Superman Returns is my favorite superhero movie hands down. But the pyrotechnics aren't as good as Man of Steel! But Superman doesn't end up with Lois! But none of that matters. In my opinion, Superman Returns is a thousand times better than Man of Steel, but we can save that argument for another post. Here's why I love Superman Returns: Superman would have died without the help of humans. That's right, Superman the Man of Steel, the Metropolis Marvel, the Last Son of Krypton would have died (like bye bye Superman died) without the help of people who had no powers whatsoever. Let's recap. So Superman has been gone for five years in search of his home planet Krypton but has know returned to Earth and is being all super again, saving lives and kicking bad-guy butt. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor made a dying widow sign her fortune to him and is now using that money to build his own technologically advanced super-continent where America is. Luthor plans on doing that by using Kryptonian crystals that he found in a hide-out that Jor-El, Superman's father, made for Superman. I know what you're thinking:
Superman will never let Luthor get away with this! That's correct, however, Luthor has already thought of that and melded the crystal with Kryptonite so that Superman is weak on this new land. Fast forward a little and we have Superman on one of Luthor's crystal islands (which are quickly encroaching on Metropolis) unable to fight off Luthor because of the Kryptonite. Fast forward just a little bit more and Lex Luthor stabs Superman in the back with Kryptonite and lets him fall into the deep abyss of an ocean below. Meanwhile, Lois, her husband and her son are flying back to Metropolis after being saved from Lex Luthor's sinking yacht by none other than The Man of Tomorrow, Superman. "But wait!" cries Lois, who knows about the Kryptonite, to her pilot husband while they're leaving, "He's going to die if we don't help him!" (I'm paraphrasing) And so Lois makes her husband turn the plane around and once her son spots Superman in the water, she fearlessly jumps into the deep ocean and pulls him out.
Okay all that and she still doesn't end up with him? That's another reason why this movie is so great: she doesn't have to end up with him for the audience to know that she loves him. In that scene, Lois dives into the ocean without even thinking to save Superman. After she jumps in, her husband screams "Lois!" and gets out of the plan (he's standing on one of the water skis of the plane) but doesn't jump in after her. Lois jumped in for Superman, but her husband couldn't do the same for her? Yeah Richard, screaming her name is really going to save her from drowning. (Richard is the name of Lois's husband). Okay but let's get back to the whole humans saving the superhero thing. So Lois gets Superman out of the water, brings him onto the plane and pulls the shard of Kryptonite out of him. Without Lois doing that, Superman would have drowned, Luthor would have won and the world would be one big I Love Lex Luthor fest. So can a single human save the world? Of course not! That's preposterous! There's a reason why they're called superhero movies and not average joe movies! So maybe saying that Lois single-handedly saved the world is a bit much, but Lois does end up having a great effect on the outcome even though the Man of Steel is present.
