From
the first lonesome horn note, you know it's Superman. In
the right frame of mind, that note from John Williams' original
score sends chills down the spine, even when adapted by
John Ottman.
It holds
the promise of adventure, excitement and maybe even hope
for tomorrow. Yet Superman Returns looks as much
to the past as it does the future, launching a new franchise
by creating a sequel that is also in some ways a remake.
All of it is for the right reasons. Clearly,
Director Bryan Singer has been inspired by Richard Donner's
work, and has a great love for the character. With screenwriters
Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, he finds an outlet for
that, asking the crucial but simple question: does the world
need a Superman?
Hanging a film around that is a pretty
nifty idea, though the argument presented here tends to
lean heavily on one side. In Superman's five-year absence,
Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has written a Pulitzer Prize-winning
editorial on exactly why we can do just fine without him.
Notice, however, that beyond her personal abandonment issues,
we never actually get any quotes from her argument.
But that's okay, because Singer focuses
on the personal. After the shock of Superman (Brandon Routh)
crash-landing on the Kent farm again, Ma Kent (Eva Marie
Saint) struggles between gratitude and anger that he left
for so long. Even Superman has trouble with his mom complaining
he never calls.
The people of Metropolis, nay, the world,
seem okay with his return. In the first action sequence,
Superman rescues a space shuttle/jet combo (featuring a
cameo by Sir Richard Branson), announcing his return in
a pretty big way. It also allows for instantaneous acclaim,
landing the plane in the middle of a baseball stadium.
Of course, not everyone who actually knows
Superman is happy. Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), for one, still
bears one heck of a grudge. In perhaps the best-realized
of the updates, the movie acknowledges the past buffoonery
of Gene Hackman's interpretation while throwing in the more
recent takes of Smallville and Superman: The Animated
Series.
Thanks to Superman's absence, however,
Luthor walks free, despite two consecutive life sentences
after Superman II. The only one who could testify
against him at his parole hearings was the Man of Steel,
who as Luthor points out, actually tends to bypass certain
due processes of law.
Once the arch-villain gets his hands on
Kryptonian technology, we've got ourselves a confrontation.
Some scoffed at using Marlon Brando's footage in this film,
but Jor-El simply functions as a highly evolved computer.
The greatest actor of his generation has posthumously become
a Kryptonian Microsoft paperclip. But it works.
The homage gets a little leaden when Singer
tries to recapture the beats of Donner's film. Spectacular
air rescue of Lois? Check. (Superman even says the exact
same line before flying off.) Get the Abbis Adaba chunk
of Kryptonite? Check. Give Lex a floozy with a heart of
gold? Check. She may look like Parker Posey and call herself
Kitty, but she serves the same purpose as Miss Tesmacher.
However, the redux of Lois' interview with
Superman is quite beautiful, almost lyrical. It could easily
have been cheesy, but Singer stages it like a child dancing
with her father. Lois places her feet on Superman's boots
and doesn't even notice that they're airborne. Without hammering
the point home, it quietly emphasizes how far above humanity
Superman (at least here) really is.
And yet he has his ties. It's clear that
Superman loves Lois, and Routh does a great job of playing
that pain even as Clark. Singer and his writing team found
the perfect way to hurt the hero, coupled with Luthor's
crystalline scheme. Superman has no good way to resolve
his heartache; he can't very well steal Lois back from her
fiancé Richard White (James Marsden) without coming off
as a super-jerk.
Then there's the kid. The less said the
better, other than the one power Superman doesn't seem to
have is that of super math skills.
Singer also dares to direct Superman
Returns at the pacing of the original film. While that
makes for some slow moments, they do set an important emotional
tone. It never really drags, and despite a two and a half
hour running time, it also feels like there should be more.
Actually, there should be. All the emotional
closure comes between Superman and Lois, when obviously
Singer intended more with his other connections. Jimmy Olsen
(Sam Huntington) has a heretofore unseen but likable hero-worship
of Clark that takes him by surprise. Near the end, we catch
a glimpse of Martha Kent, but that feels frustratingly undone.
Heck, from the casting, we know she's moved
on, too, with a boyfriend played by James Karen. But in
the effort to bring the film to a more manageable length,
the great character actor has been reduced to a wide shot,
getting in his truck and saying, "so long, Martha."
Speaking of character actors, it's great
to see Spacey get back to it. As Luthor, he's constantly
cool, underplaying, menacing and often terribly charming.
As for the young leads, their youth does
seem a little jarring. Singer's point about casting young
so they can age into the roles of the franchise and not
out of them is valid, but Bosworth is occasionally a bit
too callow for the bitterness of Lois.
Routh, however, could really have it. This
might not be a good thing to some people, but there are
shots in this film where you'd swear it's Christopher Reeve.
Yet Routh does make the role his own, with a core determination
and decency to Superman that really could prove inspirational
over the next few years.
If, however, Singer could tone down the
Christ comparisons. That gets more than a little heavy-handed.
Almost every time Superman overcomes some great struggle,
he assumes the position of being on the cross. If you're
going to do iconic Superman images, keep them Superman's.
Singer does that, too, finally committing the cover of Action
Comics #1 to film.
The strengths
outweigh the weaknesses. Superman Returns works.
It just works a little too hard to be uplifting, not always
trusting that if we don't need a Superman, we still want
one.
