The movie.

I liked it.

It wasn't Superman: The Movie, but what could be? Oddly, the very things that gave me pause prior to seeing the movie, and still make me wonder how the hell they could ever make a sequel to Superman Returns, are also the things I like. The temptation with this sort of a movie, I think, often is to do an impersonal, respectful take that hits the right notes but doesn't actually DO anything. But the weirder aspects of the movie -- and I'll steer clear of saying anything too spoilerish for now -- also make it a much more idiosyncratic and personal and affecting story. I'm not sure it works or holds together or makes a great deal of sense, but it's got its own point of view and perspective beneath the set pieces and special effects and that gives it a charge that it might otherwise have lacked. It reminds me more of something like Kurt Busiek's Superman: Secret Identity or one of the weird Elliot S! Maggin Superman annuals from the early 80s than a "normal" Superman story. And that's a good thing.

I say all of this as someone who was deeply, deeply skeptical of this movie all through the production process; most of the dribs and drabs of information we got were as likely to fill me with dread as anticipation. Nevertheless: I liked it, and I recommend it, and I recommend going in with an open mind.