We can't apply Star Wars/Star Trek logig to Superman Returns. Superman Returns uses Superman The Movie and Superman 2 as it's background history. Superman The Movie states, per Jor-El's dialog in the film, that when Krypton exploded, and Baby Kal left Krypton, he left many thousands of years ago.
"By now, you will have reached your 18th year as it is measured on earth. By that reckoning, I will have been dead for many thousands of your years."
The Crystal was set up to call to him around the time he turned 18 on earth, but it doesn't mean that time went by real fast were Krypton is and so 1000 years on Krypton equals 1 year on earth. It was just set up to call to him when he physically turned 18 years. And the same actor plays his dad in this film, delivering many of the same lines. So that line said in STM is established history in Superman Returns. So weather you want to accept it or not, the reality as stated in the film is that, per Jor El's dialog in the film, this occurred. So, again, when he left krypton, dinosaurs were roaming the earth. Even though three years had passed in his ship, thousands of years passed in the universe. So, the same rules apply in returns. His ship is the same technology as the ship that sent him to earth in the first place. So when he left earth to go to krypton and came back, double that time would pass. So, probably 20,000 or 30,000 years would pass on earth before he got back here, but only 5 years would pass to him in the ship. That is the films established logic, established in STM. So no Lois. No Jason. They are all thousands of years dead. This is logic that is establish in the film based on Einstein's theory of relativity. You can't apply another set of films logic to a film who uses a previous film as it's established backstory. Why is this so hard for you to get?
