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Superman
Returns - by
Phil Hoyle
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Have
you seen the film? ... Tell us what you think
here |
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After
spending 5 years visiting the remains of his
home planet, Krypton, the man of steel returns
to earth to find Lois Lane engaged and with
a 5-year-old son. Does the planet still need
a Superman? With Lex Luthor plotting to build
Krypton on earth, of course it does ...
So the film that wooed Bryan Singer away from
his highly successful X–men franchise
arrives with a blare of trumpets and the glare
of mock 1970 SFX credits; the camera zooming
through the galaxies whilst John Williams’
famous theme announces the arrival of the
cast and crews names in glorious neon. It’s
superbly evocative of the earlier films, but
I wonder if it’s lost on an audience
born after 1980. After all, Singer is ignoring
the amusing Superman 3 and the dreadful Superman
4, choosing instead to pick up where the second
movie left off. |
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| Photographs
courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment
Inc |
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However,
invoking the past is not an insurmountable
obstacle. In fact, it’s inevitable.
The main problem with this film, and
with Superman in any genre in fact,
is that he really only has one decent
story going for him – his origin.
Knowing this, Singer crafts a situation
which, whilst a sequel, is essentially
just a retelling of the first film:
Superman crashes to earth, is discovered
by his mom, reassumes his identity as
Clark Kent, then appears as Superman
to great acclaim, whilst foiling the
plots of Lex Luthor. It’s no surprise
as Superman’s origin is mythic
in nature.
It’s also closely related to another
story that you might recognise. Let’s
see… Sent by his father to an
earth that needs saving, Superman is
the perfect person. He fights for truth
and justice (he used to fight for the
American way, but here it’s cunningly
replaced by ‘all that stuff’).
He has, lets not forget, super powers.
Yeah, that’s right; Superman is
a modern day messiah. Singer lays this
idea on thick, digging out Marlon Brando’s
turn as Superman’s dad Jor-El
from the first films to constantly repeat
‘I am sending my only Son’
as if it were a mantra. Superman at
one stage assumes a cruciform position
whilst falling to the earth, heck there’s
even a hint at the resurrection.
This is all fine except for a couple
of things. Firstly, if Superman is a
messiah, then he’s definitely
one who uses his fists. All his abilities
are physical, he’s not against
having a rumble and showing who’s
boss by a test of strength. This is
in direct opposition to the pacifist
approach of Jesus, who, whilst everyone
expected him to be a great warrior,
actually promoted peace in all situations.
However, that’s fine. Superman’s
battle can be seen as metaphoric, when
he punches a bad guy, its actually a
battle against evil.
But secondly, and much more noticeably
in this movie, he’s a messiah
who’s developed a morally ambiguous
streak. It’s a bit of a comic
book cliché, but it’s often
proposed that Superman’s greatest
strength is his knowledge of right and
wrong and his decision to do what’s
right, not what’s easiest. Unfortunately,
in this movie, his most notable motivation
is to try and score with Lois Lane,
who is engaged to another man and has
a child with him. This selfish streak,
whilst supposedly making him more ‘human’,
really jarred with the mythology of
Superman, (and therefore, in this case,
Jesus) for me.
Regardless of these thematic difficulties,
Bryan Singer directs skilfully and,
even at a bum numbing 2 hours 30 mins,
the movie rolls along ok. The cast are
a mixed bag, Brandon Routh channels
the spirit of Christopher Reeve (from
the original Superman) well, but Kate
Bosworth slightly misfires on Lois Lane.
Kevin Spacey stays just this side of
hammy, but when you’re Lex Luthor
that’s forgivable. The SFX are
spectacular, |
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but
the spectacular plane crash scene is used
up about half an hour into the film and nothing
really matches that for the rest of the movie.
So, Superman Returns gives us a rerun of the
mythic origin of the last son of krypton,
but adds overt Jesus imagery and moral dubiousness.
Fortunately, there’s enough explosions
and spectacle to see us through, but I’m
not entirely convinced it’s was worth
abandoning the X-Men for.
:
Phil Hoyle |
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Directed
by: Bryan Singer
Written by:
Bryan Singer (Story) Michael Dougherty and
Dan Harris (Story and Screenplay)
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe
Shushter
Starring: Brandon
Routh (Superman/Clark Kent), Kate Bosworth
(Lois Lane), Kevin Spacey (Lex Luthor),
James Marsden (Richard White), Tristan Lake
Leabu (Jason White) |
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