Superman Returns (21 June 2006)
directed by Bryan Singer
starring Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden, Parker Posey, Frank Langella, Sam Huntington, Eve Marie Saint, Tristan Lake Leabu
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MPAA rating: Studio: Warner Brothers, Original Film, Bad Hat Harry Productions, DC Comics, Legendary Pictures, Peters Entertainment Script: Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris Music: John Ottman Running time: 154 minutes Tags: Action; Adventure; comic-book adaptation; rifles; Science Fiction; superheroes Tactical strength: [7/10]
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for some intense action violence
Although some will call me a heretic for saying so, I never much liked any of the Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve, so I approached Superman Returns with some trepidation. This new Superman addresses many of my problems with the original series of cinematic releases.
In the early movies, I couldn't stand the effects. For such big budget movies, the effects just looked fake. The first Superman movie came out in 1978, a year after Star Wars, and the effects just stunk. I know that the industry didn't have all the cool computer graphics available now, but for a budget of $55 million ($42 million more than Star Wars), you could have bought some decent effects. Reeve's $250,000 salary clearly didn't break the budget. Superman Returns has excellent effects, and only once did a flying character look like a guy in a harness on a wire.
I also found the acting in the early films a little over the top. Perhaps in those early days of comic-book adaptations, the directors took the word comic too literally and directed their actors to really ham-up their roles. The acting in Superman Returns takes a very different approach -- the cast plays their parts as if in a serious drama. And that's a good thing. We don't have overly long dramatic monologues from Lex Luthor, long swooning scenes featuring Lois, or even lengthy tirades from Perry White. Instead, we have people reacting reasonably to unusual and dramatic events.
In this new movie, Superman (Brandon Routh) returns from visiting the remains of his home planet Krypton. Astronomers on Earth had identified the planet fragment, and Superman left to investigate. Apparently, even Superman has to take time to travel between planets and has been absent from his hero work for about five years. Coincidentally at the same time Superman returns, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) finds Spuerman's Arctic retreat, the fortress of solitude, and steals all the information crystals. While experimenting with the crystals back in Metropolis, Lex causes a power outage that extends into the atmosphere and takes out the power to the 747 about to launch the latest space shuttle riding piggy-back on the plane. Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) and many other reporters have ridden along in the 747 to cover the shuttle launch. Superman comes to the rescue, gets the shuttle safely into space, and saves the airplane from crashing into a stadium filled with people. Picking right up where he left off, Superman stars up his hero work again, making numerous rescues and interventions every day around the globe.
Several plot threads run through the movie. Clark keeps trying to find out if Lois still has any feelings for Superman. During Superman's absence, Lois got engaged to Richard White (James Marsden), nephew of Perry White (Frank Langella), wrote a Pulitzer-prize winning article "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman," and had Jason White (Tristan Lake Leabu), now five years old.
Lex Luthor has plans to use the Krypton crystals to create a new land mass in the Atlantic ocean that will sink the United States. Lex plans on leasing the new property, and protecting it with "advanced alien technology." When Lex launches a crystal into the Atlantic, he surrounds the crystal with green Kryptonite. As the crystal grows, so does the surrounding Kryptonite, and Lex hopes to create a continent deadly to Superman.
Follow on movies with the same characters played by new actors always invite comparison of the portrayals. Brandon Routh does an excellent job at portraying Superman. He embodies the confidence of a near-invincible creature, and yet displays just enough weakness to seem human. Routh also does well as a bumbling Clark Kent, although the disguised identity so thinly disguises Superman that only the trademark forehead curl and the external underwear seem to differentiate the two men. In the film, young Jason seems to intuitively make the connection that all the adults just ignore.
The original Superman movie did get one thing right: casting Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, and I wondered if Kevin Spacey could do an adequate job as the criminal mastermind. In this more serious, less over-the-top adaptation of the DC Comics universe, Spacey fits in just fine and displays enough intelligence to understand Kryptonite technology, enough evil to sacrifice henchmen and billions of Earth's population to his cause, and enough ego to give him flaws for Superman to exploit.
Since Superman Returns builds on the history established in the early movies, I didn't understand the need to have a flashback to young Superman (Stephan Bender) exploring his powers. We all know Superman can jump and fly, so I don't see the need to establish that Clark would have run around his farm exploring his abilities. This scene doesn't add to Superman's character, establish any relationship with other characters, or develop any of the major plot points explored in the rest of the movie. And the scene shot in the Kent barn where Clark learns he can defy gravity presents the one place where a flying character looks like he's wearing a harness connected to a wire.
Overall, director Bryan Singer has collected an excellent cast and presented a new and interesting addition to the Superman saga that surpasses all the previous Superman efforts.
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