Film Reviews

Superman Returns

• Rating:
• Director: Bryan Singer
• Starring: Brandon Routh
• Details: US, 154mins, 12A.

No film has illuminated the shift in thought of what Hollywood perceives its audience to be in the last 25 years more than Superman Returns. Since Christopher Reeves donned the red cape and reached skyward, the transformation of films and what Tinseltown judges their audience to expect from a summer blockbuster have changed. Superman always was a Christ allegory, it could be found in the subtext if anyone wanted to look; but Hollywood feels that today's movie-going public is too dim to pick up on that. To that end, the decision was made that the new Superman will include at least four references to word 'saviour', director Bryan Singer will have the hero pose Christ-like on the cross more than once and, just in case no one was paying attention, there must be a none too subtle monologue at the climax. The film picks up five years after Superman (Routh) disappeared from Earth to visit his home planet of Krypton. In that time, the love of his life Lois Lane (Bosworth) has moved on with pilot Richard White (Marsden), with whom she's had a son, Jason. His archenemy Lex Luthor (Spacey) is fresh out of prison, has found Superman's hideaway and stolen some of his unique crystals, with which he hopes to make a new continent and thus condemn America to the sea. Singer had a chance in making his Superman the Superman for the new millennium and, in dispelling with the now familiar set-up of Superman arriving on Earth and being taken in by an old couple, it initially looked like a brave move from the director and excitement grew in the theatre - Singer is attempting a reinterpretation. However, in sticking so close to the storyline of the original Superman (the 1978 release saw Gene Hackman's Luthor try to detach California from America and rule it as a separate country) he makes a u-turn and takes his film back into the land of pointless retreads. Singer, to his credit, injects a few cool moments - the slow motion bullet hitting Superman's eye and crumbling; the flashback to a teenage Clark coming to terms with his powers - and gives the lengthy running time real momentum, rarely slowing it down to take a breather as it hurtles towards the big showdown. However, Superman Returns feels over-hyped and cliche-ridden; apart from the special effects, there is not a hell of a lot to distinguish Singer's vision from Richard Donner's. The unknown Routh does his best Christopher Reeve impression but where the latter's Clark Kent had a nerdy, nervous sense of humour, Routh's quips - few and far between they may be - fall flat. There is also no chemistry between him and Bosworth's Lane, who seems to spend her time moaning about one thing or another. Spacey is the highlight but he never cuts loose the way Hackman did; straight-jacketed by a more malevolent role, his Lex Luthor doesn't have the same panache or wit, and if we weren't watching Kevin Spacey up on screen, we would consider this Luthor a failure. What is most disappointing is that Superman Returns is an opportunity lost. It looks fantastic, and it pushes all the blockbuster buttons, but it's more bird or plane than Superman's character deserves.

Review by Gavin Burke