I think #2 is spelled out a few times in the film - the appeals court called Superman as a witness and he didn't show. So Lex was let go by the rules of the system.

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As far as "The Kid" goes....he DOES muster up the courage to try and get Mom out of the freezer, and step-dad shows up at the same time.

They are taking a unique angle there. He is half-human half-super, so......he is as fragile and vulnerable as any other 5 year old boy.

The Clark/Supes 5 year absence thing REALLY grinds my gears.

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1. Lois has to be older than 24. Five years have passed SINCE Superman 2. What, you think she was a star reporter at the Daily Planet at 16 -17?
2. But was it provable. Remember Lex also talks about Superman not respecting other aspects of the law, such as Miranda rights, etc. He may have been freed due to lack of legal evidence.
3. I think it was explained quite well with the possible discovery of his home planet.
4. He is half Earthling, he may not have developed all of his powers. I was also wondering if maybe exposure to Krytonite could trigger displays of his posers, opposite of his dad.
5. You don't know if the "super hump" in movie two was the time. It may be that between movie 2 and Supes trip to Krypton they actually got together again, maybe more than once. Even if it was that "Super Hump", his not having posers means nothing about his kid inherting hid DNA, what are you, a Kryptonia DNA expert (LOL).
6. No way Richard could think the kid was his unless Lois slept with Richard within a few weeks (2-4) of getting pregnant from Supes. I don't believe that Lois would sleep with Richard that soon after Superman leaving. And remember, Supes left prior to knowing Lois was pregnant.
7. Ever heard of airplanes. Geez, her son just came back, so she was in Metropolis to see him, this is super-picky.
9. It was a 5 year ROUND-TRIP, the original was one way. Probably manufactured the sapce ship in his fortress using the crystals before leaving.
10. Not 100% Kryptonite, but a mixture with the other minerals found on the ocean floor. And he was pissed and in a hurry. You are putting too much of the comic book in here. Richard, a very successful journalist, didn't know about Kryptonite, so why is "Everyone in the known universe" aware of Kryptonite.
13. Not just a blackout. An EMP,impacting not just stuff on the power grip, but cars, portable electronics, you name it. It really was the big story, could have been a terrorist attach using nuclear weapons. And her instincts were correct.
15. Superman was knocked out, couldn;t revive him. Where would you take him?

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1. I just assumed that Clark made up some story. People ask him when he returns how his trip was. Of course the Ma Kent cover-story would have helped.

2. You have to assume that Lex couldn't be held due to lack of evidence.

3. The discovery of Krypton's location prompted Supes to leave. This "new" Supes is really more self-involved (read: "realistic") than Reeves' selfless one.

4. The powers came out during a moment of extreme stress...seeing his mom about to be killed. Just like earlier we see Clark's flying begin when he almost smacks into the barn-floor. Also the kid is only 1/2 Kryptonian...so things are going to be different.

5. Yeah this is one of the big questions. You'd have to assume that Supes and Lane were doing it before Supes left but after Superman II. Otherwise Lane wouldn't remember how she got pregnant.

6. Thinking it through, you'd have to say Richard probably didn't think the kid was his, since, as was posted above...Lane would have had to get over Supes pretty quickly for the timing to work out.

7. By plane you'd have to assume...quick flight...couple of hours later...she's in Met.

8. Yeah...Lex didn't really think this one through. Iguess it plays to his obsession with real estate. Or he was really doing it all to call out Supes, knowing he was going to lace it with Kryptonite.

9. Round Trip = 5 years...2.5 to get there...2.5 to get back. He probably grew the ship with the crystals before he left. I'm not sure if this Supes holds his breath is space or not. Probably since he needed a ship.

10. We don't know that Superman DIDN'T know there was Kryptonite there once he landed. He would have gone regardless cause that's what needed to be done.

11. Supes just hasn't gotten around to getting Luthor yet. Better question is: Why didn't Lex push that chick out of the Helicopter when she threw out the crystals? I would have.

12. And maybe cut out the Kid-Kent flashback to make room.

13. The "why" the crystals cause the EMP is never given, but the Blackout drives the plot...both the initial plane and then Lane's discovery of Luthor's plot...which in turn alerts Supes.

14. Once again, it's the new "less selfless" Supes.

15. It's reasonable to think they'd bring him to a hospital...useless but reasonable.

HERE'S MY QUESTION: ...my girlfriend and I disagree...

Is Supes' Kid immune to Kryptonite? When I watch the part with Lex and the Kid, I didn't think he seemed all that upset about the Kryptonite being so close and Lex didn't act like that proved it was Supes' son. The kid always looked sickly so I assumed that it meant the kid could be immune to Krypto...or that his powers and therefore his vulnerability to Krypto hadn't come out yet. What do you think?

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1. "nobody does the math". Wrong. Richard and Lois are sitting in the press room after-hours going over what they know about Superman, and after going over his physical details (height and weight), Richard and Lois look at a standing Clark Kent and wonder for a moment. But they dismiss it because Clark's character is supposed to be so far away from Superman (whom everyone thinks is Superman 24/7 and don't suspect that he lives among them) that it would be silly to consider that Clark could be Superman.

2. Lex won on appeal, not parole.

3. Yes, that's definitely a discrepancy, but Superman 1 and 2 are only in vague continuity. Superman Returns is not a true sequel, and this distinction is purposeful. Superman's line to the President could also be taken as "I was around and I could've done something, but I didn't and things got out of hand so I won't make that mistake again.", but really it's dramatic license.

4. The kid is only half-Kryptonian, and he obviously is struggling with some health-problems at the beginning of the movie (allergies, asthma). In many versions of Superman's origin he doesn't develop full super-powers until he's older. (The super-geeky response: baby Kal-El was born on the high-gravity world of Krypton, so he'd naturally, even without yellow sunlight, be quite strong on a planet like Earth.) As for the fact that the kid didn't try to open the freezer, that's how kids are. When they're scared or upset they don't always instantly cooperate. And actually, he does eventually try to open to the door... Hollywood has a long, protracted history of inaccurately protraying children in movies, making them oddly insightful, intelligent, or boisterous, when really a normal kid will stare silently at strangers and cling bashfully to their mothers' sides. I thought the portrayal of the kid was one of the better aspects, especially versus Roger Ebert's wish that he were like one of the Spy Kids. That would've been completely awful.

5. Superman was powerless, but he wasn't human. He was just a Kryptonian without super-powers. The kid would still be half-Kryptonian.

6. Lois Lane's boyfriend thinks the kid is his because they both want to believe it. Lois isn't 100% sure who the father is, but she WANTS to believe that it's Richard's, and she doesn't know for sure until the kid moves the piano.

7. Superman is in the hospital for a while. LA to NYC is only about 5 hours in the air.

8. This was the weakest part of the movie. I like that Luthor assumed, and that we were supposed to assume, that in addition to building these structures, the other crystals had some other great technologies in them, but that wasn't made clear or actually alluded to at all (except for Brando's "these crystals contain all the knowledge in the know 26 galaxies" line).

9. The ship no doubt came from his fortress of solitude, and if it takes about 2.5 years to Krypton, it will still take an additional 2.5 years to travel BACK to Earth.

10. I don't think the island is 100% kryptonite, but there were definitely veins of kryptonite laced all around. The crystals were mostly Earth-rock.

11. The movie has to end at some point.

12. That cut of the movie was well over 3 hours long. Yes, you can cut those in quickly, but the end result would be an uneven pace before Superman's first big rescue. I'd rather see those things cut out for the sake of time than done poorly.

13. The blackouts were caused by the construction of the crystals, and as soon as Lois figures out that Lex Luthor is involved the "why" and "how" fades pretty quickly from her mind.

14. I'm not sure what the nitpick is for this.

15. Well, they got the last splinters of kryptonite out of him. Plus, you can't leave a corpse in the middle of the park. It just ain't done.

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1-15: SUPERNERD! Folks it's only a movie...

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The hospital segment was a joke. After removing the kryptonite why didn't they just put him in some sun light? They even mentioned that he draws his power from the sun earlier in the movie!

And I think the whole superkid storyline could have been deleted and the movie would have been just as good if not better.

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Well I guess in the grain of the "superhump" question, the answer could be found in the fact that Superman Returns is a psuedo sequel to Superman II and plot holes such as this are to follow. My big question is, that if Lois can't remember it after having her memory wiped clean at the end of Supes II, why isn't she shocked that she basically just received the Superman equivilant of daterape?
But the biggest thing that always bothered me was...yeah, so it takes him 5 years to go to Krypton and back. I am assuming that this planet is many lightyears, perhaps hundreds, away. Doesn't the fact that when he returns 5 years later, just 5 years has passed on Earth...shouldn't 500 years passed by? If you go at least the speed of light to get to a place hundreds of lightyears away, hundreds of years will pass by on Earth...dunno. But this is what bothered me a lot. Screw why no one noticed...more like why only 5 years have passed.

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My big beef with the Clark Kent thing is that it even exists. How many people DIE every day because Superman is writing bylines and gutter copy??

Isn't it high time they killed "Clark"?

As for the five-year parallel, I think one of the ways they addressed this was in the depiction of Superman himself. When he was on the screen, there was a superhuman...I don't know, glow about him. He obviously wasn't just of this world. (Maybe I imagined this, but I don't think I did.) The mere difference in "presence" between Kent and Supes is probably enough to throw most people off.

But, yeah. Kill Clark anyway.

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Hey I'd just like to point out that with Superman, plot holes are always beside the point. From the very beginning of the history of Superman, you have to really wonder why he even needs a Clark Kent identity. And when does Clark find the time to be one of the star reporters? There are so many picky things that you can point out with every bit of Superman as a character, comic and film franchise. It really isnt' necessary to nitpick. Fun, maybe, but not necessary.

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Doesn't anyone find it strange that Superman slept with Lois, (and we don't know how many times) she has his kid and later in the movie she tells him its his. But he never reveals his identity to her? Even after all that was revealed to him. For a guy that supposed to live TRUTH, Justice and the American way, He not very truthful in this case. One last problem is with Richard. In several scene he notices Lois and Superman attachment, but he nevers says anything. Maybe all this will be fixed in the next movie.

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Dear anyone defending the fact that Superman could be able to stand on a giant mass of kryptonite:

Ok, so the land mass is only part kryptonite and part earth minerals. There is obviously a ton of kryptonite in it due to the fact that Luthor can daze superman with a swift punch to the throat. Now directly after this, after being beaten to a pulp by Luthor's henchman and stabbed in the back with a kryptonite dagger, he is able to lift a large island of kryptonite/earth minerals and hurl it into the sun? No freaking way. The lamest solution to the lamest evil plot ever.

But I liked the movie.

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My question is this - what year were the original movies supposed to take place, and how did the Daily Planet get flat screen TVs in just 5 years since then?

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"No freaking way. The lamest solution to the lamest evil plot ever.

But I liked the movie."

Right on! Now that one bugged me too. But yeah, horrible plotholes aside, it was a fun movie experience. Weird plotholes are almost what makes Superman movies great. I mean, come on, he turns the Earth backwards in the 1st Superman and this causes time to reverse...really???

The fun part is to suspend your belief while watching the movie and to question it later.

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Actually, if you want to read some interesting comments about Superman's reproductive capabilities, go here;

http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html

It's an article by Larry Niven, which some of you have probably already read, but it's fun nonetheless.

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I have another puzzle. why was it so easy for the doctors in the hospital to rip of supermans coustume, when earlier he was head on looking into the spaceship's fire engine the suit didn't burn off. Or whenever he enters the earths atmosphere the suit doesn't burn off.

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How is Lex Luther's plot lame? He was going to raise a new landmass that once fully grown, will have the technology of an advanced civilization. Superman did the same thing when he built his home with the crystals. The "island" in the movie never had the full time to grow. Like all construction projects, it really can't be judged until it is finished. Other nations were going to buy Lex's land for access to technology not land itself, which is focus of Lex's plan.

Secondy, what was lame was Super kid. Superman isn't capable of having biological children with humans because he isn't human. Lois Lane's DNA has more in common with a household puppy than with an Alien from other space who evolved in a completely different system. Isn't that the reason superman is so lonely?

As to the black out caused by EMP, crystals in the movie contain huge amounts of energy that can power the building of a continent. Usually such large amount of energy causes EMP waves such as a nuclear bomb, black hole, quaesars. I figure EMP wave was a triggering energy to release the stored energy needed to power the process of the crystals.

As to why superman didn't sense Kryptonite island, it is because the island itself was not Krytonite, but made of crystals that can take on the properties of elements around it. Probably not as potent as real thing and its effects more subtle. The real Krytonite is on the bottom of the ocean. Think of it as soy bacon or tofurkey of the Krytonite.

As to why no one ever knows Clark is Superman, it is because Superman doesn't want them to notice. It has been long demonstrated Superman has "jedi" like powers to erase memories and inspire masses of people to do good. These powers are more subtle than his other powers. People are like "oh look at Clark, he has the same size, height, weight and face as superman and thus ergo.. zipzap.. what was I thinking?"

J.

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JUST A NOTE: No witnesses are called in an appellate court hearing. The lawyers argue to the court.

A parole hearing wouldn't need Superman to testify. Anyone affected by Luther's crimes could say what a bad person he is and no one sentenced to double life would be paroled in five years.

And Lex and the will? You need witnesses to a signature on a will to avoid fraud. He wouldn't automatically inherit by just being the husband.

And while I'm being picky, what was up with the wigs? Bosworth, Posey, Routh and Spacey all wore the worse wigs ever. No one has hair in Hollywood anymore? Or heard of hair color? And why did Lex need a wig at all? He's robbing a museum at night. He needed to look like the last member of the Doors for that?

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I can let a lot of the complaints above in stride. Its a movie, after all, about alien from another planet whose eyeballs can stop bullets. My complaint about Superman Returns is that there was no pay off. Imagine the film Unforgiven without the final confrontation with Hackman. Or, for that matter, any action film with the hero fighting the bad guys!! Well, that was Superman Returns. I can not believe any of the film reviews (mostly overwhelmingly positive) were disturbed by this. The bad guys in SP were crushed by a rock -- big deal! What the hell was that? They beat the crap out of Superman and he didn't even get his revenge. I will say this in closing, I saw it opening night and for the first 90 minutes the audience was yelling & cheering. During the last 45 minutes it was dead quiet and all I could hear were yawns! Yet, this same same film won great notices? What gives?!

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