Arguably the most solid film-related panel of the whole San Diego Comic Con convention this year was the "Superman Returns" panel. Simple but effective, Bryan Singer was flown in the day before hand from Sydney and flew back out later that night. They're currently on 14-18 hour day shoots on the film in Australia as the work steers forward toward the September wrap of filming date. A long cross-Pacific flight and certain other mitigating circumstances meant the boy-faced helmer, who is adored by the fanboy community at large for the great work with the "X-Men" franchise amongst others, was obviously exhausted.

Nevertheless he proved one of the best panelists of the con - surprisingly strong audience questions lead to interesting answers, some fun jovial moments, and an apparent refreshing sense of humility which seems to have grown in recent years despite the success he's had of late. Writers Dan Harris and Mike Dougherty could be seen hanging around the front of the crowd as well. Singer confirmed that the first Donner film and to a lesser extent the second have influence on the events of this film. Most of that has to do with the idea that Clark Kent and Lois Lane had established a romantic relationship before he went away, thus the film's main theme really is about "old boyfriends coming home."

The changes to the costume were brought up. The raised 'S' on the chest for example was because a flat 'S' would look too anachronistic. Likewise the smaller size of it was done because he didn't want Superman to look like a billboard. Countless design and size variations were made and what was settled on best suited Routh's features and measurements. The film itself will run probably over two hours and whilst incorporating the John Williams theme it will mostly be new music by John Ottman. Marlon Brando is Jor-El in the film in one very small scene and computer graphics are used to some extent to recreate his look.

Then came the highlight of the thing - the montage clip. To preface this, after it aired the crowd stood and cheered like crazy and as a result they played it again to a just as excited response. Talking with people afterwards yielded interesting but varied reactions - practically all positive but to differing degrees. Much of the people at this presentation were of course the perfect audience for what was shown and seemed to love it. "Superman" comic fans especially - both fanboys and harsher critics I know, were on top of the world. Those not into the franchise or the comics as much seemed to respond a little more cooly but the interest was definitely there.

The clip itself was supposed to be a work in progress though looked pretty complete. Adding a layer of love to this clip was voiceover material from Marlon Brando and John Williams score which ran throughout the four-minute film that plays like an extended trailer, but the focus was more on the character moments than on flashy action visuals and yet what effects were there looked great. What's going to cause a lot of reaction is the film's heavily stylised look which if I had to make comparison, came off as a far more vivid and practical-oriented version of last year's "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow".

A film like "Batman Begins" took great pains to put its hero in a dark, realistic and modern day setting. This "Superman" is the complete opposite - a total fantasy film in practically every way. The clip seemed shot with a deliberately soft blurred look like the films of yesteryear and the scenes themselves played out with a refreshing old-fashionedness. Despite it being set in the modern day, there's an extremely 1940's look and feel to everything. A good example of this is a moonlit skyscraper rooftop scene where Superman is hugging Lois. It seems almost deliberately pointing to the fact that its a soundstage - but it actually suits the tone of the material.

My personal opinion though is I really quite enjoyed it and I must admit upfront that I'm not a comics fan - though I have liked the various TV incarnations and am a big fan of the first two Donner films. The most significant thing about this "Superman" is that it truly does stand out as distinctly separate from any of the other incarnations. This is not going to be "Smallville" on the big screen, and whilst certain elements seem like the old 70's films - this is still very distinctly different. Shot with a new kind of technology called the 'Genesis' camera, the aim is to replicate the look and feel of 70mm film but shoot it in digital. Does it pull it off? For the most part yes. This giant hall with ambient light wasn't the ideal viewing conditions admittedly and like I said there was a deliberately soft focus to many of the scenes but all in all it looked quite cinematic.

The highlights? The two final shots make one soar. One has Spacey's Lex Luthor overlooking some giant machine/cityscape and admiring a Kryptonian crystal. The other is Superman hovering in space with the cape flowing behind him before whooshing down to Earth. General moments of the story were revealed ranging from Clark's time away to Krypton and finding nothing left, to in the interim Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) having had a child out of wedlock with Richard White (James Marsden). The Daily Planet building is a beauty to behold, the scenes of Clark's youth all looked superb.

The criticisms? Questions still hang around the performances and how they'll do. From what I saw Routh seem to handle the job a lot better than I was expecting. His Clark Kent came off as a slightly skewered Christopher Reeve impersonation which fits well into the mold of the films. He looks great in the supersuit, though like many have stated the colouring still looks funky. Because of the way the film is shot, the colour scheme better suits the filming method but one shot up close of the S made the red seem very 'burgundy meets gun metal gray'. Langella's Perry White and Spacey's Lex Luthor seem pitch perfect too, even Marsden's Richard White character has some potential (and is NOT Perry's White son despite the same last names). Lois & Jimmy the jury is still out. Jimmy got one line in the clip so its not enough to make a call.

Bosworth heavily dominated though and whether she can do Lois remains to be seen. The main thing working against her is her age, even though she's playing the role quite mature she still seems a tad too young. Admittedly Singer agrees that the audience will have to suspend their disbelief in the case of the age issues, a lot of that though has to do with the franchise's future - if sequels are called for then a young cast like this is needed which is a fair assessment.

In a press conference after the film, he confirmed the film's opening credits will be in the spirit of the old film's credits. The only issues they've had shooting in Australia is the distance away from LA & NYC and the homesickness will get to him at times - but the film crew has been 'extraordinary'. The final deal to make the film came together in 72 hours, but originally was hatched on a plane between Singer and the two scribes who pulled together much of a multi-page treatment on a flight home from Hawaii around a year ago. The story is an original creation that pays respect to the comic and the films/series but isn't based on a specific story. Lex will be somewhere between the comic Luthor of the films and the darker Luthor of the "Smallville". Finally, there will be somewhere between 1500-2000 effects shots.