So like I was saying, Superman Returns isn't perfect.
So why drop almost seven bucks on this flick?
Go see Superman’s return to the big screen if you want to see a movie that’s innocent, a movie that has spirit, and a movie that has heart. Go see it if you want to see a movie about a hero who is bigger than life while remaining human. Superman endures because he wants to help people with his abilities, when he could more easily be a god in a cape and live just for himself. One of my all-time favorite Superman moments comes from the original Superman: The Movie. Superman is slowly but surely drowning, because Lex Luthor has put some kryptonite around his neck and tossed him in a pool of water. One of Lex’s associates, Ms. Tessmacher, is watching, wondering what to do: save Superman or let him die? Superman sees her and pleads: “Please, Ms Tessmacher! Please help me save all those people!” He doesn’t say “Please, Ms. Tessmacher! Please save me!” His foremost concern is the safety of other people. That moment, played perfectly by Christopher Reeve, still gives me chills when I think about.
Superman’s the guy we wish we could be more often. Not because we could get around the five o’clock bottlenecking at Ambassador and Verot by zipping up, up, and away from our cars and the traffic. Or because we could use X-ray vision to find that ever-elusive, high-paying lotto scratch card. We wish we could be like Superman because he always does the right thing and he’s willing to lay down his life to achieve that goal. We all wish we could do that, but we don’t.
Superman works as a myth because he taps into the mythic elements of the hero that have been with us since humanity began. We want to be better than we are, whether that’s by being super physically or emotionally or super emotionally or mentally.
This is the heart of Superman Returns. It’s about a man who puts what he really wants, love and a connection to someone in life because he feels different and alone (and is, since he’s the last living member of his entire race) behind the needs of people he doesn’t always know or who perhaps don’t appreciate his efforts. Obviously, there are some striking Christian metaphors in the story of Superman. This film alludes to those, but only because it deals with the character of Superman, who has always wanted to love and be loved for something other than what makes him super.
I won’t waste time talking about the well-written story of Superman Returns. To do so might require giving away plot details that you need to see revealed during the course of the story. I will sum up the movie in this way: Superman, the same Superman from the first two Superman films with Christopher Reeve, returns from Earth after leaving for five years. When he returns, all he wants to do is find out where he belongs in a world now darker and more serious, which has also done just fine without him. He also wants to find out where he stands with the love of his life, Lois Lane. However, he has to deal with some developments in Lois’s life and the machinations of Lex Luthor.
That’s the story in a nutshell. I refuse to give anything away. I’d rather instead talk about the performances. Brandon Routh, a relative unknown, is the new Superman. I mean this in more ways than one. He personifies the three elements of the Superman character: 1-Clark Kent, who was born and raised in Smallville, Kansas, where he learned what it meant to be human, 2-Kal-El, the Last Son of Krypton, the man who has more power than anyone else on Earth but who is alone and isolated as the last survivor of a dead world, and 3-Superman, the public amalgamation of the other two characters, who fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way.
Routh not only had to contend with following in Christopher Reeve’s footsteps, but also, with playing a character with so many difference nuances in characterization. He excels at this, though his Clark doesn’t seem to get enough time to shine. Like I said, this isn’t a perfect movie. All in all, you’ll quickly accept that this guy is Superman. And while there are those movie reviewers and folks I know who have said that Routh doesn't have much to do or say, and that he doesn't act, I have to say that I think there's a misunderstanding of what this performance should have been. What Routh does in this film, to the great direction of Singer is nuance his performance. He's not giving us the Superman of Superman: The Movie, who just got to Metropolis and is loving what he does. He's not giving us the more seasoned Superman of Superman II who had to choose between being Superman and having the love he always wanted, while also facing the only other people who survived his planet's destruction (who, I might add, would rather kill Superman than tell him about the world he wishes he'd known.)
Routh is giving us a Superman whose high hopes of finding someone like him were dashed on a journey to a place that was once home, but which almost killed him. (I can't really say more without giving something away...). Routh's Superman is out of place and out of time. He's not changed in the five years since he departed, but the world he returns to has changed a great deal. It's gone on without him, in fact. So Routh's Superman is emotionally damaged from the journey the film's title tells us he's returning from. And then he finds that the world that once embraced him has moved on, especially the one person he's most concerned about: Lois. She's got a family of her own now, and Kal-El has no one. No one just like him, at least.
In my opinion, this is where Routh shines. Sure, he's not a Julliard-trained actor like Chris Reeve, but I think he does a great job showing us the tri-faceted aspect of Superman's personality. That's by no means an easy task. I also think it bears keeping in mind that this is Routh's first big film. He'd previously only done television. I think his talent is only going to grow in his next projects, and he's going to be a different Superman in the next film. The only complaint I have about Routh is that I wish he had more screen time as Clark Kent and Kal-El. This movie really focuses only on Superman. Yet the beauty of the character is that he's not just an alien raised like a human whose day job is being a superhero. Nor is he a complete alien, with no human ties, who just looks human. He's all of these things and more. That's where the depth of the character comes in. I think there needed to be more Clark and Ma Kent time, and more Clark and Lois time. But Singer had a big movie with a lot of characters and story to deal with. So my complaint is just a minor quibble.
Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Holy crap, Spacey doesn’t disappoint. If you remember, Gene Hackman hammed it up as Luthor in the original films. The problem there was, Luthor was never a campy villain. The beauty of the Luthor character is that he’s the perfect opposite number of Superman, which is why he’s become Superman’s archenemy. Where Superman is an alien being with virtually unlimited physical and mental ability, Luthor is a human being with virtually unlimited mental ability. Luthor is a super-genius, with an off-the-charts intellect and will. And while Superman uses his great abilities to serve all of mankind, Luthor uses his to serve himself. Yet we get the feeling that Luthor, like every great villain, was only a few steps away from being a hero himself. You see, a great villain is a tragic villain. He could have become a hero, but there was some force or influence that ultimately convinced him to take the wrong path. We get hints of that in the original Superman movies and in Superman Returns. There’s some dialogue that establishes that maybe, just maybe, if Luthor’s father had been a better man and a better father to his son, Lex might have become a great force for good. This mirrors Superman, who we know from the original films and the story of Superman Returns is the good man he is because his father was a good man, who made the ultimate sacrifice to save his son and who left a model of goodness to be emulated and inspired by.
Spacey makes Luthor a colorful villain, but he’s never campy. Spacey’s Luthor is the comic Luthor. He’s got a veneer of normalcy and madness, but underneath there’s a geyser of brilliance-fueled malice and evil waiting to explode. Spacey’s Luthor spent five years in prison because of Superman, and his thirst for revenge, coupled with his formidable intellect, creates a very disturbing and deadly foe for The Man of Steel. There are scenes between Luthor and Superman that will greatly disturb you. Luthor and his ex-con thugs do things to Superman that are hard to watch. Brutal, violent, cold things. And Lex’s ultimate scheme is sheer brilliance. I can’t talk about it without giving it away, but it makes perfect sense, and it’s never been done in the comics or in any other versions of the character. I’ll just say this: if you were a super-villain looking to build a hideout that would keep you safe from your superhero arch-foe, you’d do what Luthor does. Trust me.
And now, Kate Bosworth. Man, this is where I have to honestly admit I was disappointed. Bosworth is a tremendous talent. If you doubt me, rent "Beyond the Sea," in which she co-stars with Spacey. She's got great range and depth for an actress her age. But in Superman Returns, she's playing Lois Lane. Now, Lois is in her early thirties in the Reeve films and in the comics. As those of us who are thirty know, a lot of growth happens between Bosworth's age of twenty-three and Lois Lane's age of thirty something. And while women are statistically more mature than men and Bosworth is an actress, she just doesn't completely convince me that A) she's thirty-two or thirty-three and B) she's a mom. I don't buy it, and this hurts the film, as Lois's relationship with Superman is the core of the story. Bosworth does pull it off at certain times, but I guess I just wanted to see an older actress in the role. To be honest, my dream Lois would have been X-Men's Rebecca Romijn. She's thirty-four years old, she's a knockout, and she's got that fire and charisma that Lois Lane should have. Maybe Bosworth will back out of her contract for future films and Singer will give his old X-Men pal Rebecca a call? One can only hope. If you're curious how Romijn would look as a brunette, recall the scene in X-Men: The Last Stand when she reverts to human form. She's got the black hair and blue eyes. That's Lois. And in those eyes is that fire, that "I'll kick you square where it hurts" look that Lois has always had. This is why Teri Hatcher remains, in my opinion, the best Lois Lane yet. Though she sometimes made Lois a little too tough and unlikable, Hatcher tapped into the heart of the character.
Finally, I want to comment on the special effects and the music. The effects were astounding. I told you about the amazing opening credits in my last entry, so now on to everything else. Superman Returns finally gives us the Superman who can do all those things we expect Superman should be able to do. I readily admit, however, that there was a lot more that could have been done. But I wanted to cheer every time Superman was, well, super. From the moment he performs his first super-save towards the beginning of the film, I was in heaven. Routh, like Reeve before him, works with the SFX to make you believe he's really flying. Additionally, all of Superman's powers get a little bit of screen time. And then there's Superman's struggle to stop Luthor's scheme, which I mentioned earlier is brilliant. This is just amazing stuff. I won't go into any more detail. You need to see it untainted by spoilers. And be on the lookout for an "eye-catching" scene involving Superman and some bank robbers packing heavy firepower. It's one of the coolest things I've seen in any movie.
As for the score by John Ottman, well...it's beautiful. Unlike a lot of modern film scores, it never once overpowers the film. A good score is what some filmmakers and composers call "wallpaper" in a film, i.e., you're vaguely aware it's there but without it, things just wouldn't be the same. Ottman brilliantly uses my all-time favorite John Williams pieces from Superman The Movie to great effect. The Superman theme lets you know that Superman's about to come on the screen or that he's about to do perform a super-feat, and Ottman places the theme and others from Williams's original score in just the right places. When I heard the theme over the opening credits, I just wanted to cheer. The original films wouldn't have been the same without the score, and Superman Returns wouldn't be the same without Ottman's work.
Alright, that's my review. Superman Returns has great performances, a well-written and executed story, special effects that serve the story rather than replace it, and above all, heart and soul. Spirit. And a good spirit at that. This story and this movie is about a good man trying to do good despite his own wants and needs and the efforts of evil men to destroy him. It's got everything I imagine a person would want in a summer film. It's not perfect, as I said before. By no means. And there is a certain plot element that I'm still very much on the fence about. Honestly, I hate it. Right now, as of this first movie, I hate it. I just don't think it's a good idea. It's a bad idea based on another bad idea from one of the previous Superman films. As such, I think it weakens this film. I won't go further, as I'd be giving away too much. You be the judge, and then let me know what you think in the comments box. Gotta fly, Meauxses
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