Review
Review Date: 3-July-06
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK
Superman Returns (2006)
In case you haven’t heard, the Man of Steel has returned to Metropolis after a five-year absence and to the Hollywood A-list a quarter century after Christopher Reeve first put him on top. The question posed by Bryan Singer, fan boy and director of “Superman Returns,” is whether his alien-bred, corn-fed, decked-in-red hero still has meaning in a world riddled with cynicism and post-9/11 paranoia. Superman returns all right, but for what? What’s his presence worth to him, the people he serves, and bystanders like us? It’s not a bad question for a summer action flick with soul. But Singer’s lengthy opus dances around it without finding an answer.
At 150+ minutes, “Superman Returns” isn’t just lengthy, it’s too long. Improvement could have been made in the editing room by curbing the director’s reverence for tradition and the original “Superman” (1978). Nothing would be lost by the deletion of the slow opening scenes in Kansas, which most adult viewers know by heart (e.g., a teen Clark Kent zipping through cornfields), or of the sequence when Lex Luthor (a flat Kevin Spacey) steals a lump of Kryptonite from a museum. Singer employs such nostalgic references deliberately, even recycling music and footage from the original. This is apparently his response to the self-posed query about his subject’s relevance: Look upon these classic images, he seems to say, and recognize their enduring power.
Perhaps it’s the problem I have with the Kent/Superman dichotomy, but harkening back to the character’s former glory doesn’t do it for me. The real key to the story seems to be the Pulitzer prize-winning article written by a frosty Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) during Superman’s absence, which argued that the world doesn’t need him anymore. What did this article say? I’m dying to know! Unfortunately, it’s left to the imagination as her diatribe segues into a soapy saga involving her fiancé (James Marsden) and son (Tristan Lake Leabu) and the bitter reunion with the caped captor of her heart. The love triangle takes over and also drags out the plot (Lex & cronies launch evil plan, Lois & son get caught in the middle, Supe must look beyond and within himself to win the day, yada, yada, yada), eventually leading to Lois recanting her published beliefs and reembracing the necessity of a people’s hero. But why? The focus of the movie is largely personal in a trendy, talk show kind of way, insufficient to illuminate Superman’s place in modern society. Which is what this subscriber to the Daily Planet wants to know.
Yet for all its redundancy and unrealized potential, “Superman Returns” has two mitigating strengths creditable to Singer and the other young star of the show. Revealing that his heart may be nostalgic but his sensibility is modern (he did make “The Usual Suspects,” after all), Singer peppers the film with bits of dark humor that almost elevate his work to art, including cannibalism among Pomeranians and a superb moment when Lois’ young son plays piano with the thug who holds him prisoner. The interplay of dark and light is reflected in the face of the new Superman, Brandon Routh, who’s surely the most fortunate Hollywood find in recent history. He must have landed the role with noble brow and dimpled chin, but he makes it his own (as much as anyone could while channeling Reeve) with a performance that hints of depths beneath the legendary “S.” When these men are at their best, they generate flashes of grim wit and pathos that allow the movie to stand on its own. But more insight into the hero’s significance would have allowed it to fly.
Copyright © 2006 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.
