Where to start on David Poland‘s review of Superman Returns? Well, let’s see…it’s not “terribly cast”. Brandon Routh does the sad-and- lonely thing fine by me. Kate Bosworth…okay, her Lois Lane feels a tad insubstantial, but she’s far from “terrible”. Kevin Spacey doesn’t ace out Gene Hackman, but he’s moderately amusing as Luthor. Parker Posey isn’t given enough to say or do, but she brings a bit more feeling and gravitas to her girlfriend-of-Lex part than Valerine Perrine did to hers. Frank Langella shows more wit and finesse than Jackie Cooper did as Perry White…casting is not a problem, trust me. And it’s not poorly conceived — it has a theme, a heart and a soul. You can’t say these elements aren’t there, and I don’t know how anyone can say tjhe emotional import of the story is poorly conceived. Superman Returns is not one action beat after another, okay, but I wouldn’t call it extremely light on the stuff. The romance between Clark and Lois is all about “we want to go there but we can’t” — to me and a lot of others who know that relationships that can’t work are more dramatically touching than those that do, this makes it romantic as hell. The film definitely features a memorable ‘gosh, that was great’ repeat-to-your-friends action moment (and you can double or triple that if you catch it in 3D). SR may be hurt big-time by Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest , but like I said in my original review I can’t imagine that the Pirate pic will have anything like the emotional resonance that Superman Returns has. Okay, it may be completely played out by August 1st…that’s possible.