Starring: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacy, and Parker Posey
Director: Bryan Singer
Writers: Michael Dougherty & Dan Harris
In 1978 director Richard Donner convinced everyone that a man could fly and for the first time since the 50’s television show Superman was in the spotlight. The character of Superman is basically a universal symbol of heroism in the modern world. The big red “S” is a symbol that means hero to practically everyone in the world. In essence Bryan Singer had big red boots to fill, and fill them he did. I’ll come right out and say it, this is the most expensive film ever made and it does not dissapoint.
Superman Returns picks up after a five year hiatus after the events of Superman I and II with the Man of Steel returning from the remains of his dead homeworld. Which sets up the whole plot. This movie is about legacy the legacy of Superman and the legacy of the planet Krypton. This theme is laid out in two major ways, the first is that Lex Luthor plans to create a new Krypton out of crystals from the planet, and the second is a secret that you’ll have to see to believe.
Next I must talk about the actors. First of all Brandon Routh steps in and plays an excellent Superman and Clark Kent. For a continuation of the Donner series he is the perfect Superman because his characterization is pretty synonomous and he even looks quite a bit like Christopher Reeves. Kevin Spacy as Lex Luthor is just as good as it sounds. He has humor, but with a menacing edge that I felt was lacking in Gene Hackman’s performance. Kate Bonsworth and James Marsden perform admirably as Lois Lane and her fiance Richard White. However my favorite bit of co-star is the ever-hilarious Parker Posey as Kitty Kowalski, Lex’s right hand gal. She steps up as a brilian comic actress as usual and even gets a chance to showcase her dramatic chops.
This film is a wonder to watch and the CG is flawless. I was looking for the seems and I was hard pressed to find any. The practical and the computer generated blend into one beautiful world here. Superman Returns is a loving omage to the first and second film in continuity as well as in asthetics. Even the opening credits to the film are the same as the 70’s feature along with that classic Superman theme (even though the rest of the music was written by John Ottman). The film is paced more leigurly than Spider-man or X-men and has an almost distinctly un-comic book movie feel in that Big Blue never really has a hero to villain stand-off. So the end is without a big bang, but it is just as powerful.
Basically with a great director, script, and a cast made in heaven its hard to go wrong with this summer blockbuster.
I wanted to like this film, I really did. For God’s sake, it’s Superman! And I did like it, to an extent, but I felt kinda cheated…
It was the same feeling after I saw V for Vendetta, another all-right movie that could have been a masterpiece, (read the Alan Moore original comic if you haven’t. Now that’s an f-ing maserpeice.) Singer should have stuck with X-Men. He really understood how that worked, but it felt like he didn’t quite know how to do Superman, so he didn’t. No conflict in Supes is resolved, he has no questions to answer, he just seemed like cardboard. I mean, he barely had a line, hardly showed any kind of emotion at all. They gave him no bounce in his step, no twinkle in his eye, there was no magic in this Superman, the whole thing felt, I dunno, duitiful. Even the myth element of Supes seemed like it was written as a heavy-handed labor rather than love, (him falling to Earth in a Christ position for instance. Jesus…)
I have other minor squablles, (Lois had no spark, Jimmy was damn annoying and not in a good way, Spacey as Lex couldn’t pull off funny or menacing surprisingly, etc.) but the main problem with this picture is that this Superman could not inspire, and that’s the key. When Simon and Shuster put Supes together in the late 30’s, he was meant to be an answer to the Aryan Ubermensch (they were Jewish after all), an example of mankind at its best but also its most humane. Superman Returns could not bring such images to mind; it failed to conjur the mythic and thus, failed Superman.
I unfortunately have to agree with TheQuestion on this one, but I also agree with Manifested on some points. First of all, I think Routh plays a great Supes and Kent; having that Christopher Reeve feel to the characters. Aside from that, and the many enjoyable moments of humor, the movie is probably only good enough to see once. Except on IMAX that is. Singer perhaps made this movie intentionally for IMAX as there are specific 3D scenes that glorify the magnitude of the film for a remarkable expirience. (It is, I believe, the first 3D feature-length production film to open on IMAX; making it groundbreaking cinema.)
So there are qualms the viewer may have with some rather annoying, cheesy, or poor acting by the other new-namers; except for veteran star Frank Langella whose presence in the film boosted the quality just a little. Kevin Spacey had an opportunity to really make Lex Luthor shine and I feel he came short in that. In earnest, I felt this wasn’t the kind of movie for him… his path has been continually proven conductive in psychological films.
The few suprises in the plot (which create some debatable arguments), and moments of bullshit; combined with the lack of current-event politics boiled in as Superman IV did magnificently; has led this movie to appear out of place in the saga that has built it up. Seriously, Superman goes off to deal with high-tech goons robbing a federal bank when he could have gone over to the middle east and bring Osama bin Laden to justice! While Superman IV was remarkably much more real than anything as it dealt with the world threat of nuclear weapons, Superman Returns failed to deal with such world problems of today such as huricanes (which could be averted by blowing at them), tsunamis (again, blowing at them), the war in Iraq (…he could blow at that too), and who knows what else… (whatever it is he could probably blow at it). Around the begining we see Clark channel flipping on the tv watching the carnage of our modern-day world… what does he do about it? Yeah… you know the answer.
Point is… this movie had potential, but it sold itself short of reaching it. I just hope Singer manages to make the sequel much more worthwhile. So… go see Superman Returns; please, do! Just keep in mind what you’re paying the theatre for. If you can go see it at an IMAX, that will make up for some of the pain that this movie causes.
Eh, ground-breaking cinema is a bit lofty a title. In that sense, Spy Kids 3D could be called ground-breaking cinema and Lord knows that ain’t the case. Technologically it’s nice, sure, but groundbreaking cinema is a bit much…
Plus, I’m afraid I must disagree with the current-events idea. Superman IV was an awful movie (Richard Lester was the WRONG choice. Good for Hard Days Night. Bad for Superman.) Most of the time when superheroes deal with real world problems, it seems forced, (that is, most of the time. I am highly anticipating Frank Miller’s “Holy Terror, Batman!” in which the Dark Knight fights Al-Queda in Gotham. But that’s because Frank Miller can do anything…) In the 40’s, when DC (then National Comics) decided to have Superman go to war like Capt. America, they wisely decided to keep him from just solving the whole conflict himself, (which he easily could have done. Supes didn’t have to contend with serious Nazi supervillians like Capt. America’s Red Skull. Besides, until the mid-80s, Superman was known to be powerful enough to move planets out of orbit. Goddamn planets. He could end WWII as if he were wiping his ass…) They knew that doing so would trivialize the real world conflict and the real people fighting it.
Besides, if Supes solved all our problems for us, he would no longer be the inspiration figure he was concieved to be; instead he would become the Ubermensch figure he was meant to oppose, ruling over an infantile humanity with no hope of improving itself, (a point brought up by Lex Luthor in the recent Birthright miniseries and briefly in Superman Returns.)
Upon another viewing of Superman Returns I still think its a fantastic film. One thing I noticed was that while the script was a little thin Bryan Singer pulled it off due to spectacular visuals. This was definetly a film where pictures spoke louder than words.
Although I felt that Kate Bonsworth tried her best and pulled out a good performance I do feel she was too young an acress to pull off Lois Lane convinsingly.
I’m obviously late to this party, which is usually the case. I seldom go to the theatre. I prefer to watch 'em at home. I like to wait until the hype blows over before I view films. High expectations based on hype and other’s opinions have spoiled more than one movie for me.
This one I thoroughly enjoyed. The special FX were spectacular. They were employed to give the story panoramic larger- than- life vistas perfect for the Superman theme. The cinematography was perhaps the best aspect of the film.
This Superman was more god-like than ever. The film makers didn’t dodge the latent messianic implications of the theme. “The Son becomes The Father and the Father becomes the Son.” Quasi-theology! The mythic character of the story was explicit.
Gone were the James Bond-like quips. This viewer didn’t miss them. Superman doesn’t need to talk. A literal alien, Superman’s powers distance him from the human race. He is alone in his super-ness, but the pain of his condition is his means for understanding the suffering of others. Besides, the old man’s mission statement loop is rolling in the background. He has a lot on his mind, what with the voices he hears (evrybody on the planet). No wonder he seems a little depressed throughout. Would Prozac work on the Man of Steel?
The new guy looked great as did just about everybody in this film. Like Christopher Reeves, he effectively affected an ineffectual geek as Clark Kent. (Grammar?) I found Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luther very amusing. He makes a great icy sociopath. The earlier Superman movies seemed like cinematic versions of Broadway musicals without singing. This one was far more realized visually. For the most part I enjoyed the musical score too.
It could have been an uplifting feel-good movie, except that, in the end, as always, one remembers, “Oh yea, Superman doesn’t exist.” Still, overall for me, it was the best-ever Superman movie. I wonder if Jerry Seinfeld liked it.
