As far as I'm concerned, Superman has never been done properly in live action before (it looks like this film might change that though). The OG movies were based on an older version of the character and were constrained by the limitations of VFX at the time. Smallville had high points (most of them the Luthors and NOT clark) but was mostly him whining & simping for 10 years and was constrained by their budget. Superman Returns was just a bad fukking idea from the start. I like the animated series and movies though.
Superman Returns is trash, but what's crazy is that it was the BEST idea for a Superman movie out of all the fukking crazy ideas WB was throwing around. They were REALLY about to put a Nick Cage superman movie theaters -
Hilarious (and long) story about it