Reviewed by Shahir Daud

IN THE LEAD up to this year’s film festival, it’s important not to forget the Hollywood blockbusters playing at your local multiplex. After all, it would be easy not to notice that the world’s favourite man in tights has returned to the silver screen, this time as a pixel perfect Photoshop rendering. Superman has indeed returned, but like Lois Lane’s Pulitzer prize winning essay asks, does the world need him?


I leapt at the chance to review the original Superman Quadrilogy DVD boxset, because I found myself still driven to child like shivers when I heard John William’s mesmerising score. Certainly, the two Richards (Donner and Lester) films about the Man of Steel were flawed in many ways, but there was no denying the ethereal majesty of Christopher Reeves flying with a red cape and hot pants.

For the director of what is perhaps still one of the most defining crime films of the 90’s (The Usual Suspects), Bryan Singer has certainly taken the path least travelled. His unexpected helming of the first two X-Men films garnered some of the most surprisingly effective takes on the superhero mythology. Both films may have been trite discussions of good and evil compared to his daring adaptation of Stephen King’s Apt Pupil, yet they are probably the most complex and layered superhero films to date.

Why then is he so afraid to take any risks with the big blue boy? Superman Returns is lovingly painted in the same bright Technicolor tones of Donner’s 1978 production, and takes its cues as a revisionist sequel to the first two films. Despite my qualms about dismissing Richard Lester’s brilliant Superman III, Singer’s decision to re-start the franchise using the existing films as part of the mythology is quite inspired. Unlike last years Batman Begins which had to fight to re-imagine the caped crusader as quite distinct from the campy tones of Tim Burton and Joel Shumacher’s visions, Singer’s Superman revels in re-creating a kitsch Metropolis where Jimmy Olsen (Sam Huntington) still wears a bow tie and Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is still referred to as a criminal mastermind. Giving Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) a child and a fiancé (James Marsden as Richard White) may seem like adding depth on paper, but in truth, cherub little Jason (Tristan Lake Leabu) is just a gimmick to give Superman some desperately needed angst.

Which brings us to the man himself. Plucked from the obscurity of daytime television and occasional stints on Gilmore Girls, Will and Grace and Cold Case, Brandon Routh certainly looks the part and seems to be willing to give the role its deserved gravity. Yet, it’s Singer and screenwriters who seem unwilling to allow their hero any decisive impulse beyond those which we’d expect from a man who is continuously anointed as a modern Jesus Christ.

Superman/Clark Kent crash lands back on Smallville after a five year search for the remains of his home planet Krypton. Getting his job back, Clark immediately learns not only has his former lover Lois had a child, she’s also (coincidently) put her life in danger once again while pursuing the hot story (this time a shuttle launch on top an airliner). Clark immediately tears his shirt open revealing that iconic ‘S’ and hurtles towards the heavens, saving not only Lois but a plane load of journalists, safely landing the jet in the middle of a televised baseball game. Yes, the all American hero knows how to make an entrance.

But while Donner’s Superman was an ambassador for goodwill and change (he even spoke to the UN about the perils of nuclear proliferation in the syrupy finale to Superman IV), Singer’s is lovesick puppy, who broods like a suddenly solo boy band member. In between his international flights, saving people around the world (only seen on television screens), Superman hovers above Lois’ house, using his X-ray vision to spy as Lois fiancé Richard grows more insecure about the reappearance of Lois’ old flame. Our new Superman is obviously not above boyish infatuation, even in the face of a lover who has clearly moved on.

As much as I wanted to love this film, it lacks the magic of the original, where you really did believe a man could fly. Crafted with genuine care and affection for the original, Superman Returns rarely takes any risks nor allows its hero to actually do anything significantly heroic. Perhaps, as I’d imagine Lois Lane would ask in one of her reports, this modern Superman is too self involved in his own mythology to see the bigger picture. Not only has Lois moved on, but so has everybody else.