Tank: Thanks for letting us know that in the comic prequel, Lois really believes that Richard is the father. My husband, brother, and I had an hour debate about this point after the film was over. The movie seemed to want to be deliberately vague on this point, so it doesn't seem right to have an official answer to this question in a source that the vast majority of movie viewers will never read. Does the comic go into detail about when/where Lois met Richard? I'm sure my biggest problem is that I'm a L&C fan, not a Superman fan, so I kept trying to force the L&C Lois and Clark out of my head as I was watching the film. But I can't accept that Lois would fall into bed with someone else so quickly. She has forgotten having sex with Superman, but she must remember the feelings she had for him...Supes didn't take away that much time from her memory. So why would she abandon those feelings for someone as whimpy as Richard? Okay, he's a nice guy, but he didn't blow me out of the water. Clark's a nice guy too, but Lois doesn't bother to notice him. Are we prepared to believe Lois likes Richard because of his money? I prefer to think she's not that shallow. My brother is convinced that Lois believes the lapse in her memory is caused by a raunchy night out at a bar and she's embarassed to have "evidence" that she got drunk, slept with a guy she didn't know, then passed out. Again, I prefer to think that's not in Lois' character either. So I concluded that Lois knows part of her memory is missing, the same time that coincides with Superman's departure, and figures something must have happened. She suspects it's Superman's child; it's common knowledge that Richard is not the biological father, but everyone is letting him play the role. What else explains why Lois hasn't actually married Richard? I gather no evidence from the movie that she's the independent, hard-hitting newswoman of L&C. Since now that Lois has evidence of her son's biological father (who she's clearly always and still does harbor feelings for), she can't marry Richard. Unfortunately, since the movie portrayed Richard as such a nice guy, Lois must necessarily come off as a total b&$*@ by dumping him ("Yeah, thanks for being my kid's father for the past 5 years, but the real one's flying around now, so screw you.") So in order for Lois not to have to do that, we've concluded that Richard must die in the next film (something nice and heroic, like jumping in front of a bullet to save Lois' son) so that Lois doesn't have to actually dump him. Thoughts about this line of thought, anyone?
I actually enjoyed my family's post-movie geek-fest debate more than the movie. Hated Clark (what little there was); hated all Superman-as-God metaphors; Kate appeared way too young for the role; liked Kevin's portrayal of Lex (though hated everyone else around him); liked the special effects; thought Lex's evil plot was good and grand enough to carry a movie. Overall, ehhh..okay. I didn't pay for it since I had the coupon from the L&C box set, so I can't complain.
