Superman Returns director Bryan Singer talks about his movie to Christianity Today:

The guys who created Superman were Jewish, so I don’t think they intended him to be a Christ figure, but he seems to have kind of become that over the years.

Singer: I don’t think Jesus … Well, I can’t get into religious things, but um…

Well, you are talking to Christianity Today!

Singer: Well, yeah, that’s true, so I guess it’s going to come up! (Laughs) I think that it [Superman as Christ figure] is kind of a natural evolution, because he began as kind of a Moses figure, of the child sent by the parents down the river to fulfill a destiny.

Kind of as a liberator in response to Hitler and the Nazis?

Singer: Yes. The Second World War presented an interesting dilemma for the Superman creators, because he was a very much an inspirational figure for the troops—and yet even though he was so powerful, he did not simply go clean up the Nazi menace and solve all the problems in Europe. He helped out, but he primarily led by example. He stirred others; he inspired. He left the actual heroism to the real heroes, to the soldiers in the field and abroad, and in that way, he became this very inspiring figure.

And that, obviously, translates into these kinds of allegories, Christ being a natural one, because Superman’s a savior. And even more so in my film, because he’s gone for a period of time, and then he returns. For me to say that those messianic images don’t exist in the movie would be absurd.