Isn’t it about time we gave Superman Returns another chance?

Over the years several attempts had been made to re-launch the Superman series with a variety of directors attached, including Tim Burton, Brett Ratner and Mc”Fuckin”G (Thank Christ he didn’t get his hands on it!) and bizarrely, Nic Cage was the front runner to play the Man of Steel (can you imagine?!). In 2006 Bryan Singer resurrected the long dead, much loved franchise with Superman Returns. Wisely ignoring Superman 3 & 4, Superman Returns picks up few years after the events of Superman 2, with Kal-El returning to Earth after an unsuccessful quest to find (the remains of) his home planet of Krypton, trying to rebuild relationships as both Clark Kent and saviour of the world Superman. The film was highly anticipated to say the least, but with a reported budget of $270 million (which included the costs of all the previously unmade versions) and only making $200 million domestically ($391 million worldwide) it was considered a commercial flop. It also faced criticism for its slow pace and too much focus on the love story and lack of action. I actually had a conversation with someone once who lambasted the film because he felt it was too gay (he didn’t like that the director and lead villain are openly homosexual), which is just pathetic. Maybe if Superman had wore a pink cape he would have a very small argument, but to the best of my knowledge all of the characters are played, erm, well, straight! What a dick!

So what went wrong? Personally I don’t think it did go wrong, I think it is a well crafted, fun film – sure it has a couple of slow bits, but is this reason to write it off? Does the film lack action? Hardly! The scene were Supes saves the plane from plummeting to a certain doom is absolutely breathtaking. The feeling of an impending demise written all over the passengers faces, the look of disbelief on Lois’ face as she sees her saviour zoom past the window, the exhilaration as the crowd jump to their feet once Superman has safely landed the plane in the baseball stadium, the scenes of jubilation as the human race realises that Superman has returned, that they are no longer alone. The third act maybe a little clumsy and inconsistent at times, but considering there was no equally powered big-bad in the film, I think Singer pulled off a great ending!

So on to the casting. For most people Christopher Reeves is the quintessential Superman, the perfect embodiment of the classic character, which makes the recasting of such a role all the more difficult. But for me there couldn’t be a better stand in for the late, great Chris Reeves than Brandon Routh (pronounced like South – not Ruth or Roth!). The man perfectly captures the charming goofiness of Clark Kent (not “CK” as in the New Adventures shite) whilst wearing the infamous red cape with the formidable presence, yet dignified grace that you would expect from Krypton’s favourite son. Sure, people complain about Supes turning into a stalker, but I think is a little unfair. Don’t we all go a little crazy when we can’t be with someone we love? Why should the Man of Steel be any different? And to be fair, in his shoes, I would have totally abused my powers of x-ray vision – and that my friends, is why I will never be Superman!
Where the film really misses a beat for me is with Kate Bosworth being cast as Lois Lane. Now admittedly the character is possibly one of the most annoying in the history of comics AND film so it makes the casting difficult, but there is nothing I like about this character and quite frankly, I wouldn’t have been sorry to see her killed off! I’m not overly familiar with Superman’s long history – does he ever have any other love interests like Spiderman does? Maybe this is where the series has gone wrong? Just a thought.
Kevin Spacey may not have the same gravitas as Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor, but he was a suitable substitute, I certainly can’t think of anyone better for the role. He was able to capture the cunning and deviousness of the character, with a manic comedy streak. Frank Langella (Mr Skeletor) made a great Perry White, for me far superior than Jackie Cooper’s 1978 version.

As a Filmtwat I love film continuity and hat tips to previous sequels or versions and Singer managed to pay homage to the original films in a much less obvious and ham-fisted manner than Mc”Fuckin”G did with Terminator Shit-vation. Little things like Lois’ hair style in her first scene (the same as Margot Kidders’ in the originals), Clark’s suit, the John Williams score (dare I say anthem?), and after Superman stops the airplane crash, he says to the passengers (including Lois Lane), “I hope this doesn’t put any of you off flying. Statistically speaking, it’s still the safest way to travel.” He said the same thing to Lois after rescuing her from the helicopter crash in the original Superman (1978). And, as in the first movie, Lois faints just after Superman flies away. Also, unlike last years Terminator Shit-vation where the Austrian Oak, Arnult was crappily CG’d into a scene, Singer succeeded in reviving Marlon Brando as Superman’s old man, Jor-El, in a feasible and effective way (albeit via a fancy crystallized DVD player!) As for the other effects, I can think of only one shot in the whole film which is questionable, if it wasn’t for that I would say the CG is flawless.

With all the talk of a Superman reboot/reimaging/restart (whatever) at the moment, I’ll always wonder what Bryan Singer could have done with a further follow up – in fairness the guy didn’t find his pace with X-Men until the second one (the first one wasn’t bad per say, X2 was simply streets ahead!) – would we have seen the return of General Zod? Maybe Brainiac would have made his big screen debut? Now we’ll never know, we can only hope whoever does take the reins (currently rumoured to be the Jonah Nolan) that they don’t fuck it up!

In the mean time, I urge you, my fellow filmtwats to review out Superman Returns and give it another chance!