Superman in film that in his absence Lois Lane has given birth to a son and become engaged. Singer chose to follow Donner's lead by casting relatively unknown Brandon Routh as Superman, who resembled Christopher Reeve somewhat, and more high-profile actors in supporting roles, such as Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Singer brought his entire crew from "X2" to work on the film. Via digitally-enhanced archive footage, the late Marlon Brando appeared in the film as Jor-El. "Superman Returns" received positive reviews and grossed approximately $391 million worldwide. In February 2006, four months before the release of "Superman Returns", Warner Bros. announced a
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace Time Warner let the Superman feature film franchise go undeveloped until the late 1990s when a variety of proposals were considered, including several that would reboot the franchise with different versions of the characters and settings. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 12% of 41 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average score is 2.9/10. The consensus reads: "The "Superman" series bottoms out here: the action is boring, the special effects look cheaper, and none of the actors appear interested in where the plot's going." The film received a poor review by Janet Maslin of "The New