Watching Brian Singer’s Superman Returns
unfold, memories of Ang Lee’s Marvel Comic adaptation,
The Hulk, came flooding back to me. This new
follow-up to the legendary Christopher Reeves vehicles
of the 1970’s and ‘80’s is very similar to the 2003
effort to bring Bruce Banner’s Inner-Angry-Green-Machine
to the silver-screen. Both films represent rarities
among their kind; they not only function as entertaining
pieces of cinematic escapism, but also as genuine,
flowing comments on the human condition. Unlike many of
its two-dimensional comic counterparts, Superman
Returns, despite chronicling the extraordinary life
of the Man of Steel himself, is first and foremost about
real humans living real lives. The viewer is able to
identify with its characters through their pursuits of
happiness, love, and even vengeance. Director Brian
Singer’s drab X-Men and X2 never quite won
me over, but here he has ditched the flashy bag of
tricks that he carried during the making of those films
in favor of making this spellbinding, poignant
near-masterpiece.
When one looks back on the
original Superman films—particularly the first
two, which were by far the most successful of the four
that were made—the films’ protagonist’s glamorous
ability to save the day rushes to the forefront of one’s
mind. Starring the late Christopher Reeves, they were
effortlessly fun and eventful. Singer’s Superman
Returns, albeit equally as joyous, is far darker
than any of its predecessors. The film continues from
where Superman II left off and pretends the
dreadful third and forth installments in the series
never existed. The Man of Steel (newcomer Brandon Routh)
has spent many years away from Earth looking for
survivors of his destroyed home planet, Krypton.
Unsuccessful in his searches, he returns to find his
previous love interest, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth), in
the company a new boyfriend and a son. Meanwhile, his
famous arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) has
crafted a plan to raise a new continent on Earth. Lex
hopes that the new continent will create enough of a
rise in the world’s oceans that it will sink the
majority of the existing inhabited land and he will, in
turn, be able to sell prime seafront real-estate within
his new empire.
Despite Kevin Spacey’s
brilliant performance as Lex Luthor, Singer rightfully
only chooses to use the famous antagonist as a device to
create a traditional plot for Superman Returns.
The movie is really about Superman’s relationship with
Lois, in a story-thread which is beautifully acted and
developed. Bosworth depicts Lois with an amazing sense
of vulnerability, allowing the captivating Routh to
interact with her in a way that accentuates his
protagonist’s heroism. In addition, the nostalgia and
emotion that the two’s rekindling love for provokes is
not all that the story-thread has to offer; many
surprises regarding the couple’s history are revealed as
a part of it. These both add dimension to Superman
Returns’ story and open it up for the possibility of
a series of sequels.
It’s typical of me to denounce
comic-book adaptations as belonging to a hopeless genre
due to the abundance of stinkers of their kind that have
been released in recent-years. However, each time a
wondrous exception comes along and blows its abysmal
counterparts out of the water, I am reminded why comics
are read in the first place. When audiences are able to
understand characters with super-human powers—even if
the powers are not used to better society—they are able
to become even more immersed in the stories that they
inhabit than they would have had they been entirely
realistic in the first place. I would go so far as to
say that Superman Returns is not just an
exhilarating movie, but a powerful one. Adventurous,
romantic, and enthralling, it represents what a great
summer-movie should be.
-Danny, Bucket Reviews (7.15.2006)