Superman Returns

Rating

Director

Bryan Singer

Screenplay

Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris, Bryan Singer

Length

154 min.

Starring

Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden, Parker Posey, Frank Langella, Sam Huntington, Eva Marie Saint, Marlon Brando, Kal Penn, David Fabrizio

MPAA Rating

PG-13 (For some intense action violence)

Review

After two decades of absence, the man of steel returns to cinemas in Bryan Singer’s latest comic adaptation Superman Returns.

What has Superman been doing all these years? Languishing in Production Hell. The film that’s had more directors and stars attached than Hollywood Walk of Fame, Superman Returns emerges from its long gestation as one of the year’s better comic book films. With X-Men III: The Last Stand woefully missing its director (who took on this picture instead), it’s difficult to imagine a better film to take its place.

Batman Begins came back last year with a rousing send-up by Memento director Chris Nolan. That film was seminal in the genre. Superman Returns, while being far more than adequate, doesn’t live up to expectations. Perhaps it’s the scenery chewing performance from Kevin Spacey asLex Luthor (oh for the oddly cast, but superior Gene Hackman). Or maybe it’s the doe-eyed weakness of Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane (Margot Kidder will always be the ultimate Lois…forget Teri Hatcher). Even Frank Langella can’t pull out an interesting performance.

That’s not to say that Superman Returns is devoid of good performances. Brandon Routh, besides looking remarkably like Christopher Reeve, doesn’t do a bad job as the big ‘S’ and Parker Posey is a riot as Lex’s moll Kitty Kowalski. Even Eva Marie Saint in her very limited role as Clark Kent’s mother Martha is endearing.

The best part of the film is Singer’s captivating direction. If ever there was a director suited for this genre, it’s he. Even the most obvious shots are intriguing and nothing feels repetitive. The action scenes are top-notch, though ruined some in previews. The entire film has a very ‘Live on Memorex’ quality. Singer makes us feel like we’re part of the action.

Singer does let Superman Returns get preachy. Allegorically, Clark’s alter-ego has always had a Christ complex. He alone can save the world (and he even does so in one night of‘welcome back’ nostalgia). We know and understand this about him but Singer pushes it way too hard in one scene featuring Superman floating in space near the end with his arms thrust out from his side and another involving Lex and a shiv-shaped piece of Kryptonite.

We can’t help but feel lectured to a minor extent, but moralizing is what the old time comics used to do. They were a way to present complex moral equations to children in a way that was oddly denounced by parents. The same parents whose kids make the film adaptations wildly popular today.

Superman Returns doesn’t approach the quality of Nolan’s work, nor does it even match Singer’s previous work on the first two X-Men movies but in the realm of comic book (we’re not talking graphic novels here) adaptations, decent is at least a good thing (anyone remember Hulk?).

Review Written

July 20, 2006