At the request of Matthew Patches, I watched this again. When you go into it knowing what to expect (I’ve only seen it once – 3 years ago) it makes a big difference.
Okay, it isn’t as bad as I said the first time, and if you remove it from its Bush years context there is no reason to rage against it (as Dr. Jurgen Fauth does so eloquently here.)
What you are left with is a movie that starts out really fun, maintains a level of good-enough, then really gets dull at the end. Really, once Lois Lane gets on that boat, it is all over – and there’s about 50 minutes of screentime left.
The ending is truly a problem. There’s just acres and acres of film with *no stakes*. Best is when Superman gets sick . . . .and then he GETS BETTER!!!! Shockingly bad screenwriting.
But, still, hardly a catastrophe – and Brandon Routh is kinda good.