Superman Returns movie review

“Superman Returns” (2006)

Directed by Bryan Singer

Written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris

Story by Bryan Singer, Michael Dougherty, and Dan Harris

Based on the DC Comics character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Starring: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Mardsen, Frank Langella, Parker Posey, Sam Huntington, Kai Penn

Lex Luthor: Do you know the story of Prometheus? No, of course you don't. Prometheus was a god who stole the power of fire from the other gods and gave control of it to the mortals. In essence, he gave us technology, he gave us power.

Kitty Kowalski: So we're stealing fire? In the Arctic?

Lex Luthor: Actually, sort of. You see, whoever controls technology controls the world. The Roman empire ruled the world because they built roads. The British empire ruled the world because they built ships. America; the atom bomb. And so on and so forth. I just want what Prometheus wanted.

Kitty Kowalski: Sounds great, Lex, but you're not a god.

Lex Luthor: [fixes Kitty with an icy stare] Gods are selfish beings who fly around in little red capes and don't share their power with mankind. No, I don't want to be a god. I just want to bring fire to the people. And... I want my cut.

Director Bryan Singer's 2006 “Superman Returns” is an odd entry in Warner Bros.' long-running movie franchise based on DC Comics' popular character.

On one hand, Singer's film continues the story from director Richard Donner's first two Superman movies which starred actor Christopher Reeve. In both visual and thematic terms, “Superman Returns” is the “Superman III” viewers deserved but did not get.

On the other hand, even though “Superman Returns” tries to recapture the magic of “Superman: The Movie” and “Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut,” it lacks the sense of fun and excitement that Donner injected into the first installments of the series. It's gloomy where it should be thrilling and uninspired where it should be, well, awesome.

Written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, “Superman Returns" is set five years after the events depicted in Superman II. After his brief liaison with Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth), Superman (Brandon Routh) left Earth to seek survivors from his lost home world, Krypton.

Unfortunately, the Man of Steel's absence has unexpected consequences. His nemesis, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), is released from prison when Superman fails to appear at his appeals hearing and testify against him.

True to his devious and ambitious nature, Luthor marries Gertrude Vanderworth (Noel Neill) a naïve widow who believes he is a good man in spite of his criminal past.

Luthor, of course, doesn't love Gertrude. He loves her money and, especially, her ocean-going yacht. Now, as she lies on her deathbed and says that she loves him, all Lex is interested in is getting her to sign everything over to him.

Meanwhile, Lois has moved on emotionally over the past half-decade. She's dating Richard White (James Mardsen) and has a son, Jason (Tristan Leabu). Her career, too, has prospered despite the Man of Steel's absence; her editorial, "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman," earned her the Pulitzer Prize.

Jimmy Olsen: [leans over an unsuspecting Clark who is holding a family photo of Lois, Jason, and Richard] Ha, yeah! He looks just like his mom. Already takes after her too, especially when it comes to getting into trouble.

Clark Kent: [obviously confused] Mother?

Jimmy Olsen: Oh, yeah, well, I guess you've been gone. Fearless reporter Lois Lane is a mommy.

Clark Kent: [cracks the glass and winces] I'm sorry.

Jimmy Olsen: [takes the picture from Clark] It's okay. She's got plenty of them.

Clark Kent: She's married?

Jimmy Olsen: Yeah, well, no, it’s more of a prolonged engagement, but don't ask Miss Lane when they're tying the knot because she hates that question.

As Lex, his crew of thugs and new moll Kitty Kowalski (Parker Posey) make their way to Superman's Fortress of Solitude to steal Kryptonian crystal-based technology, Superman returns to his adoptive home world, Earth.

Clark Kent: Thanks for giving me my job back.

Perry White: Don't thank me. Thank Norm Parker for dying!

Jimmy Olsen: It was his time.

After a brief reunion with his adoptive mother Martha Kent (Eva Marie Saint) in Smallville, he assumes his mild-mannered Clark Kent persona and makes his way to Metropolis.

At the Daily Planet, Clark's former boss, Perry White (Frank Langella) offers him a job, and Jimmy Olsen (Sam Huntington) fills him on what has happened over the past five years.

However, the person Clark is most anxious to reconnect with is not in Metropolis.

Intrepid as ever, Lois is aboard a Boeing 777 launch plane for a next-generation Space Shuttle. Her assignment: to cover the new spacecraft's first orbital flight.

But when Lex experiments with one of the stolen Kryptonian crystals, the resulting power pulse causes a massive blackout over much of the East Coast. The powerful pulse also interferes with the electronics of both the new shuttle and its launch plane. Disaster is only averted when Clark goes to the rescue as Superman and prevents the badly damaged 777 from crashing onto the Metropolis baseball park.

Lois Lane: Can I ask you something? Have you ever met someone and it's almost like you're from totally different worlds, but you share such a strong connection that you knew you were destined to be with each other, and then he just takes off, without explaining why or without even saying goodbye? [turns around] Sounds cheesy, I know. Taxi!

Clark Kent: Well, maybe it was hard to say goodbye because he had to go and... he wanted to say goodbye but... maybe it was too difficult for him.

Lois Lane: Difficult? How is it difficult? What's wrong with goodbye?

Clark Kent: Who are we talking about again?

Superman receives a warm globe-wide welcome, except from two individuals. Still angry with both Superman and Clark for their five-year absence, Lois hides her conflicted feelings behind a facade of snippiness.

Lex Luthor is not happy that Superman is back, either. Luthor is about to carry out a dastardly and destructive plot to create a new landmass in the North Atlantic with the stolen Kryptonian crystals. Determined to achieve his goal of dominating the world, Lex steals a meteor laced with kryptonite from the Metropolis science museum. His end game: to kill Superman.

My Take

To their credit, Singer and his two co-writers give viewers a better Superman movie than “Superman III” and “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.” “Superman Returns” deliberately ignores those sequels and takes up the story where Richard Donner's Superman projects left off.

This was no easy task. Coming nearly 20 years since the disastrous theatrical run of “Superman IV” and the passing of actors Christopher Reeve and Marlon Brando, “Superman Returns” recasts most of the characters from the Donner films. The only exception is Brando's Jor-El, Superman's father. Warner Bros. and Singer negotiated with the Brando estate and received permission to use digitally-enhanced footage from 1978's “Superman: The Movie” in several key scenes.

In addition to the movie's plot, Singer connects “Superman Returns” to the first two features in several ways, including flashbacks to the destruction of Krypton and the same “flying credits” style of main titles.

Editor/composer John Ottman also uses musical material from John Williams' original 1978 score, especially the heroic "March from Superman" and fragments of the love theme for Superman and Lois. Unlike Ken Thorne in Richard Lester's cut of Superman II, Ottman does not rely exclusively on Williams' music to underscore “Superman Returns'” set piece action sequences. Instead, Ottman provides various new themes of his own. However, the inclusion of the iconic themes from the Donner movies is a nice grace note.

Superman: Well, I hope this experience hasn't put any of you off flying. Statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel.

For the most part, “Superman Returns” works fairly well as both a comic book adaptation and an homage to the first two films. Action fans will probably like set-piece sequences such as Superman's rescue of the crashing Boeing 777 that herald his return, while fans of the Clark/Lois/Superman triangle may enjoy the more relationship-oriented parts.

The necessary recasting of “Superman Returns”s’ large ensemble cast is also mostly effective. Brandon Routh, a young actor known mostly for his work on such TV series as One Life to Live and Gilmore Girls, resembles a young version Christopher Reeve. A long-time Superman fan, Routh does well in the dual role of Clark Kent and the Man of Steel.

Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane takes a bit of getting used to. Bosworth looks younger and prettier than Margot Kidder from the previous movies. This marked difference makes it hard to believe that “Superman Returns”s is set in the same timeline as the Donner films. However, Bosworth and Routh have good onscreen chemistry, and the actress projects an aura of intelligence and persistence that makes us believe that she is Lois Lane.

Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor, however, is markedly different from the original movies' Gene Hackman version of Superman's nemesis. Spacey's Luthor shows streaks of dark humor reminscent of Hackman's performance from time to time. Nevertheless, the new iteration of Lex is markedly less chatty. This makes the character less charming and more menacing.

The supporting cast includes Frank Langella as Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White. Unlike Jackie Cooper, Langella plays Lois and Clark's boss with less bluster and a more businesslike leadership style.

James Mardsen, who plays Perry's nephew (and Lois' boyfriend) Richard White, has one of the toughest roles in “Superman Returns”s. He has to play Superman's main rival for Lois' affections and a father figure to Tristan Leabu's Jason White without coming across as a jealous jerk.

Sam Huntington plays the role of photographer/sidekick Jimmy Olsen. Like Marc McClure in the 1978 Superman, Huntington's performance gives Jimmy an eager-to-please, gee-whiz-Mr. Kent vibe.

Tristan Leabu, who was seven years old when he appeared in “Superman Returns”s, turns in a decent performance as Lois' five-year old son Jason. He's asthmatic and appears to be physically frail; as it turns out, appearances can be deceiving.

Parker Posey's Kitty Kowalski is Lex's new moll. Unlike the curvy Valerie Perrine's Eve Teschmacher, Kitty is less eye candy and more of a dry witted companion to Spacey's arch-criminal.

Superman: Listen; what do you hear?

Lois Lane: Nothing.

Superman: I hear everything. You wrote that the world doesn't need a savior, but every day I hear people crying for one.

Though “Superman Returns” is better than the previous two installments in the series, it has a flaw. Bryan Singer's film has impressive special effects and a strong narrative thread, but it seems to lack the sense of fun and wonder of the Donner films it seeks to honor.

“Superman Returns” is dutifully reverent to its source, even to the point where certain lines of dialogue from “Superman: The Movie” are reprised verbatim. And yet, the film has a mix of seriousness and sense of melancholy that robs it of the kinetic energy that any good comic book adaptation needs.

Blu-ray Specifications

Video

· Codec: VC-1

· Resolution: 1080p

· Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

· Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio

· English: LPCM 5.1

· English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1

· English: Dolby Digital 5.1

· French: Dolby Digital 5.1

· Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles

· English, English SDH, French, Spanish

Discs

· 50GB Blu-ray Disc

· Single disc (1 BD)

Playback

· Region A/1

Miscellaneous

Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Studio: Warner Home Video

Blu-ray Release Date: August 19, 2008

Run Time: 154 minutes