouble.

Huh. Just remembered that the kid killed a guy. Therapy!

The friend I saw it with suggested that it'd be cool if Lois had been putting kryptonite in the kid's albuterol to prevent him from going all Super.

We also wondered about the timeline--ignoring the potential complications of Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex, White Jr. must know the kid's not his, right? Even if he doesn't know whose.

Ooh, your friend had an excellent idea. On the timeline point - maybe gestation for Human/Kryptonian mixes is LONGER than just human ? And I wonder if sad little superboy will turn out to be a mule?

The best wank I heard on that last, ita, was the Kryptonian gestation is longer, so, even if she took up with him a couple/few months later, there could be question.

But it is hella wanky, anyway. And it is a nice character note if he knows it's not his kid, genetically.

And I was a little thrown by a departure

Having watched the original recently, I can see where Singer got his characterization from -- it's not a departure from that version, but I'll agree that it probably should have been, especially if he wants a franchise. (I mean, it's even the exact same dumb plan -- destroy bits of the existing US to create shiny new beachfront property in a way that will annoy Superman.)

The problem is that it's not a characterization that can really support a long-term nemesis-type relationship, since Lex-as-buffoon is so easily defeated. For one film, on a symbolic level, I liked that the real fight wasn't with Lex at all, but with the remains of Krypton (Superman tossing the last remaining bits of his homeworld into space in order to save Earth was a pretty powerful image), but Lex will definitely need an upgrade if he's going to come back for Superman Still Here.

Yeah, that was the sort of wank I was figuring.

I'm guessing (actually, I feel sure, but I don't think it was explicitly indicated) that he now knows the kid's not his-and he definitely knows his fiancée isn't. Poor guy. Yet? Still together. Which is messy.

I liked the bit where Lois answers him with "He's Superman! Everyone's in love with Superman!" It makes it both hard and inevitable that he'd be jealous--but when the woman you're in love with asks you to go back and save the man she loves, putting you and the kid you've been raising as your own in jeopardy, well, it's Superman. You have to do that.

Superman Still Here.

It'd be cool if that comes out in the same year as Batman Continues.

I'm just waiting for the crossover between these two incarnations, because I suspect that it would involve relatively little fighting crime and rather a lot of commisserating about being lonely in a hotel bar somewhere. (And then some making out, assuming I get hired to direct it.)

My ears did perk up when Gotham was mentioned in the background during the Superman-saving-people-everywhere news montage. (And New York is visible on Luthor's Evil Plan Map, which I want to freeze-frame so I can see where they think all three cities are in relation to each other.)

Yes, about all the cities.

(Hmmm, was Bludhaven on that map ?)

Jessica, I had the same reaction to the Gotham mention, and was all "He doesn't need you! Get out of his city!" Because I'm fangirlish like that.

I have a strange conviction I saw a typo in the newspaper article about the museum heist--one of the instances of museum looked like musuem. I have no idea if I'm right, but it stayed in the corner of my head for quite a while.

Back to the beginning--when the music swelled, and the opening titles rolled, it was very heart-swelling and iconic. And then I had a sad moment that Batman doesn't have a music. But I've been told to get over it.