Spoiler Warning) In Superman Returns, if that big ass continent was really made out of Kryptonite, how could he lift it? Isn that an Anachronism, or a Gregory Benford Moment?
NO!!! Singer and company were very careful about this, actually. The island wasn’t completely made of Kryptonite, in fact, it contained some, enough to weaken him. Luthor states that the way this worked was that the crystals took on each other’s qualities. The Shard Lex stabs him with is supposedly pure Kryptonite. That’s the real deal. After Lois removes that he’s better, if not great. However, it should be noted that before going back to the Island, Superman recharges with sunlight, which doesn’t make him 100%, but does help. When Superman returns to the continent, he stays the hell away from it, and uses his heat vision to carve it out of the Earth’s crust, keeping a safe layer of bedrock between he and it. Even then it’s a major effort for him to lift it, and we see large pieces of the mass falling off. It’s when the Island continues to grow and Kryptonite breaks through that this becomes a major problem, one that almost kills him. Note, he never died (in the movie), but was comato
