When Superman: The Movie first came out in 1978, the ads proclaimed that you would believe a man could fly – touting the special effects required to make Christopher Reeve soar. What the ads didn’t tell you was how charming, down-to-earth, and intelligent the non-flying scenes were. The reason that first film (and in parts, the second one) is so beloved today is not because of the flying sequences (they are outdated) but because of the skill and the sense of pop culture that director Richard Donner and screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz managed to pull off. Really three films in one, that first Superman film managed to satisfy our need to act out our superhero fantasies, while maintaining a sense of humanity that helped elevate the iconic superhero into the pop-culture stratosphere, much in the same way Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man franchise is moving towards.
Now, twenty-eight years later, and with special effect flying as easy as “putting it in the computer”, the audience wants something more, or maybe I just do. Bryan Singer helms this newest Superman film with all the grace and technical prowess of a competent and highly skilled director, and it is showcased early on with the flying sequences: Superman races through the air, creating sonic booms and whipping past the camera with such force that the camera actually shakes. It’s no stretch to claim that Superman has never looked this good in his entire history. The opening sequence, which involves Superman saving a doomed jetliner and space shuttle, is, without a doubt, the best action sequence ever captured for a Man-of-Steel movie.
Where Superman Returns suffers, though, is in its total lack of a coherent and interesting story, and a second act that runs way too long. After searching to find the remains of his long destroyed planet, Krypton, Superman returns to earth after five years to find that Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has a child and a fiancé. Even worse for our precocious hero, Lois is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter thanks to her article “Why the world doesn’t need Superman”. Singer uses this turn of events as a means of seriously complicating Superman’s happy-go-lucky sense of armor, and turns the Superman everyone knows into a moping emo-kid. As for Clark Kent, he is nowhere to be found. Brendan Routh as Clark has so little to do and even less to say that for most of the second act he completely disappears from the film. And to be quite honest, he’s not missed. What made Christopher Reeve’s performance so memorable and endearing was its classic, slapstick approach to the bumbling, shy and socially awkward Clark Kent. Here, for reasons unknown, Singer scales back the thirties influenced slapstick for dull, conventional drama.
Where Superman Returns succeeds, and ultimately wins me over, is in its spectacular action scenes (especially the aforementioned jetliner rescue and the sinking of a luxury yacht) and the heightened Christ-like imagery that Superman represents. While the Biblical origins were briefly hinted at in the Donner original, specifically during the Krypton scenes with Marlon Brando, here, Singer brings out the metaphor to the forefront, and while this may have its detractors, I applaud Singer’s attempt to add more weight to an already well established character. Singer knows that there really is no place to go with a character that is God-like without literally commenting on the pathos it would create. Making Superman a savior is an inspired bit of storytelling, allowing the characters, in the context of the film, a means of relating to a being that is far removed from the normal human experience. As a result, Singer turns Superman, oddly enough, into more of a realistic character.
In the end, Superman Returns has major story problems – notice how Lex Luthor’s (Kevin Spacey) plot to rule the world is omitted from this review due to its ridiculous and slightly moronic nature – and a disappointing lack of the innocent charm the original had in spades. But with the help of some outstanding special effects and engaging actions sequences, Superman Returns ends up being an enjoyable, if slightly empty, blockbuster. It’s not the savior of the comic book film though – that esteemed honor still belongs to Batman Begins and Spider-Man 2.
Richard Saad
© Cinephile Magazine, 2006