1. It's too little, too late.
Since Singer's departure, the X-Men franchise has mutated -- no pun intended -- into a completely different Beast. (Okay, that one was intentional.) For better or worse, Ratner's Last Stand completed the traditional trilogy by killing Jean Grey and Professor Xavier, although the latter's mental resurrection was hinted at in the final scene. Singer's muse Hugh Jackman has gone on to star in his own solo film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and a sequel is already in the works, so his availability for another X-Men might be in question. That, combined with plans for a prequel film, X-Men: First Class, which would feature Xavier's young, original students, and a spin-off starring Ryan Reynold's Deadpool, doesn't seem to leave a lot of room for Singer, whose strength so far seems to be adult ensemble pieces with largely male casts, like The Usual Suspects and Valkyrie.

2. Superman Returns was... disappointing.
We get what Singer was trying to do -- he was trying to pay homage to and update the first two cheesy-yet-beloved Superman movies from 1978 and '80. Except Brandon Routh, while chiseled from the same stone as Christopher Reeve, lacked the original actor's charm, and the idea that Lois had given birth to Clark's illegitimate, super-powered son while he was away in space didn't sit well with some fans. Kevin Spacey was a wonderfully villainous Lex Luthor, but his continued fixation on real estate is getting a little old. Overall, the movie was heavy on disasters and soap opera-like relationships, but light on any other action, mainly due to there not being any supervillain who could stand toe-to-toe with the hero -- or any supervillain at all, for that matter. If this was how he followed up Superman I and II, how would he follow up X-Men 1 and 2? We shudder to think.

3. We get it: He has something to say.
In the article, Singer says that he likes to "trick audiences into thinking they're seeing fireworks, but they're learning about themselves and listening to what I have to say." That's all well and good, and we certainly appreciate the parallels drawn in the X-films between being a mutant and being gay or a minority, but at some point you need to quit tricking and start focusing on the fireworks. If you emphasize your message too much, then you get what happened on Superman Returns, where the production was overshadowed by the rumor that Routh would come out of the closet, a rumor not helped by his appearance on the cover of The Advocate next to the headline, "How Gay is Superman?" (The comparison was to Clark Kent's hidden life as a hero, but Warner Bros. certainly didn't appreciate the implication.) If the comparison can be made subtly or humorously within the context of a good story -- as in X2: "Have you tried not being a mutant?" -- then it's not a problem, but if your goal is always to "trick" the audience, then you clearly like superheroes for the wrong reasons.

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