Dear Bryan Singer

I liked Superman Returns. It wasn't brilliant, but it was better than the film we could have got. Have you seen the designs for the intended Tim Burton/Nicolas Cage version? They're utterly terrible. And Cage as Superman?! Thank the movie gods that it never happened.

Anyhow, Superman Returns, as adequate as it was, still disappointed me in several areas. So here I'm going to list what I didn't like about it and what I would like to see in Superman Returns II/Superman Returns Again/Superman Reborn/Superman VI/Superman: The Man of Steel/whatever it's called. Note inevitable spoilers lie ahead.

1. Have a good villain who is a physical threat to Superman. This is the obvious one that everyone wants to see. Lex Luthor can be a good villain if used correctly, and Kevin Spacey is a great choice to play him, but he's run his course in the Superman films. I'd be happy with him returning as a secondary villain, but Superman needs a nemesis that seems stronger than him. The reason a lot of the proposed scripts for Superman Returns were essentially remakes of Superman II is that General Zod and co were awesome enemies and really made Superman the underdog. The super-powered ruckus in Metropolis could be quite something with today's technology. Having said that, I don't think a simple rehash of the second film is called for, just effective villains would be nice. My personal pick, with a little tweaking from the comics: Doomsday from the Death of Superman comics arc.
2. Ditch the kid. It's not the actor's fault (I thought Tristan Lake Leabu was pretty good for a child of his age) but the idea of giving Superman a son, especially this abruptly, was not a wise one. Still, they can't really just ditch the whole plot strand between movies. I've got two suggestions for this: firstly, it could be revealed that Jason isn't actually Supes' son as it was fairly ambiguous; or secondly, have him killed as soon as possible in the next film. I don't see the latter option happening in a million years as it's way too dark, but I just like the potential for Superman to go nuts from grief.
3. More action scenes. This kind of relates to point 1, but it would just be nice to see Supes doing more heroic-type stuff (obviously the budget is an issue here). Also, and this is probably going to sound weirdly nitpicky, but show Superman taking off more. In Returns you mostly just saw him as Clark, then in the sky as Superman. There was only one costume change shot as well. I loved those bits from the Reeve films.
4. A more light-hearted tone. I liked that the whole Superman mythos was taken seriously, but it didn't mean that the film had to be as cheery as a funeral. Follow Donner's example from the first Superman or Sam Raimi's with the Spider-Man films (I think Raimi has got the seriousness/humour balance pretty spot on so far). More snappy dialogue would help; the script for Superman Returns was bashed out in a few days and it showed.
5. Better flying shots. I'm not talking about effects, because they were generally good in SR. Mainly I'm talking about the positioning of the camera. In the original films a lot of the flying was done with Chris Reeve in close up. It was primarily due to technological restrictions but it worked well, especially with Reeve's stellar acting. In SR most of the time we saw Superman flying he was a small speck on the screen. The most promising part was the flying through the clouds shot at the end.
   
6. Replace Kate Bosworth, or make Lois more likeable. I don't really favour messing with continuity unneccessarily, but Chris Nolan has replaced Katie Holmes with Maggie Gyllenhaal for Batman: The Dark Knight. Bosworth was a bit bland in SR, not to mention too young. And what was with the costumes and make-up being so unflattering? It seemed they were trying to make Lois look unattractive, and to me they pretty much succeeded. I think Bosworth might be able to pull it off next time, but give her a more interesting and feisty character.
7. Improve the suit. Although this is the seventh point, to me it's one of the most important. The new suit was controversial when it was first revealed, and I'm still not very happy with it. Basically, the colours need to be brighter, especially the reds. The suit worked and did not need changing. I'm OK with some updating - the raised chest symbol is fine, if a little small - but get the colours right next time.

That's all I can think of just now, but if Singer manages to address most or all of these concerns then I'll be a happy man. I saw Superman Returns four times at the cinema, mainly hoping that it would improve on repeat viewings. Hopefully I'll see the next one four times (at least) simply because it's a great film.

Wow, that was a long post.

P.S. I would still definitely prefer a sequel to Superman Returns than a Justice League movie.