In my book, the movie is a homage to almost every previous Superman incarnation and current ones, from the George Reeves' inspired costume (as said by Singer himself), the vague connection to STM (and Smallville to an extent), to the comics (xenophobic Lex Luthor is out of the books), and the visual style which looks to be a mesh of Max Fleischer and Alex Ross. And I'm probably not even touching the tip of it.
Besides, if Superman saving a plane screams unoriginal, then I hope someone doesn't think a Batmobile chase scene or "I'm Batman" is original.