Superman Returns

I hadn’t expected the 2006 film – the kind of fifth – to use the same John Williams musical masterpiece, or the near 5 minute long opening titles of blue whooshing 3D names over space.

I have only just seen this Brian Singer offering, considering it outside the nostalgic Christopher Reeve cannon.

 Based on an established graphic novel, Superman Returns resurrects more than the suit and the theme tune. Although none of the actors are the same as the late 1970s and 80s, Marlon Brando’s part is digitally reprised. We revisit the Kansas landscape of Clark’s youth and his now dating widowed Mother.

There are several reflections and references to the originals:

The teaser trailer has Brando’s voice again using those very Biblical paternal words that the 1978 Movie did.

Superman’s first dramatic act is to save a plane, 35 minutes into Singer’s film. It takes twice as long to see the cape in Richard Donner’s original. Reeve’s first heroic act is also to save Lois on an airborne craft, bookended in a saving spree which ends with a passenger plane being flown safely home in a storm. Singer’s story conflates these two in having Lois on a passenger plane connected to a launch (in Superman the movie, it’s missiles; here it’s a new way to send the Shuttle on its way). Brandon Routh, the 21st century recasting, uses Reeve’s line after this rescue: “I hope this little incident hasn’t put you off flying. Statically speaking of course its still the safest way to travel.”

Superman and Lois again meet on her balcony in high altitude apartment block in Metropolis and he hops off the ledge, blows out her cigarette and advises her against smoking.

The Daily Planet building’s still art deco. Both Superman films largely used sets – the original at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, England – while Singer’s offering took the cast to Australia. Both seem to bear homage to the real life New York newspaper buildings.

There’s a photo from the first film of Clark’s family – are they the same actors?

The storyline also has parallels: Clark again arrives in a skidding burning spaceship in front of his adopted mother. He presently heads back to metropolis and his reporter job.

“Is it a bird, a plane…?” Jimmy’s poor Superman in flight shots are compared to those on a kid’s mobile, updating Superman and using the well worn tag line. We know who it is by now.

Lex Luthor appears for the fourth time (we had a recess in Superman III). Compared to the Michael Rosenbaum character in Smallville, the movie villain is too shallow. It’s not the acting that’s at fault but the character. Although real estate is a lucrative, it doesn’t seem dastardly enough to power the plot of three films. Another quoted line from the Salkind era is what Lex’s father said to him – complete with bad joke. But unlike Smallville, Lex has no complex father relationship here. The Posy Parker Kitty part is the new Miss Teschmacher, his female sidekick, but Parker’s not given the wit of the original or the (albeit underdeveloped) subversive intelligence that Pamela Anderson’s Lorelei Ambrosia had in Superman III. Lex finding the ice palace – the fortress of solitude – has happened at least once already, and he’s heard Marlon (Jor-el’s) speeches to his son. The crystals build a thing of beauty the first time – but for Lex they built a blackened world that already looks destroyed.

This new film aims for compounding as many disasters, action and American icons it cane fit into its two and a half hours. There’s the aeroplane sequence, not only a symbol of modern life and technology, but with the added pathos and meaning that being post twin towers brings. The landing in the midst of a baseball pitch is the most public place that a hero who does not seek fame could have brought the plane down; though the first movie has Superman proclaim himself to the country in the middle of its busiest city. In front of America’s sporting heroes, the alien saviour makes his public reentrance to the planet. Baseball is another American cultural institution and having a stadium applaud its other invention underscores this.

There is also the Titanic – an Anglo-American disaster which is very much in public consciousness and the subject of a blockbuster or two – the last of which also showcased building vast sets and great special effects. Here, another luxury yacht becomes stranded among great sheathes of ice and breaks in two.

Lois is written again as a self absorbed fast talking Pulitzer winning journalist who can’t spell – which I am still cynical is likely. But the first Lois – Margot Kidder – is sparky, though very of her time. The screentests (as I have already commented in my article on Associated Content) shows why Margot gives something to the part that marked her out. I hate to say that people are miscast, but I believe that Kate Bosworth is. She’s updated – unlike Clark – but she hasn’t got the essential spark. This is also true of the newer incarnation in Smallville, yet the sparky modern woman there is Chloe. (Why hasn’t Clark fallen for her?)

At the end, it is revealed that the cloying little Kid is in fact Superman’s child. As Lois does not recognize Clark as Superman, she must have slept with Superman in his hero persona, shortly before Superman disappeared. I understood from Superman II that he cannot have relations with humans without loosing his powers – hence Superman chose to give them up for Lois. Considering that two films follow this, Lois cannot have been pregnant throughout the adventures with Ross Webster’s computer and the Nuclear Man.

The quality of Routh’s acting is perhaps only apparent when you have seen footage of him off set. There is a look for Superman actors which he doesn’t seem to have until in the costume. The contrast between his two personas is a similar performance to the late Christopher Reeve: conservative, good bumbler and mighty but wholesome confident hero. You can believe why a pair of glasses are so an effective disguise.

The same length as the first Superman movie, Superman returns feels too long… the extra half hour in one is spent covering the early days, which this film goes over. The usual baddy showdown and kryptonite leaves us wondering if the Man of Steel has been melted, but as this happens in Smallville every week, it’s hardly as nailbiting as it could be. Or perhaps I am jaded.

Some may be glad of the 30 minutes wrested from setting the legend into making it, but the action at the end seemed like a series of unwanted encores – I just wanted to leave the theatre, so to speak.

Overall this seems like homage rather than adding anything new; a  way of introducing a new generation to he wonder of big screen Superman.