Superman Returns (2006)

 

- Back and Better Than Ever -

 

 

It’s one star!  Two stars!  Three!  Great Caesar’s Ghost, it’s an incredible three and a half stars for Superman Returns!  Can you believe it?  Superman is back and better than perhaps ever before.  This movie’s got everything.  A gripping story, more realism, eye-awakening special effects, and superb acting across the board.  It was a joy to go the theater and see a movie this good, especially after agonizing through Nacho Libre and Click the previous two weeks.

 

With a record reported (and rumored to be even more) $260 million dollar budget the “Man of Steel” is certainly returning to the big screen in lavish style, his budget far surpassing the second highest ever production costs of Peter Jackson’s King Kong (a measly $207 million), and making the Titanic’s once thought ultra-extravagant budget seem like a sail to “Family Dollar.”  The question for the producers of Superman Returns really isn’t “is it good?” but instead, “just how good is it?”  Because with a $260,000,000 budget, it had better be good, at least at the box office.  I don’t know how it’ll do in the money, but I hope it does well, because it’s a triumph of quality.  It’s simply one of the best superhero movies I’ve seen.

 

I’m not a huge fan of the old Superman movies with Christopher Reeve.  The first two were good and certainly groundbreaking, but some 25 odd years later they’re a bit aged and cheesy.  I’ve of the personal opinion that bringing Richard Pryor into the fray for Superman III was one of the worst decisions in film history, and the series fell into oblivion with 1987’s harrowingly unsuper fourth installment, The Quest for Peace.  Nonetheless, there a universe of fans who still love the Reeve Superman movies.  Plus, you’ve got fans of “Lois and Clark,” the TV series with Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher; new generation fans of “Smallville” with Tom Welling and the uncannily beautiful Kristin Kreuk as Lana; and you’ve got the “core” fans, fans of the 1950’s B&W TV Series, fans of the numerous animated Supermans, and, of course, fans of the long-running, unparalleled-in-success Superman comic books.  Director Bryan Singer (the beloved and box office hit first two X-Men films) had quite a daunting task in meshing together something that would somehow satisfy all the different Superman fans out there.  But he does it.  Singer is fulfilling a lifetime dream by getting to be the power behind Superman’s glorious, intergalactic return.  He’s passionate about the “Man of Steel,” and it shines superbly through.  There’s something super for everybody here.

 

Fortunately, Superman Returns starts five years after Superman 2 ends and pretends the Pryor and later atrocities never existed.  Superman returns to Earth after unsuccessfully searching for remains from his home planet Krypton.  Miraculously, Clark Kent returns to the “Daily Planet” simultaneously.  Lois Lane has a kid, a live-in boyfriend, and a Pulitzer for an article entitled “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman.”  Lex Luther is out of jail after serving only 5 years of a double-life sentence because Superman wasn’t there to testify against him at a trial.  And Metropolis is in need of a Savior more than ever.  Cinematic beauty ensues.

 

Naturally, being different, what I looked forward to most about the movie was seeing Kevin Spacey chew the scenery as Lex Luther.  Superman Returns marks the reunion of Singer with Spacey for the first time since 1995’s The Usual Suspects, a film that sent both soaring into stardom (Spacey winning an Oscar and Singer gaining serious name recognition).  Pardon me if I’m using “derogatory language” to say this, but I loved The Usual Suspects and thought Spacey was “wicked awesome” in what has now become a classic film.  I’m a Spacey fan, and my mouth was just watering over what he could do with a Lex Luther role that’s juicier than filet mignon.  And he delivers.  Spacey’s “L-Squared” is deliciously vile, evil, and surpasses Gene Hackman’s. 

 

For that matter, the acting all over is wonderful.  Newcomer Brandon Routh simply IS Superman, and he looks and plays the part so similar to Reeve it’s difficult to tell a difference between the two.  Kate Bosworth (Blue Crush) outperforms Margot Kidder and is a prettier, better, modern Lois Lane.  Veteran actor Frank Langella (“Skeletor” in Maters of the Universe many galaxies ago) is perfect as newspaper Editor-In-Chief Perry White.  James Marsden (“Cyclops” in the X-Men) is solid as the inevitable odd-man-out of a love triangle.  And Tristan Leabu as Lois’s young boy is cute and charming.  The only disappointment is Parker Posey, who seemed perfect for the role of Lex’s girl “Kitty,” but just doesn’t make it work.

 

The special effects are stunning, perhaps some of the most visually spectacular scenes ever put to film.  But the strength of Superman Returns isn’t its special effects, but its story and it characters.  Singer does a great job bringing the characters to life, fleshing them out, and making them real people you care about.  That’s what makes this better than a vast majority of its genre.

 

Unfortunately, I can’t quite go the distance with Superman Returns and give it 4 stars because it is a little long and it slows down a bit in the second half.  But overall the film is so superior it makes the dry part seem barely more than a drizzle.  Plenty of room (of course) is left for a sequel and hopefully Singer will get the opportunity to do it.

 

So, to put it as professionally, tastefully, and emotionally resonate as within my power it is to put, Superman Returns is the best movie I’ve seen in theaters this summer, if not this year.  It’s simply “Super Duper.”  Walk, run, no… fly to the theater to see it!

 

-         Review by G. Roger Priddy (7-01-06)

 

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