For my money, the real centerpiece of Superman Returns is its villain, Lex Luthor. More compelling than a two-dimensional do-gooder, Lex is callous enough to cause the deaths of millions of innocent people without a twinge of remorse. And yet he doesn’t want to conquer the world. In fact, in a funny sort of way he wants to save it, or at least bring some cosmic drama to it. He’s smart enough to pull this off, too; it’s only the constant interference of an alien demigod that keeps him from succeeding. No wonder he’s bitter; if Kal-El’s spaceship had taken the long way around, crashing just 20 years later, Clark Kent would have grown up in Lexworld, defending a very different sort of truth and justice. No prime directive there, alas.

Via Backwards City.