Superman Returns

Title: Superman Returns
Director: Bryan Singer
Cast: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey
Year: 2006
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some intense action violence.
Date of Review: June 29, 2006

"They can be a great people, Kal-El, if they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all - their capacity for good - I have sent them you...my only son."

-Marlon Brando as “Jor-El”


To say that the spirit of Christopher Reeve seems to have been channeled through the young Brandon Routh would be a gross understatement. No…the spirit is not only of Christopher Reeve, but of the entire 1978 classic film, Superman, and to go even further, the entire Superman mythos. Bryan Singer’s latest comic book film has been his dream project since he was a little boy. It was to him what King Kong was to Peter Jackson, and it shows in every exciting and beautiful image of the film, from the daring mid-air plane rescue to the climactic battle with Lex Luthor, emphatically played by Kevin Spacey.

While the film is most definitely a sequel to the original films with Christopher Reeve, it is hard to pinpoint exactly where it fits into the series. Bryan Singer has said several times that he basically ignored the third and fourth films, leaving the first two…but there is no mention of the actual events that took place in either of these films. However, certain events occur at the end of the film that lead the audience to believe it probably begins after the second film.

It has now been five years since Superman was last seen or heard from. One dreary night on the Kent farm, Martha Kent is frightened by what seems to be an earthquake, but when an enormous ship crashes into the fields, she investigates and finds Clark, her adopted son, wounded in the wreckage. After recovering, he reveals that he went back to the ruins of Krypton in search of other survivors, but to no avail - he really is the last son of Krypton. However, Superman is not the only one who has returned…Lex Luthor has sprung jail, and now with a whole new line-up of goons and a brand new girl, he sets out to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, where he steals the crystals used to create the enormous sanctuary, and plans to use them to destroy and rebuild the world as he sees fit.

The plot with Lex Luthor is a wonderful throwback to the classic good vs. evil stories of the Superman comics, and is nostalgic of the conflict between the two characters in the first film. However, this is not the main plot point in the movie. Lois Lane, Superman’s love, has moved on in his absence, getting engaged and having a child. In the process, she even writes a Pulitzer Prize winning article entitled “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman”, which, as we come to realize, was actually her way of dealing with his leaving and trying to convince herself that she is the one who doesn’t need him. It’s a classic romance of a man coming home to find that the world has moved on, and he needs to either win his love back, or learn to move on.

Superman Returns is filled with iconic moments and shots, one of which is a great homage to the classic Action Comics cover with Superman holding a car at an angle, keeping the surrounding pedestrians safe. The whole film is a Superman fan’s dream come true, keeping true to the mythology of the comic books and the story and feel of the original film, as well as injecting it with a new energy the elevates it above much of the blockbuster hopefuls in recent years. It also has a fantastic all-star cast including Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, Frank Langella as Perry White, and Parker Posey as Luthor’s new girlfriend, Kitty.

In the end, Superman Returns is about proving your worth, and showing the one you love just how much you really do love them. Like any great romance, it shows that love is not easy, and that time can never change what the heart truly feels. Bryan Singer has created not only an homage to the Superman legend, and a worthy sequel to the magical 1978 film that showed us a man an fly…he has given us an inspirational summer film that reminds us how much we really do need Superman. Everyone knows that he isn’t real, but that doesn’t stop many of us from believing that somewhere, somehow, Superman will save us. And this is perhaps a more important time than ever before for us as a people to remember that we really can be a great people if we wish to be. We only lack the light to show us the way.

8.5/10