Five Outta Five

Here are a few more critical reactions to Superman Returns:

Associated Press movie critic, Christy Lemire, gives the film "Three and a half stars out of four" saying in part:

Finally this summer, the hype is justified.

"Superman Returns" is everything you'd want it to be. It's reverential of the source material, yet a unique film all its own. It's steeped in decadent art-deco mood and details, yet completely current. It's joyous with the possibility of discovery, yet deeply moving in its melancholy. It should satisfy purists and attract new converts.

But most importantly for a summer blockbuster, it's just outright thrilling.

You can read her full review here.

Todd McCarthy from Variety says the film is

Sure to rate with aficionados alongside "Spider-Man 2" and, for many, "Batman Begins" on the short list of best superhero spectaculars, pic more than justifies director Bryan Singer's decision to jump ship from the "X-Men" franchise...

He even predicts the superhero flick will pull down stratospheric B.O. around the globe.

Read the full review here

The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt says:

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..

Read the rest here...

Meanwhile, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone Magazine proclaims that "Superman Returns wth a bang" !

Here's the full review

David DiCerto of The Catholic News Service writes in his review:

It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a winner...

[Director Bryan] Singer gives audiences their money's worth of popcorn thrills, including an exhilarating, if intense and rather preposterous, scene in which Superman saves the passengers on a plummeting airplane. It's more than a special-effects extravaganza; Singer balances spectacle with quieter, artistically graceful moments of emotional drama and tender romance. Superman's body may be indestructible to everything but kryptonite, but his heart is just as breakable as the next guy's.

...And as you might imagine, DiCerto makes comparisons between the film and the "story of Jesus" in his post as well...

The complete review can be found here