I think people are being a little unfair to McG. He did craft a pretty decent sci-fi action flick, and he didn't totally crap on the Terminator franchise. Salvation was a noble, though flawed attempt to revive the Terminator. The film was probably one script rewrite short of being really memorable, but it was a decent addition to the Terminator franchise overall.
That being said I think Singer v. McG goes to Singer. The first Charlie's Angels was dumb fun, a guilty pleasure, but the second one was deplorable.
Overall, Singer's X-films and Valkyrie were much better. Singer wasn't 100% true to the X-Men source material but what comic book film is? I think he captured the spirit of the X-Men pretty well. He got Magneto and Xavier, and those two are the tent poles of the X-Men saga. He also did a good job setting up the rivalry between Wolverine and Cyclops. The attraction between Logan and Jean was well done. In the first film particularly, he also created an interesting relationship between Logan and Rogue that made Logan more than just a bad-ass cliche.
However, Singer didn't seem to have an appreciation of the Storm character and she was really underdeveloped. So was his Sabretooth. I liked his take on Mystique though. She still was something of a lethal, taunting temptress.
Now, Superman Returns was worse than Terminator Salvation. In that one, Singer had too much of a slavish devotion to the Donner films, not necessarily to the Superman character.
Whereas with the X-Men, I think it was easier for Singer to get the idea of a group of social outcast, he didn't quite know what to do with a character universally loved like Superman. He tried to update him by making him a quasi-religious figure and that didn't work. His slavish devotion to the Donner films prevented him from truly updating the film and doing much fresh with it outside of his decision to give Superman a son.
Also, the casting for that film was flat to poor. Routh was decent, but made to channel Reeve and that didn't work. Strange that Routh was channeling Reeve but Singer didn't have Bosworth doing the same with Kidder. Bosworth was horrible in the role of Lois.
When Richard White is the most decent and heroic figure in a Superman film you've got a problem. The best casting was Kevin Spacey, but they shackled him to a 70's portrayal of Luthor that totally ignored the rebooted/modern interpretation that most fans were probably more familiar with through the Byrne comics, Lois and Clark, STAS, and Smallville. Singer tried to find a mix between the old and new and made some bad choices. Superman wasn't super enough in Returns. Really the only thing he should've kept from the Donner films was the John Williams theme.
I don't think McG needs an intervention. He did better with Salvation than I thought he would, however he still needs work to be a director that when I hear his name is attached to something I feel automatically good about it.
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