FIGHT OR FLIGHT: Brandon Routh is neither bird nor plane.

During Superman's absence from the screen, the superhero vacuum has been filled by any number of wannabes, characters more vulnerable and angry, harassed and alienated, even his own adolescent self, in the WB's angsty Smallville. These stories questioned superheroism's cure-all status, hinting that the American Way might not be so sacrosanct as once seemed. In fact, Americans could be fearful and intolerant. As the X-Men (2000), Spidey (2002), and a beginning-again Batman (2005) struggled to secure their places in a pantheon of men in tights, rumors circulated that Superman was coming back, under the guidance of Tim Burton, Kevin Smith, McG and Brett Ratner. Scripts were reworked, projects fell through, kill fees were paid. Still, no Supes.

Superman's return right now, in Bryan Singer's 154-minute film, takes up the question of relevance. His first major feat, in the big-chested form of Brandon Routh (who made an early splash in MTV's Undressed), is the rescue of Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) and sundry others (including Peta Wilson as a NASA rep) from a plummeting jet. When Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) initiates a power outage that cripples the plane, Superman plays hero in a sensational scene: Passengers in a panic, hectic camera angles and collision cuts combine for an effect nearly as harrowing as the plane going down in United 93. This is exactly why Superman needs to come back; no one else can take a plane in his hands and land it in a baseball stadium.

Except for one thing. As Superman, redisguised as the Daily Planet's Clark Kent, soon discovers, Lois has written a Pulitzer Prize-winning essay titled "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." She's also had a son, Jason (Tristan Leabu), now 5 years old, and started living with Perry White's (Frank Langella) nephew, Richard (James Marsden, recently killed off in X-Men 3). Clark looks crestfallen and slightly dopey, but because he is the uprightest character ever conceived, he understands her choices and feels her pain. Lois, for her part, means to hang onto her righteous resentment and protect her son from disappointment, which means, of course, that she'll come around.

Romantic details aside, the movie spends most of its explanatory energy on familial relationships, specifically father-and-son bonds. While the most obvious sons are little Jason (whose paternity remains unspoken, though clear enough) and Superman (still communing with Jor-El, played by an archived Marlon Brando), the most tormented is Lex Luthor. While Superman was away, Lex was also—in prison, paroled when Superman did not show up for the hearing (just why Superman is the only witness who might have kept this colossal criminal incarcerated is unclear, but it is another reason to be mad at Mr. Truth-Justice-and-the-American-Way). When he discovers the Fortress of Solitude and the Jor-El tape, Lex is thrilled and renewed, listening to the same words Superman does.

"The son becomes the father; the father, the son," decrees Jor-El, and as each son listens, each finds his own meaning in the message. "He thinks I'm his son," gasps Luthor. Accompanied by his moll Kitty (Parker Posey) and henchmen (including Kal Penn), Luthor combines crystals and kryptonite to grow a land mass to serve as his empire's base and to kill Superman. It's a brilliant scheme, nation-building at its most extreme, unnamed and insidious.

With Luthor thus reconfigured as Superman's illegitimate, self-decreed brother, the movie goes on to explore not only the usual dark and light sides typically embodied by such characters, but also the effects of two superpowers at war. Never mind that Superman doesn't make a declaration: He's sucked into the void when Luthor declares him sucked. And as Superman becomes vulnerable, physically and emotionally, he starts to resemble those recent movie superheroes, wondering about his raison d'etre and worrying about his legacy.

Singer pays loving homage to Richard Donner's 1978 franchise-starter by way of John Williams' score (repurposed by John Ottman), the Brando footage and Routh's striking physical similarity to Christopher Reeve (not to mention Sam Huntington's Jimmy Olsen, still a wide-eyed cub reporter, despite the years gone by). But this saddened, more experienced Superman has seen the aftermath of world destruction, and so comes with a perspective not quite so boldly idealistic or pompously ideological. Yes, he still means to save this world, but the triumph is less complete now, the costs more visible.

Superman Returns

Directed by Bryan Singer A Warner Bros. release Now playing at area theaters