Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Superman Returns
EMAILPRINTWarner Bros. Pictures

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 40 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 592 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-fi
Written by:
Michael Dougherty (also story)
Dan Harris (also story)
Bryan Singer (story)
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (characters)
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 28, 2006
DVD: November 28, 2006
Running Time: 153 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some intense action violence
Starring Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, James Marsden, Frank Langella, Sam Huntington, Eva Marie Saint, and Parker Posey
Five years after his mysterious disappearance, Superman returns to Metropolis -- but things have changed in his absence.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Superman II Superman: The Movie
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Time Richard Corliss
The best Hollywood movies always knew how to sneak a beguiling subtext into a crowd-pleasing story. Superman Returns is in that grand tradition. That's why it's beyond Super. It's superb.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
America's favorite superhero reappears in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, and all we can say is, "Man, oh Man of Steel, it's good to have you back."
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
Superman Returns is a lush and enthralling piece of adventure storytelling that's both revisionist AND reverential, putting a timely spin on a timeless character without violating his primal appeal.
Read Full Review >Empire Ian Nathan
It’s all about heart - not that the spectacle falters; this is the finest popular entertainment since the Rings trilogy closed. Superman doesn’t fly - he soars.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
The film is magnificently mounted, it moves like a speeding bullet and it's so respectful of Superman traditions that even the pickiest of die-hard fans should love it. After a lapse of two decades, it revitalizes the franchise and makes it seem fresh and alive.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Superman, born in 1938, is still very much alive in 2006. The Man of Steel has so skillfully bent the bars of our imagination that he seems real to us. And in a sense, he is.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
This Superman, which infuses its action with poetry, soars as a love story filled with epic yearnings, thwarted desires and breathtaking imagery.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Superman Returns is not only a credit to the first two Superman movies; it may be the best of the series. Its combination of romance and fantasy adventure is unparalleled in superhero comic book-to-movie sagas.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A spectacularly satisfying reworking of the legend of Kal-El.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Bryan Singer's super, soulful and very expensive new resurrection of the venerable big-screen franchise, ups the ante with must-see results.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
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 Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The daunting logistics of Superman Returns have obviously affected the director's work -- thus the hit-or-miss continuity of the narrative -- but Bryan Singer hasn't been defeated by them. While his movie can be cumbersome, it's consistently alive, and that is saying a lot when many such productions are dead in the water, on land or in the air. Also, how can you resist the charm of a fantasy in which everyone gets his news from newspapers?
Village Voice J. Hoberman
The movie may not be a single-bound building-leaper but Bryan Singer reconfigures the daddy of all comic-book sagas into something knowing, witty, and even sensitive.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
A generally thrilling entertainment that's not quite the grand slam you want it to be.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The film has such an expansive, likeable spirit.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The surprise of Superman Returns is that it isn't a funky, ambitious conceptual reimagining, like last summer's "Batman Begins." This really IS your father's Superman; it re-creates - and updates, though just barely - the universe Donner invented.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Superman returns with a bang. Singer tarnishes his hero's halo with just enough sexual longing and self-doubt to make him riveting and relatable. That "S" on his suit has a whole new meaning: He's a Soul man.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
By giving the hero's inner plight so many dimensions, Superman Returns brings a richer, grander perspective to a seminal character without changing his essence. It's a profoundly personal take on a universal icon, made by a filmmaker who continues to improve with each movie.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Superman returns, and he's far from inconsequential yet considerably less than super - just a demi-god content to forfeit our love for our like.
Read Full Review >Premiere Sara Brady
This Superman is like nothing you've ever seen before, but it tickles something primitive and comforting at the back of the mind. Gorgeously detailed and meticulously realized, it's a homecoming of a movie. Just wait for the theme; you'll understand.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
The new Superman has its visionary charms, but there's only so far you can go without great characters.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Singer's reverence for the 1978 version edges perilously close to mimicry, as if he has no new ideas to bring to the table, but he succeeds in drawing out the Superman myth with simple power and a refreshing absence of irony.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The much ballyhooed movie, far from great and far from short (2 1/2 hours!), is still great fun.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
The fanboy in me loves it, being wrapped in the warm projected glow of nostalgia for a movie I've memorized since age 9.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Yes, this Superman soars, but he doesn't always take us with him.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Superman Returns has everything going for it except surprise.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Don't hate him because he's beautiful, decent, awesomely powerful, modest and just plain good. That's the big blue Boy Scout package - take it or leave it.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Singer draws heavily on the 1978 hit that launched the Warner Brothers franchise, with Brandon Routh dully impersonating Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel, Kevin Spacey getting all the good lines as the villainous Lex Luthor, and stock footage of Marlon Brando proving that death isn't always a good career move.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
The film's most striking repeated effect, in which the caped hero dangles dejectedly in space as the Earth turns below him, emphasizes the passivity and loneliness of the character: This Superman's version of flight seems almost indistinguishable from a helpless freefall. Fair enough, but what's he got to be so existentially glum about?
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Star Routh's presence and the joys of flight keep Superman Returns alive, but all those missteps dog its heels, holding it back like little touches of Kryptonite in the night.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Contains a dozen winning moments of humor, uplift or exhilaration. But are they enough to justify a 154-minute running time?
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
A dull, uninspiring film that combines pedestrian acting, lackluster special effects and deadly pace with a pseudo-religious theme.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The movie consistently delivers in lots of little ways, but in a big way only once, in a spectacular sequence that begins with a series of earthquakes and culminates in an airline catastrophe.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
Picture my disappointment as I realized that, for all the pizzazz of Superman Returns, its global weapon of choice would not be terrorism, or nuclear piracy, or dirty bombs. It would be real estate. What does Warner Bros. have in mind for the next installment? Superman overhauls corporate pension plans? Luthor screws Medicare?
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
When the hero, his alter ego, his girlfriend and the villain all seem to lack any joy in being themselves, why should we feel joy at watching them?
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
It's hard to see what the point is beyond the usual grandiosity that comes whenever B-movie material is pumped up with ambition and money.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
I wanted to like Superman Returns, but Singer and company are so concerned about doing justice to Superman’s past, they fail to generate much interest in what, if any, future the franchise might have.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
The bigger problem is that Singer’s weighty rhythms are disastrous for Superman, and the movie actually gets heavier in its last half-hour.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.7 (out of 10) based on 592 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
robert gave it a0:
All movies are big big .pride and that's not what god wanted to happen to this world but with modern women and the weak men of Hollywood this world wiil brought down hard because of them and there ways face it //// because Hollywood has turned into Hollywood/ the sin den p.s face it there has not been a good movie made since satin took over Hollywood movies.
Stacie M gave it a10:
Superman with such passion, vigor, and release of infinite power, he graciously fly's and fights his emotions through obstacles.He is a man who holds the world and knows what he should do to help the ones he loves and others then himself. Awesome film. Anyone who has not seen the power of this film should experience it..
christian b gave it a2:
Worst Superman version ever made in history. Didn't gave it a zero because of Kevin Spacy, but besides his performance, the movie was a disgrace to Hollywood.
Red gave it an8:
This is an all around great movie. The only thing that slows Superman down is having to unravel the back story/ love story. This is kind of needed though and sets it up for an exciting sequel. Singer is a King in the superhero arena and doesn't fail to deliver. This movie still manages to take flight and dazzle audiences.
Taimur A. gave it a3:
If you read the comments of the critics its quite obvious that they are all a bunch of idiots. any one who calls this film "superb" is retarded. superman 1 and 2 are still etched in peoples minds. SR however is one of the most forgettable movies of all time. some scenes were okay, So? I also hate the fact that each time we saw superman fly, it was a fake superman, as in, it was a digital reproduction, not the actual actor. I therefore could not connect with superman at all. i connected with chris reeves, because it was him doing the flying and he did it beautifuly. bottom line...they messed up...big time!
A long, somber lovenote to every bright superhero comic and movie. It's too slow for many audiences, though its spectacles are second only to disaster films. Here the director is trying to reboot a franchise, which means we'll have to wait for a sequel before any titanic battles. However, the cast, effects and plotting definitely carry this installment through a satisfying, if lengthy journey.
[Anonymous] gave it a7:
Singer's film has good visuals and a heartfeltness to it, but it ain't perfect. Spacey makes a good Luthor, creating some humor, but let's face it, with that "real estate" thing of his and showing everything off in front of Lois Lane, not to mention having yet another sentimental female who can't go the distance, he just ain't that fun to fight. There is some good action, but the film, overall feels like it doesn't offer enough of what we want for its size. They need to branch out more, and throw in a villain like Zod so we can get some REAL action. Now that's my type of superman film!!
Zift K. gave it a7:
Not a bad movie. No real "fighting" but a lot of saving the day moments. But hey, that's superman for you. Overall, not an fantastic movie, but an enjoyable one.
