Superman Returns
by Jerry Roberts
When you stand in the shadow of giants sometimes its hard to be appreciated. That's the problem facing Bryan Singer's Superman Returns which stands in he shadow of Richard Donner's Superman which remains the greatest of all superhero movies and Superman II which was nearly perfect. I have tried and tried and tried to stay away from comparisons but it's not an easy task, the movie follows the same bloodlines as those two films, it's really a sequel. But it's kind of like trying to review the Star Wars prequels because its hard to avoid comparisons.
I can say this, Singer never forgets his origins, he respects the story and but never forgets that this is his vision. The movie has a heart and a deeply felt emotional center but what I missed was the joy, the zip, the sense that everyone was having fun. This movie has good moments but the tone is all wrong, it whispers when it should sing, it glides when it should soar, it remains silent when it should be jabbering it's head off. The movie is straight-forward rather than robust and doesn't populate it's world but stays the course. What I miss are the details (I still remember that photograph of Mussolini on Gene Hackman's desk), I miss the energy of The Daily Planet which seemed to have been right out of The Front Page. Here it doesn't look like any other crowded office, just a busy place that works but doesn't hum.
The story is intriguing. We learn the Supe has been away for five years after hearing that the remains of his home planet may have been discovered but after finding nothing but a graveyard he returns to the earth, crashing on the Kent farm more or less the same way he got here the first time. After a brief, VERY brief look around the farm he heads off the Metropolis to rekindle his old relationships. Unfortunatly, two developements have occured that he didn't expect: Lex Luthor has been released on a technacality because Superman missed his court date and couldn't be present as a witness. Also, Lois is engaged and has a son and just to really punch the message home she's about to win the Pulitzer for an article called "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman" (take a guess what she will change that title to at the end of the movie - gwon guess). She's engaged to Richard, the nephew of her boss Perry White and the relationship is genial and servicable but the problem of the love triangle is never really dealt with, it is just politely set aside.
Another thread that is never really dealt with is the question of the parentage of Lois' son. We know right away that he wasn't fathered by Richard but other than one moment of superheroism (of which I admit I applauded) the kid is kind of shuffled off to the side and so are his obvious abilities.
My biggest problem with Superman Returns lies in the performances especially by Brandon Routh who stands at the center of the movie, poses, saves some folks and for the most part keeps his trap shut. I'm not kidding, there are entire scenes in this movie in which he says not a single word as if he stands apart from the other characters, I somehow felt like he was apart from the story. I can see that he was hired because of his resemblence to Christopher Reeve but not because he has a matching personality. Reeve had a charming kid-smile and some snappy one-liners. Routh saves the day and emerges with a pleasant look but most of all he looks stoic, more like a fashion model. In fact, there is no performance in the movie that really has any punch to it.
Kate Bosworth plays Lois Lane with a kind of sad detachment, she's beautiful she is never true to the character which from Noel Niell to Margot Kidder to Erica Durance, Lois has always had a zippy personality, a fun blabbermouth who gets all puppy dog in the presence of the man in blue. Bosworth plays the role like a jilted soap opera wife, she dispises Superman but we never get the sense that she ever loved him in the first place.
The one performance in the movie that I did like came from Kevin Spacey who seemed to be having fun as Lex Luthor, it is obvious that he's studied the performance by Gene Hackman and often he seems be able to match him in terms of his energy. Singer's one masterstoke in the film is the plot by Lex who plans to use krytonite to create his own Atlantis which will destroy America and create his own continent. What works here is that Lex has come up with a workable plot that will actually destroy half the world, it's better than most of the evil plots I've seen in recent years.
The movie actually begins better than it ends, the opening scenes capture some of the tone that made the other films so special. I was especially dazzled by a scene in which he saves a doomed airliner (with Lois onboard of course) by laying it gingerly in the middle of a stadium during a baseball game. He emerges from the craft to roaring crowds and, darn it, I was quietly cheering to. But that's about where the joy ends, the movie takes on a somber, dark tone and leaves the fun behind. The entire third act is glum and sad when we should be exhilerated. And the closing scenes meander and crawl.
Superman Returns has moments of inspiration but it pales in the shadow of two brilliant films. Even on it's own it lacks the punch of recent superhero movies like Spiderman or Hulk. The actors do a servicable job but there is a sense of fun that is missing and the actors they occupy their roles but they don't seem to embody them, I always felt as if I was watching a road company version of Superman. They have observed their characters but like the young piano student they know the notes but not the music.
