---
title: "Superman Returns"
year: 2006
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/superman-returns"
fi1m_id: "superman-returns"
imdb_id: "tt0348150"
tmdb_id: 1452
wikidata_id: "Q328695"
fi1m_score: 60
critics_score: 66
critics_reviews: 12
published: "2026-10-01T19:33:46.586245+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-01T19:33:47.184875+00:00"
region: "DE"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Superman Returns (2006)

Directed by Bryan Singer · 2h 34m · FSK 12 · Science Fiction, Action, Adventure

## Identity

Superman Returns

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/superman-returns
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** superman-returns
- **IMDb ID:** tt0348150
- **TMDB ID:** 1452
- **Wikidata ID:** Q328695
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348150/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1452, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q328695

**Fi1m score: 60** · Critics 66 from 12 reviews

*In a sentence:* Superman hovers outside his ex’s window for two and a half hours and the film thinks that is romantic

> Bryan Singer’s Superman is handsome, respectful and solemn to a fault. Brandon Routh is a fine, gentle Man of Steel and the plane rescue is as good as the genre gets, but the film around him is 154 minutes of mourning for 1978.

## Synopsis

Superman has been gone five years, searching for the remains of Krypton, and now he crashes back to earth on the Kent farm in Smallville, where Martha Kent (Eva Marie Saint) has been waiting. In Metropolis, Clark Kent (Brandon Routh) gets his old job back from Daily Planet editor Perry White (Frank Langella) and learns that Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has written an editorial titled Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman, has a son, Jason (Tristan Lake Leabu), and is engaged to Richard White (James Marsden), who flies planes. Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), out of prison, sails north with Kitty Kowalski (Parker Posey) to the Fortress of Solitude to steal its crystals. A shuttle launch goes wrong, and the world finds out he is back.

## Review

Bryan Singer has made a sequel to a film from 1978 and skipped everything in between. The fanfare is John Williams’s, the credits swoop through space in the same blue lettering, and Marlon Brando’s Jor-El speaks from footage shot for Richard Donner nearly thirty years earlier. *Superman Returns* is a tribute act, done with love and a great deal of money. Whether anybody asked for one is a question the film never raises.

Brandon Routh is the reason to see it. He has Christopher Reeve’s jaw and much of his gentleness, and he plays Clark as a man plainly glad to be back in a newsroom with a tie on, dropping things and apologising. As Superman he does something harder: he is quiet. He hangs above the city with his eyes shut, listening, and lets us see a man who has come home to find nobody saved his seat. It is a careful, modest performance and the film leans on it for everything.

The set piece everyone remembers comes early and deserves to. A shuttle launch strapped to an airliner goes wrong, and Superman has to catch the plane, lose its wings and set the fuselage down in a baseball stadium in front of a crowd that has no idea what it is looking at. Newton Thomas Sigel shoots the fall from inside the cabin, where Lois is thrown against the ceiling, and from outside, where a small blue figure strains against something far bigger than himself. We were gripped, and when Routh walked down the aisle afterwards to assure the passengers that flying is still the safest way to travel, we laughed out loud with relief. Nothing in the next hour and three-quarters comes close.

Guy Hendrix Dyas builds a Metropolis out of the 1940s, Art Deco cornices and a brass globe on the Daily Planet, with flat-screen televisions bolted on as if nobody had told the architects. The Fortress of Solitude is white crystal from floor to roof; Luthor’s yacht is dark wood and leather. Louise Mingenbach darkens the suit to maroon and navy and shrinks the shield, which looks sober and oddly small. Sigel lights everything in warm gold or cool blue and keeps the camera drifting, and John Ottman, who writes the score and cuts the film with Elliot Graham, favours long slow passes over the city with strings beneath them. The film is never ugly. At 154 minutes it is also never in a hurry.

The trouble is the story Singer, Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty have chosen, a love triangle in which nobody speaks. Lois has moved on: a fiancé, Richard White (James Marsden), who is decent and flies a seaplane, and a son, Jason (Tristan Lake Leabu), who has asthma. Superman’s response is to float outside their house at night and listen through the walls. The film shoots this as yearning. We watched it with growing unease, because the man we were being asked to pity was, in plain terms, spying on a family, and nobody on screen or behind the camera seemed to notice. Kate Bosworth plays Lois as brittle and wounded, which is the right note, but she and Routh have little warmth between them, and the best reporter in Metropolis spends most of the film being carried.

Kevin Spacey enjoys himself as Luthor, and his plan is the usual one, land and lots of it, explained to Parker Posey’s Kitty Kowalski with the patience of a man going through a tax return. Posey is the film’s only comic performer and gets the few lines that land. Kal Penn stands at the back as a henchman called Stanford and says almost nothing. Frank Langella’s Perry White asks the right question, whether Superman still matters, and the script never gets round to answering him.

Donner’s film was funny. Reeve tripped over things and the romance was played as screwball with a cape. Singer has kept the look and dropped the lightness, and what remains is a Superman film in which the hero is sad for two and a half hours and we are asked to be sad with him. Most critics have been kinder than we are, and we understand why: it is sincere, and sincerity about this character is rare. See it for Routh, for the plane, and for the sight of a studio spending a fortune to say it is sorry about the eighties. Then put the 1978 film on and remember what a smile looks like.

*Fi1m score 60, published 1 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics come down in favour, and the praise clusters on Brandon Routh. He is credited with carrying an implausible plot through charm, with a sincere and convincing Superman, and with a resemblance to Christopher Reeve that helps the film recapture the spark of the first two. Several reviews also admire how the film looks, and the warmer ones find real heartache in its romantic conflict and a respect for the character in Bryan Singer’s direction.

The reservations gather around tone and feeling. The dissenters find it too long, too serious and increasingly mawkish, or polished but hollow, with characters too abstract to care about. The New Yorker goes furthest, calling it dull, its hero cold and its Lex Luthor uninteresting; The Guardian enjoys Kevin Spacey’s malevolence but misses any lightness or humour. The spread is wide, and the latest review, from Collider, argues the film holds up better than those first notices suggest.

## Straight answers

**Is Superman Returns worth watching?**

*Superman Returns* is worth watching for Brandon Routh's gentle Man of Steel and one superb plane rescue, and we scored it 60. The rest is 154 solemn minutes in which Superman hovers outside Lois Lane's house and the film mistakes it for romance. Those who loved the 1978 film will find much to recognise and little to smile at.

**How long is Superman Returns, and what is it rated?**

*Superman Returns* runs 2h 34m and is rated 12 by the FSK in Germany. It is a science fiction and action film.

**Where can I watch Superman Returns in Germany?**

*Superman Returns* is streaming on HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video in Germany, and it is also available to rent from Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video from €3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Superman Returns, and is it suitable for children?**

*Superman Returns* is a 12A, and its action is of the catch-the-falling-plane kind rather than anything bloody. The shuttle sequence is tense enough to grip adults and may unsettle younger children, but there is nothing gory or frightening by the standards of the genre. The bigger obstacle for children is the length and the mournful pace.

**How does Superman Returns compare to Unbreakable?**

*Superman Returns* and [*Unbreakable*](https://film.one/film/unbreakable) are both about a quiet, sad man working out what his powers are for, and Shyamalan's film does the mood properly. *Unbreakable* is the tighter and more affecting of the two, grounded by Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson; Singer's film has the grander spectacle and the better single set piece. Choose Shyamalan for feeling, Singer for scale.

**What should I watch after Superman Returns?**

After *Superman Returns*, try [*Unbreakable*](https://film.one/film/unbreakable) (2000, Fi1m 81): A quiet, sad man discovers what he is; Shyamalan does the mood properly. Then [*The Iron Giant*](https://film.one/film/the-iron-giant) (1999, Fi1m 88): Superman’s decency, as understood by a metal man and a small boy in Maine.

### Reviews we read (12)

- **Empire**, Ian Nathan (90/100, inferred): Nathan gives the film an enthusiastic verdict, calling it a soaring, emotionally rich addition to the Superman pantheon. He especially praises its heartache and romantic emotional conflict, while also applauding the spectacle. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/superman-returns-review/)
- **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (90/100, inferred): The critic gives the film an enthusiastic verdict, calling it a grand and emotionally engaging superhero saga. He singles out its visual beauty and Brandon Routh’s effortless, appealing performance. [Read](https://variety.com/2006/film/awards/superman-returns-2-1200515435/)
- **Radio Times**, Stella Papamichael (4/5): Papamichael finds the film entertaining, with Brandon Routh carrying its implausible plot through sheer charm. She also praises its nostalgic approach to the original franchise. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-iwk3ey/superman-returns/)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (3/4): Ebert gives the film a positive but not wholehearted verdict. He praises Brandon Routh’s portrayal of Superman while finding the film short of greatness. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/superman-returns-2006)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Kirk Honeycutt (75/100, inferred): Honeycutt finds the film largely successful, balancing an emotionally grounded hero with spectacular superhero action. He particularly praises Brandon Routh’s sincere, convincing performance as Superman. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/superman-returns-review-brandon-routh-bryan-singer-movie-1236308924/)
- **Screen Daily**, Mike Goodridge (64/100, inferred): The page identifies this as a review, but its verdict is unavailable in the accessible text. No specific praise or complaint can be confirmed. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/superman-returns/4027703.article)
- **Time Out**, Ben Walters (64/100, inferred): The page identifies this as a review, but the critic’s verdict is not visible. The available text offers no specific praise or complaint. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/superman-returns)
- **Slant Magazine**, Keith Uhlich (2/4): The critic finds the film polished but emotionally hollow, neither thrilling nor offensive. He faults its abstract characters and themes, while singling out its visual beauty and a striking reverse-motion shot. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/superman-returns/)
- **The Guardian**, Rob Mackie (35/100, inferred): Mackie finds the film overly serious, too long, and increasingly mawkish, despite its emotional approach. He singles out Kevin Spacey’s enjoyably malevolent Lex Luthor, while lamenting the film’s lack of lightness and humour. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/dec/01/dvdreviews.actionandadventure)
- **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (25/100, inferred): Lane finds the film dull and constrained, ultimately arguing that its superhero leaves him cold. He singles out the shallow characterization, especially Lex Luthor, whose performance and elaborate wardrobe cannot make the character interesting. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/07/03/kryptology)
- **Eye for Film**, Jennie Kermode (80/100, inferred): Kermode finds the film intelligent, gripping, and highly successful overall, despite its faltering emotional resolution near the end. She especially praises Brandon Routh’s performance and the inventive action sequences’ attention to physical detail. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/superman-returns-film-review-by-jennie-kermode)
- **Collider**, Rob Vaux (72/100, inferred): Vaux says Superman Returns holds up better than its critics suggest and succeeds in recapturing the spark of the first two films. He praises Brandon Routh’s resemblance to Christopher Reeve and Bryan Singer’s blend of exciting set pieces and respect for the character. [Read](https://collider.com/superman-motion-picture-anthology-blu-ray-review/)

## Details

- **Director:** Bryan Singer
- **Director:** Bryan Singer
- **Screenplay:** Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris
- **Story:** Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris, Bryan Singer
- **Cinematography:** Newton Thomas Sigel
- **Editor:** John Ottman, Elliot Graham
- **Music:** John Ottman
- **Production design:** Guy Hendrix Dyas
- **Costume design:** Louise Mingenbach
- **Producer:** Bryan Singer, Jon Peters, Gilbert Adler
- **Cast:** Brandon Routh as Clark Kent / Superman; Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane; Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor; James Marsden as Richard White; Parker Posey as Kitty Kowalski; Frank Langella as Perry White; Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olsen; Eva Marie Saint as Martha Kent
- **Runtime:** 2h 34m
- **Certificate (FSK):** 12
- **Release (Germany):** 17 August 2006
- **Genres:** Science Fiction, Action, Adventure
- **Budget:** $223 million
- **Box office:** $391 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVCozSQj8TQ

## Where to watch in Germany

- HBO Max: streaming
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Apple TV: rent €3.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent €3.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy €9.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy €9.99, hd

*Checked 2026-10-01.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2007: Best Visual Effects (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Superman* (1978): The film Singer is paying tribute to, and it still has the jokes.
- *Unbreakable* (2000), Fi1m 81: A quiet, sad man discovers what he is; Shyamalan does the mood properly. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/unbreakable.md)
- *The Iron Giant* (1999), Fi1m 88: Superman’s decency, as understood by a metal man and a small boy in Maine. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-iron-giant.md)
- *Spider-Man 2* (2004): A hero who gives up and comes back, with lightness this film forgot.
- *The Rocketeer* (1991): Art Deco skies, a man who flies, and a brisk ninety minutes.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/superman-returns