Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) and Superman (Brandon Routh) in 'Superman Returns'. - CONTRIBUTED
BATMAN RETURNED with renewed dark intensity. Spiderman came back with wit, energy and a great sense of guilt and his own limitations.
When Superman returned, he brought nothing particularly interesting back with him. Superman just returned. He has nothing new or interesting to say.
Superman Returns is a great-looking movie. It was well shot, with good cinematography, and the special effects are well done, though not over-the-top. However, when all that passes by, Superman Returns is not fun to watch.
Though he no longer has any phone booths to change in and so has to make do, essentially Superman, as directed by Brian Singer and written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, has not been re-imagined for the 21st century. Now played by Brandon Routh, he looks essentially the same. He continues to wear his body tights with his brief on the outside and still has that one intrepid lock of hair that curls just right, while the rest of it remains largely undisturbed by the elements.
So while the other superheroes have been getting in touch with their humanity and getting us to love them because they are not infallible (essentially, they're not Superman, you know), the man of steel has no such humanity to fall back on while he, once again, tries to save the world from Lex Luther.
What Superman has, however, is a big heart. Only Kryptonite may be able to pierce his body, but we all know that he's got a soft heart, especially for Lois Lane. The movie attempts to play on that, to offer us a connection to the man of steel who is man enough to fall for a woman.
Yet, with the exception of highlighting Superman's fantastic stalker potential, the movie barely explores this, despite spending far too much time on the dead relationship between Superman and Lois Lane. What results from that romantic focus is that the movie's pace is dragged to a near halt.
VERY UNINTERESTING
He is constantly the picture of serenity and while serenity may be nice to look at, it's not very interesting. So the Kryptonite of this flick is not that Superman is almost physically infallible - we expect that and love that about him (he's Superman, for crying out loud).
It's that he is a very uninteresting man.
Neither Superman, Clark Kent, nor Lois Lane prove interesting and it remains quite fascinating that Clark has not been fired, because throughout the flick he does no work. Of course, Superman and his alter-ego are a part of what makes the old Superman not so compatible with today's world. A pair of glasses for disguise has never been really convincing (at least the other superheroes have the decency to cover half or all of their faces), but we accepted it nonetheless.
Of course, it seems even more unbelievable now and though the movie, to its credit, tries to play with that, one can never get past the ridiculousness of no one being able to see that Clark Kent is Superman. It also doesn't help that Superman's costume had probably been one of the most mocked outfits by the end of the 20th century.
LEX, PARKER FANTASTIC
Fortunately, Kevin Spacey's Lex Luther and Parker Posey's Kitty (whose mental capacity rivals a raisin's) are fantastic. In truth, until their recent reincarnations, superheroes were often very uninteresting, counting on really bad villains to make them likeable. However, it is quite sad that Superman remains at that stage.
While one does not expect him to come back with quippy one-liners, he could have been given some good dialogue. So as a result, Superman Returns is quite 'unsuperific'. The truth is Superman has been out-Supermanned by Neo. He may be able to lift a small continent, but this flick does not have the strength to lift our hearts or interest.
