Singer, who shone through with his "The Usual Suspects," certainly has his own vision, but he was smart enough to retain needed elements from the original movie. The $260 million budget has bought cool superhero special effects and set pieces that are jaw dropping elaborate, especially a near-plane crash near the beginning that will leave you breathless. The flying sequences alone are seamless, whether Superman is guiding that crashing plane back to Earth in the aforementioned stunt or merely floating down with a terrified woman in his arms.

Singer picks up where "Superman II" left off; he'd gone searching for the remnants of his destroyed home planet, Krypton. Finding only a graveyard, he comes back to Earth. This discovery prompts depressed feelings that he'll always be “an outsider" - a theme Singer examines heavily.

After reuniting with his foster mom (a great cameo by Eva Marie Saint), he reassumes the identity of timid reporter Clark Kent and is back at the desk, getting reacquainted with life in Metropolis. Both newspaper editor Perry White (Frank Langella) and shutterbug Jimmy Olsen (Sam Huntington) welcome him back.