Superman Returns: I’m a fan of director Bryan Singer. “The Usual Suspects” and “X-2” are two of my favorite films and I enjoy the TV show “House”, which he executive produces. Sadly, I will not be adding “Superman Returns” to that list. Why, you ask? Because this film tries to be too many things at one time and then fails at doing any of them well. This is not the best Superman film of all time, not even the second best (and frankly, it’s hard to be worse than Superman 3 and 4). Superman (Brandon Routh) has returned from a five-year absence, having left into space to see if anything of Krypton remained. In his absence, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) married someone else and had a kid, Jimmy Olsen grew up, and Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) got out of prison for the umpteenth time and is determined to run the world his way. He also discovers Superman’s sanctum sanctorum, the Fortress of Solitude (though they don’t call it that specifically, but you know what I mean). But soon Clark Kent is back at the Daily Planet and Superman is back saving the world, and Lex is stepping up to oppose him being using kryptonite to raise an island from the ocean floor and destroy superman at the same time. Yes, it plays at just as jumbled as it sounds. The problem with a Superman movie is this – you have to make people root for the hero. It’s why Reeve was so successful, you wanted him to beat General Zod. Routh is an unknown quantity and while he’s passable in the role, he’s never given a root-for-him-type moment. In fact, he has never seemed more alien than in this movie, gazing with a sort of benevolent half-smile as he watches those silly humans get themselves in trouble. It doesn’t help that the only really root-for guy is Richard White, Lois’ husband (played by James Marsden, given more to do here than he got to do in either of the last two X-Men movies as Cyclops). Bosworth is unremarkable as Lois, in a role that should have gone to an older actress (she looks her age of 23 and we’re supposed to believe she’s a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist…with a five year old child…sorry, we don’t). And I understand that Singer is a gigantic fan of the original Superman movies and Richard Donner, as can be evidenced by use of archival footage of Marlon Brando from the first Donner Superman movie. But that can be just as much a hindrance as it can an homage, particularly if you weren’t around for the first film. The film’s problems:
1. Length: it goes on for 2 ½ hours. It could’ve been much shorter.
2. Casting: Aside from my aforementioned issues with Bosworth, there is a lot of talent wasted in throw away roles. The two biggest examples are Parker Posey as Lex’s moll Kitty Kowalski and Kal Penn (Taj from “Van Wilder” ) as one of Lex’s flunkies who isn’t given a whole lot to do.
3. The mystique of Superman – this is a Superman movie that doesn’t once decide to address the mystique of Superman, to its detriment (none of the others had Superman returning from a five-year exile). And the film also forgot it was based on a comic book character and you can’t make a superhero movie and completely remove those elements in favor of some kind of pseudo-realism. I’m not saying I need giant capes and pjs, but when the major conceit is that your alter ego wears a pair of glasses to hide his identity, if you play that too straight, the audience will wonder just who stupid all the people in the movie are.
4. Sense of humor – it’s completely absent.
This movie would have benefited from a stronger script BIT TIME. Woodchuck sez, “Not my cup of tea. Go see ‘Batman Begins’ instead.”
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