World Without a Superman?
Singer Revives Hero to Glory

Superman last appeared on the big screen nearly twenty years ago. In the meantime, his legend has been kept alive in comic books and on television. A part of me worried the story would never be revived for a movie. I feared the darker heroes had become too fashionable and that Superman's return would be met with cynicism and skepticism. In Superman Returns, director Bryan Singer gives us a hero that is faithful to the icon of the past. This is the Superman I grew up believing in: filled with power, humility, mercy and compassion. This is the Superman I have waited to see.

Superman Returns
Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) meets Superman (Brandon Routh) on the rooftop of The Daily Planet after his five year absence from Earth in Superman Returns. (Warner Bros., 2006)
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Written by: Michael Dougherty & Dan Harris (screenplay),
based on characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
Starring: Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth,
Frank Langella, Sam Huntington, and Eva Marie Saint

Rated PG-13 (for some intense action violence)
Running time: 154 min.

FilmGuru's Rating : 10 out of 10.

According to the prologue of the film, scientists discovered the remains of Superman's home planet and the Last Son of Krypton left Earth to seek out his birthplace. Now, after a five year absence, Superman (Brandon Routh) returns to find a world that has moved on without him.

Superman's return echoes his famous origins, as a crystalline rocket roars through the sky over Kansas. His ship crashes in a field on the Kent farm, where his mother (Eva Marie Saint) finds him.

When Clark returns to Metropolis, he gets his job back but not his life. Sure, the same people are still around but things have changed. Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) is engaged to Richard White (James Marsden), the nephew of The Daily Planet's editor, and they have a son. Superman's sudden departure left her with such mixed feelings that she grew to think she (and the world) would be better of without him.

Villainous Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is out of jail despite a double life sentence because Superman failed to show up at his arraignment. Worse, Lex has been to Superman's Fortress of Solitude (which he visited back in Superman II) and has stolen the crystals. His plan for the crystals reveals itself slowly, but an early experiment with a tiny fragment blacks out the entire East Coast.

The special effects are amazing. Having recently re-watched Superman and Superman II, I was surprised how dated some of the effects have become. With the latest computer wizardry, Singer and company have created a Superman right out of the comics. He flies, hovers, zips, zooms, and seems more real than any incarnation who came before. His heat vision is no longer a stream of red laser-like beams from his eyes. Instead, it appears as ripples of searing heat (as defined in the television series Smallville).

Although this is set in the modern day, Metropolis (and specifically The Daily Planet) exists in a 1940s art deco reality that ties the film to the early days of the Superman character. Everything from hair styles to bow ties seems out of date by modern fashion, but in the reality that is Metropolis it all fits.

Routh is excellent, both as the mild-mannered Clark and as the Man of Steel. While he seems at times to be the mirror image of Christopher Reeve (who defined the role for a generation in the 1978 film), his Clark is a bit more hip and less bumbling. He has the innocence of Reeve's character mixed with the slyness of Dean Cain's version of the character from television's Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. As for his portrayal of Superman, he combines an inner strength with some good muscle. He effortlessly lifts cars and deflects bullets, but when people are in danger he really goes into action. He cares, and it shows.

Bosworth is a near-perfect Lois. She is beautiful, career-driven, and a hard-nosed reporter. No actress except Teri Hatcher has really been able to personify the current incarnation of Lois to my satisfaction. She should be smart, strong, and self-reliant. She should love Superman, but never be too dismissive of Clark. Bosworth and Routh have a great chemistry as Lois and Superman, and I'd love to see that extend to her working relationship with Clark.

For an arch-villain, you can't get better than Lex Luthor. Spacey is deliciously evil as Lex. He plays the criminal mastermind with a bit of Machiavellian scheming, but hits hard with a brutal cruelty that has never been seen in the character before. For my money, this is how Lex should be played. He is a bad man.

The supporting cast helps solidify the film. The Daily Planet's editor-in-chief is played marvelously by Frank Langella. Langella has the years of experience to make Perry White a believable character. Perry is an old-fashioned newspaper man, proud of his staff but willing to kick them when they lose sight of the story. Sam Huntington portrays Jimmy Olsen as a young peer to Clark, not as some wide-eyed cub photographer.

Noel Neill and Jack Larson (Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen from The Adventures of Superman television series) also make brief cameos in the film. It is this kind of homage to the Superman stars of yesteryear that shows the film has its heart in the right place.

Like the people of Metropolis, we have lived without Superman for too long. Maybe it took this long for someone like Singer to realize what story needed to be told. In this millennium, it is important to look up to our heroes without expecting them to solve our problems for us. Superman's greatest strength lies in his ability to inspire those around him.