Superman Returns: the first reviews are in

[Dr Mordrid]

Newsweek:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13389957/site/newsweek

The Big Guy's Back. We Missed Him.
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Singer did the right thing. From the start of this gorgeously crafted epic, you can feel that Singer has real love and respect for the most foursquare comics superhero of them all, as well as a reverence for the Donner version, which serves as his visual and emotional template. In "Superman Returns", the caped crusader for truth, justice, etc. returns to crime-ridden Earth after a five-year detour amid the remains of his home planet. Back in Metropolis—where, as Clark Kent, he gets his old Daily Planet job back—he learns that Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has a nice, good-looking live-in boyfriend (James Marsden) and a son, and, to add insult to heartbreak, has won a Pulitzer Prize for her article "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." Also back from a stint behind bars is master criminal Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) with heinous plans to create a new continent (don't ask) at the expense of several million lives.
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Next to Singer's champagne, most recent superhero adventure movies are barely sparkling cider.

-David Ansen

Variety:

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117930841?categoryid=31&cs=1

"Why the World Doesn't Need Superman" reads the title of a piece that wins Lois Lane the Pulitzer Prize in "Superman Returns," the latest bigscreen revival of comicdom's strongest and fastest hero. Not only is she wrong in the context of the story (not to mention real life), but she'll be wrong in the court of public opinion once the world gets a look at this most grandly conceived and sensitively drawn Superman saga. Sure to rate with aficionados alongside "Spider-Man 2" and, for many, "Batman Begins" on the short list of best superhero spectaculars, (the) pic more than justifies director Bryan Singer's decision to jump ship from the "X-Men""X-Men" franchise, and will pull down stratospheric B.O. (box office) around the globe.
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Nonetheless, Singer imprints his handiwork with its own personality. Despite its acute awareness of what's come before, "Superman Returns" is never self-consciously hip, ironic, post-modern or camp. To the contrary, it's quite sincere, with an artistic elegance and a genuine emotional investment in the material that creates renewed engagement in these long-familiar characters and a well-earned payoff after 2½ hours spent with them.
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Luthor's dastardly plans involve kidnapping Lois and her son aboard his sleek boat, giving Spacey a big scene in which he can really rock and roll with some very choice line readings. The villain really does seem to have Superman on the ropes at one point, but after a somewhat distended final stretch, the real climax comes in a touching scene between Superman and little Jason, who may or may not be super himself.
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Todd McCarthy

Wowwww......

Dr. Mordrid

[Jessterw]

Sounds good enough that I just pre-ordered tickets to a showing at the closest IMAX

[Dr Mordrid]

I've read 9 reviews by those who attended the advanced screening. 8 were similar to the above and 1 was just short of that. None reported it as below par.

Also significant is that WB lifted the review embargo common to such screenings almost immediately after getting the critics first impressions. This isn't done very often.

More:

Boston Herald;

http://news.bostonherald.com/blogs/stephenSchaefer/?p=63

“SUPERMAN”: A MAGISTERIAL RETURN

Bryan Singer’s highly-anticipated “Superman Returns” was finally unveiled for the press Thursday night in L.A. (the print was finished at Technicolor at 2:30 that afternoon) and Warner Bros. must have given a sigh of relief when they heard the genuine applause at the finish. What Singer’s done is a dandy trick: He’s honored the tradition of Superman as a quintessentially 20th-century American myth and simultaneously given the Man of Steel a home (cinematically) in the 21st century.
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Even better, Singer has transformed Superman, the alien from another planet with his extraordinary powers, into a majestic, awe-inspiring figure, not a kiddie comic book guy in tights. Like Apollo come to earth, like Atlas holding the world in the great Rockefeller Center sculpture, Brandon Routh’s Superman has a gravity that enobles this entire two-and-a-half hour picture.
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How the public responds to “Superman Returns” when it opens at 10 PM on June 27th is anyone’s guess but Singer & Co. can be content knowing they’ve managed not only to resurrect an American icon but done it with smarts, grace and even poetry. It’s going to be hard for any superhero movie to beat the magisterial bearing Singer so emphatically summons as in one memorable shot Superman is seen suspended in space, his dusty-colored cape twirling, an ancient god come from the heavens. Fittingly, the film is dedicated “respectfully” to Christopher Reeve and Dana Reeve.

Dr. Mordrid

[Jessterw]

Well they were apparently confident in it enough that there's already a sequel in the works, to be helmed by Singer once again.

Somewhat OT, but had the horrid thought that we should all be glad this isn't a Lucas production. Else we'd get a special edition version of Superman: The Movie with all the old cast digital replaced by the new... *shudder*

[Technoid]

Mjau Skywalker anyone?

[Dr Mordrid]

Hollywood Reporter:

Superman Returns

By Kirk Honeycutt

Bottom line: A heartfelt Superman movie that plays to a broad audience thanks to an emotionally troubled Man of Steel.

The Superman who returns in "Superman Returns" is a different Man of Steel than we are used to seeing. In "Superman: The Movie," the film by director Richard Donner in 1978, the late Christopher Reeve rescued the iconic superhero from high camp with the sincerity and warmth of his acting. His Superman was a romantic charmer. Director Bryan Singer positions this new film as a sequel to Donner's film, and his Superman -- played with winning fortitude by newcomer Brandon Routh -- is less a Man of Steel than a Man of Heart.

While Routh is the same age as Reeve when he played the role, Routh's Superman is older in spirit. His Superman has known heartbreak and loss. He thinks about his late father and must consider the possibility that he might have a son. He even faces his own mortality. In other words, Singer wants to put human emotions into his alien superhero, and for the most part, he succeeds.
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The oh-wow technical wizardry behind "Superman Returns" accomplishes two things: It makes you appreciate the huge advances in visual effects since 1978 but also appreciate the considerable accomplishments of Donner's team back in the day.

BlueTights Network:

http://www.bluetights.net/news.php?id=314

LatinoReview:

http://www.latinoreview.com/news.php?id=636

Lastly, Superman Returns is coming to IMAX and I have got to tell you: bring an extra pair of shorts. It's not just good. It's not even great. It's spectacular! It will BLOW YOUR MIND! Whatever technique IMAX does to the film is just jaw dropping; Superman saving a crashing plane honestly feels like he's in the room with you. It'll be 20 minutes of the film that is converted to IMAX and I think I want to see it like 20 times. I'll see y'all in line at the IMAX theater! What a great way to start the summer! A triumphant Return!

Hollywood Elsewhere:

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/archives/2006/06/i_saw_superman.php

One final thing: Superman Returns is opening simultaneously in IMAX theatres on 6.28, and about 20 minutes worth (i.e., "selected scenes") will be show in IMAX 3D. The press was shown a preview of how the 3D footage will look last night after the main screening, and it's mindblowing. There's an airborne action sequence in particular that delivered, for me, the greatest sensory thrill I've ever experienced from a mainstream movie in my life. There's no question that anyone within reach of an IMAX presentation of this film HAS TO SEE IT THIS WAY. (Singer has worked out a green light-red light system that will tell moviegoers when to put on the glasses just before a 3D section begins.) Trust me, catching it this way will be an absolute knockout.

Dr. Mordrid