deeplyshallow // superman returns

superman returns

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Superman Returns officially opened today, but last night a ’sneak preview’ was shown in theatres all over the country. Susan and I went with some friends, two of whom — get this — had never seen anything Superman-related (aside from part of an episode of “Lois & Clark” once). In retrospect, I shouldn’t be so surprised; I’m talking about Susan’s younger brother and sister, and it wasn’t so long ago that Susan was a newcomer to the Superman films.

Most of you know the story by now: Superman has been away for five years, investigating the wreckage of his home planet. But now he’s back, and the world, as Galadriel intoned, is changed. Lois Lane’s shacking up with the boss’s nephew, Richard, and she’s the mother of a five-year-old. (From the beginning there’s no question who the father is. We might have elected George Bush twice, but we ain’t exactly stupid. Actually, my logic here is pretty debatable.) More importantly, Lex Luthor’s out of prison — apparently the star witness in the case against him was somewhere in the depths of space when he should have been giving testimony — and trying to kill everybody in the world again, and all because he still wants Costa del Lex.

Anyway, blah blah blah. Here’s the best part of the review: All of that ridiculous hand-wringing I’ve done was all for naught. I was anxious as hell, but Superman Returns did almost everything right, and gets points for trying so hard on everything else. Let’s review:

The familiar flying blue 3D titles are back, and swooping through space just like we all remember. With these, the movie kicks off with a nostalgic wallop, setting you up for a respectful homage to the Richard Donner films. (From this point in, I could barely stop grinning. It kind of hurt.)

Brandon Routh: It will take some time — and probably another movie or two — to shake off the memory of Christopher Reeve’s Superman enough to fully grasp Routh’s accomplishment. This is pretty difficult, given Routh’s sometimes eerie similarities to Reeve. (When Routh, as Superman, lands on the roof of the Daily Planet to speak to Lois for the first time, he says, “Good evening, Miss Lane” — exactly the way Reeve said it to Margot Kidder when he arrived for her exclusive rooftop interview. I swear the hairs on my neck rose.)

It wasn’t hard to enjoy Routh’s performance, however. He plays Clark Kent, Superman’s real-world alter-ego, in a much less bumbling manner than Reeve ever did. As Superman — well, this guy is Superman, just the way Reeve was. And with more attention than ever paid to the Man of Steel’s, uh, steelness — needles break on his skin, bullets ricochet off of him, he leaps the lengths of entire football fields — Routh has modern special effects working for him, making it easier to believe him when he shrugs off Kent’s clothes and takes to the skies.

Equally fascinating is Kevin Spacey’s performance as Lex Luthor. If Gene Hackman’s Luthor was always teetering on the edge of madness, then Spacey pushes the character right over. For the first time, we see just how despicable Lex Luthor is. The audience laughed at the first sign of this — the scene where Lois insists Superman will save the day, and Luthor erupts with a furious denial — but that wasn’t the intent. Spacey brings out the dark side of the character, and the result is a villain worthy of the title: vicious, self-righteous, driven by revenge, and yes, probably batshit insane.

Of the primary cast, the weakest link is Kate Bosworth, the new generation’s Lois Lane. She gives a passable performance, but it’s missing something: gravitas. One of the most vexing things about Superman Returns is the age of its stars. Brandon Routh’s Superman seems much younger than Reeve’s, despite the film’s insistence that five years has passed. This is forgivable, however, because of the depths Routh explores as Superman; he carries a weight that convinces us. Of course, there’s no such problem with Kevin Spacey. But Bosworth looks not a day over twenty-one, which creates a bit of a barrier to buying her character’s age, motherhood, career accomplishments (can a teenager win a Pulitzer?) and etc. It’s almost impossible to look past this visual incongruity to attempt to appreciate her performance.

What really shines here are the special effects. There are still many scenes that involve wires and harnesses, and thank god for them, but for the first time a Superman movie relies on computers to create utterly believable flying sequences. With the exception of a few scattered moments when Superman’s syntheticism briefly shows through, the trickery is almost undetectable. What’s more, Superman’s abilities of flight are finally given the eye-popping treatment they have always deserved: Superman creates sonic booms when he zooms through the sky, and there are no odd angles and questionable perspectives, as there were in Superman and Superman II. Finally, Superman can fly better than Neo.

John Williams isn’t along for the ride this time, but the themes of his original score are dusted off and polished up by John Ottman, who admirably attempts to tie familiar music to some fresh compositions. The score is most remarkable when it focuses on Williams’ various themes; however, Ottman’s treatment of the themes is a little weak. The main title in particular lacks a certain majesty that it once carried; its execution is less celebratory than the original. Still, it’s a kick to hear the march and the title theme in a theatre again.

Superman Returns is a welcome addition to the canon. It provides plenty of iconic moments, including a few that seem a little forced. It’s missing the subtle wit of Donner’s film and its sequel — perhaps because Spacey plays Luthor with only occasional bursts of crazed joviality; perhaps because Routh doesn’t make Clark Kent over-the-top inept — but that’s understandable, as the movie’s storyline is tense. This is perhaps my favorite aspect of the movie: it’s tragic, it’s threatening, it’s often fairly dark. Superman brought to his knees is nothing new — in each of the previous movies, Reeve has been knocked out of commission in some way or another — but to see it done in such brutal and powerful ways is surprisingly effective. There is a particularly harsh moment in which Lex Luthor, at long last, gets the better of Superman; later, Superman plummets from space to earth. During both scenes, the previously rowdy theatre (full of yammering college kids) was deathly quiet.

Bryan Singer could stand to cut one or two of the too-many rumble scenes (that is, scenes that preface big moments with shots of rattling dishes, breaking glass, etc.), but there is little here I can take issue with. With Superman Returns, Singer has brought back a long-absent legend, and in a big, big way. For almost three hours last night I was a little kid again. Superman is back!