I wonder if "Superman Returns" suffered because it tried too hard to be a continuation of Superman:The Movie and Superman II, without really updating at all. Continuing the existing franchise might make sense with some movies, but when you have something like Superman, where you have lots of TV series and the comic books going as well, treating the previous movies as the only basis to build on seems extreme.
I guess this especially sticks out because "Superman Returns" continued the Clark as a disguise line that had been scapped in the comics and clearly was reversed in "Lois and Clark".
Of course Man of Steel takes us to the other extreme, Clark has other disguises (Joe, for example, I think that was his name at the bar as well as on Elsemere Island), but we only get a glimpse of Clark Kent, reporter at the end.
