Trivia: Henry Cavill was considered to play Superman. He'd later go on to play the part in Man of Steel and subsequent movies.
Trivia: While the film received generally positive reviews and decent fan reception upon release, it gained a moderate amount of backlash in the years since its release due to its slower pace and lack of action in the first half. Director Bryan Singer has admitted that the film is a bit too heavy on drama and light on action, and has stated that if he could go back and re-do the film he would have cut out most of the first act to quicken the film, and would have begun the movie with the famous "plane rescue" sequence to grab ahold of the audience's attention early on.
Chosen answer: The chunks that fall off the "new" land are actually bits of the earth's crust. Superman had actually drilled himself way beneath the "new" land (under the bottom of the ocean floor) so that he was not in contact with the Kryptonite infected crystal land, so that he could lift it up and get rid of it. It is this earth crust that falls off slowly, revealing the kryptonite crystals beneath, and this is why his strength slowly gets taken away as he flies higher, until there is too much exposed and he loses all his strength.
mandy gasson