Batman vs. Superman: Ranking The Films From Worst To Best

9. Superman Returns (2006)

The Superman film that didn't quite live up to years of hopes and expectations, Superman Returns is director Bryan Singer's attempt to bring Superman into the modern age while being beholden to the existence of Superman: The Movie and Superman II. Neither an excellent film or a terrible film, the Man of Steel's big-screen return simply falls victim to its desire to look backwards instead of truly move forward with the potential of the character. As a loose sequel to the first two Superman films, Returns spends a lot of time emulating what worked so well then, with Brandon Routh doing his earnest best Christopher Reeve impression, Kevin Spacey updating Gene Hackman's take on the character with a dash of darkness and even the use of John Williams' iconic theme. While the general notion of trying to carry on from the Reeve legacy is understandable, it comes at the price of feeling too familiar. Rather than introduce new, larger threats for the character that modern special effects could assist in bringing to life, the film falls back on Lex Luthor's desire for his own land. The film settles on familiarity far too often that only serves to underscore that it should've been so much more. Had it followed 2005's Batman Begins in its hungry desire to prove itself, Superman Returns could've given the character a blank slate from which to start over. As it stands, though, Returns is harmless enough - and its intentions noble enough - to make up for the insults of Superman III and IV, but its failure to deliver on the hype of the character returning to theaters after almost two decades crippled it in the long run.