superman returns
Make a movie/TV show about people with superpowers, and you can be pretty sure I'll show up. I even rented Daredevil. It's kind of weird that this is the only Superman movie I've ever seen, though I was all about the Dean Cain TV show back in the day, and have been known to watch Smallville on occasion. I think it was a good way to walk into the movie - familiar with the mythology of the show, but without any gold standard to measure the movie against (no offense to Smallville or L&C).
In brief: I totally loved it.
In greater detail: Discussion follows.
I am a mush, and so of course I'm all about the romance - the movie grabbed me when Clark walked into the newsroom, looked up at a TV monitor, saw Lois Lane and got this look on his face like he just thought she was the most awesome thing ever. Adorable! I liked Brandon Routh a lot as both Clark Kent and Superman, and I think the movie did a good job at separating the two identities such that it was believable (or as believable as such a ridiculous premise could be) that no one would realize Clark Kent was Superman, but there were enough common threads between the two that it was clearly the same person. For example, there's a moment where Superman is caught by a news camera after extinguishing a house fire and gives an awkward wave to the camera that was similar to the wave Clark Kent gives at another point in the movie.
I loved all of the Clark/Superman-Lois stuff in the movie. While at first I was frustrated by how totally oblivious Lois is to Clark's presence for the bulk of the movie, by the end of it I'd come to understand and appreciate it. She's pleasant with him, even friendly, but in a vague, detached, I'm-thinking-about-more-important-things kind of way, which makes sense from her point of view. The scenes they share together were some of my favorites, but while I was left wanting more I understood why they were so few and, for the most part, of the pining Clark/distracted Lois variety. If Lois were around Clark more, or more truly engaged with him when they were together, it would be increasingly difficult to believe that she didn't see the connection between Clark and Superman. The Lois/Clark scenes are nice because even though they rarely connect, both characters let their guards down. You see how Clark/Superman feels about Lois (he thinks she's awesome), and how Lois feels about Clark (nice guy, kind of a dork). Since Clark is just a nice, bland coworker to Lois, she doesn't seem to feel the need to impress him in any way, and simply acts as herself - and it's this Lois Lane that both Clark/Superman is in love with. As Superman, Clark wears a suave, heroic facade that masks his true feelings for Lois a lot of the time, but as Clark, they're written all over his face.
Also, I kind of like to think that the Lois/Clark thing will be dealt with in a later sequel (there must be sequel(s)!).
In general, I liked Lois a lot. She seemed smart and tough and, yes, prone to getting herself into dangerous situations, but I feel like that's part of the package when it comes to a movie like this. Lois is thrown around the interior of the airplane in the opening action sequence because she's the only one on the plane who gets out of her seat to help Bobbie-Faye (totally had to look up her name). She gets trapped on Lex's ship not because she was manipulated into a trap, but because she was chasing down a story, a story that only she saw the importance of. And at the end, after being rescued by Superman, she rescues him right back.
Also, I really liked her hair, which was pretty but a little frizzy and unstyled, exactly the kind of hair I'd expect busy, reporter-on-the-go, single-mom Lois Lane to have.
Other nice things: I liked Kevin Spacey a lot as Lex Luthor. He's more comedic than Michael Rosenbaum's Lex Luthor, which is the one I'm most familiar with, but I felt that heightened his dramatic scenes rather than weakened them. Parker Posey was fantastic as Kitty, which surprised me. I loved every moment of her performance. James Marsden was great as Richard White, who could be an annoyingly perfect character, but who is instead very likable because of the vulnerability and charm that JM brings to the role.
As for Lois's son, the thing that registered most with me was how much he resembled Kate Bosworth. Good job, casting! The reveal at the end was nice, but I kind of wondered why Clark/Superman wasn't more suspicious of Jason - wouldn't he do the math and kind of wonder? I didn't see much of that in the movie, but, you know, Clark/Superman probably has little experience with kids, might not be able to know just based on a kid's appearance how old he is, and probably just assumed that the child is Richard's, since, you know, Lois says so, etc etc.
Things that worked less well:
-It drags a bit in the middle of the movie.
-Okay, maybe it's just me, but just about every close-up of Superman flying with his hands stretched forward looked cheesy to me. I'm not sure there's a way these close-ups wouldn't have - they just remind me too much of old school special effects in Hollywood, of the days when a guy flew by balancing on a bench on his belly in front of a screen painted to look like the sky. You know? I can't alter my programming. I'm built to find it funny. The best flying sequences, to me, were the ones with Lois (the sight of them floating in front of the Daily Planet was lovely) and the ones we see through normal people's eyes, with Superman as just a blur in the distance.
-Yes, Lois must be in peril, of course, but must she be thrown about so much? I had a hard time with her not being in a full-body-cast or comatose after the plane sequence and boat sequence, respectively.
-There were other things, but I can't remember them right now. When I like a movie, the flaws fade with time, and it's been a week since I saw this.