After Christopher Reeve was tragically left paralyzed following a horse riding mishap, it seemed like Warner Bros. could only remake a film version of Superman. Indeed, plans for a remake were in various stages for a number of years at Warner Bros. with everyone from Tim Burton to McG to J.J. Abrams attached at various stages of development. It wasn’t until Bryan Singer took the director’s chair that things finally started seeing progress. Singer was fresh off of two highly successful X-Men films and sought to reintroduce Superman to the world.
“Superman Returns” follows the events of the first two Superman films while ignoring what transpired in the last two Reeve Superman films. Erasing only two films from continuity while still acting as a sequel to the first two films proved to be a confusing and needlessly confusing move.
The plot was simple enough, acting as a character piece with some romance and a little action sprinkled in. Superman had left the Earth before the events of this film to search for any remaining life from Krypton. Upon returning to Earth, Superman has to find his place in a world that has moved on without him. While trying to find purpose, Superman must stop a new real estate scam from Lex Luther that could kill numerous people.
“Superman Returns” serves as Singer’s love letter to the Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve Superman films. Unfortunately, the Donner Superman films balanced the humor, action, and romance better. Donner’s Superman film was set up into a three act play with act one taking place on Krypton, act two taking place in Smallville, while the final act takes place in Metropolis. Singer’s Superman film is a little more all over the place. It is also about thirty minutes too long which definitely effects it’s pacing.
Now, this isn’t to say the film is bad, it is still a pretty darn good movie. It’s just it could have been a masterpiece with a few tweaks. The easiest move for the movie would have been to add a few more action pieces. The few action scenes that Singer filmed will leave you dropping your jaw. The airplane rescue scene is beyond amazing.
As far as the cast goes, Brandon Routh makes for a fantastic Superman. He really embodies the big blue boy scout of the comics. I would say that I personally preferred the performance of Routh over Henry Cavill. Kate Bosworth added little as Lois Lane and makes you long for Margot Kidder. Now, for the elephant in the room, Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. If you can divorce yourself from all the gossip and all the terrible allegations surrounding Kevin Spacey, I thought his performance was fantastic. Out of all the actors to have played Lex Luthor on the big screen, Spacey is my favorite. The film also uses archive footage of Marlon Brando as Jor-El. Seeing Brando once again added a sense of continuity to the film.
Speaking of elephants in the room, Bryan Singer did an amazing job directing this film. Yes, there are flaws and the film needed some of the filler trimmed, but the visuals are incredible and the character study of Superman was an interesting approach.
It’s a shame that “Superman Returns” didn’t receive a sequel because it could be argued that this film was as good or better than the Zack Snyder remake “Man of Steel”. The film isn’t perfect but deserves to be seen by true comic book fans.
Grade: B+
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