With Superman Returns , Hollywood seems to have finally got its superhero act together. Directed by Bryan Singer, the film not only continues the tradition of Batman and Spiderman , but takes the genre to a whole new level.

Long accused of being the most boring of all superheroes - too square and not internalising enough - Superman now returns to explain that a hero's job is never done, that the world never stops whistling for a saviour.

Here is a superhero with incredible powers but even he cannot be with the one person he loves. He is a saviour of humanity but is actually an alien.

Singer, who had walked away from the highly popular X-Men series, has justified his move with Superman Returns . He has brought in just the right amount of pulsating action with a sprinkling of emotional scenes evocative of a superhero's aching loneliness.

The movie begins with Superman (Brandon Routh) returning to earth after five years of trying to find out what happened to his people. He returns to find his love Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) living with another man (James Marsden) while raising his son.

Steeped in melancholy, Superman also has to fight his arch nemesis Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) who has hatched a plan to create a whole new continent.