Movie Review: "Superman Returns" (2006) · 5:23pm Jan 21st, 2019
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for a movie that came out around 13 years ago. If you do not wish to be surprised...you know what? Why am I even putting this here? This movie's 13 years old, who cares about spoilers?
Forget I said anything. Read on if you want.
After my last attempt at a movie review focused on mind-numbingly bad content (and a lack of comments, which I can only assume means that you took my advice to turn back a little too literally), I decided to do a complete 180 and write about something I actually enjoy...
I've been a fan of Superman since I first saw the original 1978 movie back when I was five or six, and my love for the character and what he stands for has never really gone away. This movie came out during the height of my initial interest in the Man of Steel. I'd just seen the Christopher Reeve film, and to my delight, there was a whole new film coming out, which meant a whole lot of toys for me to collect. To this day, I still have a couple of Superman figures and a faux Kryptonite crystal that used glow-in-the-dark rods.
Ah, good times.
Alas, my family and I never got around to seeing Superman Returns. In fact, up until Man of Steel started building up hype, I had completely forgotten Returns ever existed. And once I remembered, I decided it was time for me to catch up on that missing piece of my childhood.
And I'll be perfectly frank: this movie is almost criminally underrated. It may not be a perfect Superman movie–none of them are, not even the sacred Christopher Reeve original when you really think about it–but it's still a good film in my opinion, and a much better representation of the Superman character than anything we've gotten in recent years. OK, maybe except for the Arrowverse and The Death of Superman, but still.
The story takes place in the same continuity as the 1978 film and Superman II, while ignoring the events of Superman III, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, and Supergirl (Yes, there was a Supergirl film back in the 80's. Probably worth a Google.) Five years, prior, Superman just disappeared without a trace. No one knows where he went or why, and people have gotten used to the fact that he's not around anymore.
Until he comes back.
It turns out that NASA scientists had found what appeared to be a fully-intact Krypton, and Superman took off in a starship of his own design to find out if there are other surviving Kryptonians. Alas, the reports were mistaken. In the words of Clark Kent after he crash-lands back in the Kent family farm in Smallville, Kansas, Krypton is "nothing but a graveyard."
But that's not the worst of Kal-El's troubles. During the five years of his absence, things have changed. Martha Kent is getting ready to sell the farm and remarry. Lex Luthor has wormed his way out of prison through a legal technicality and is now armed with the fortune of wealthy woman he's swindled. And worst of all, Lois Lane is now in love with Richard White, the nephew of Perry White, they already have a child named Jason, and she appears to have turned her back on Superman entirely, having written a Pulitzer-prize wining article entitled Why The World Doesn't Need Superman. Clark's only comfort through all of this is that he's able to regain his job at the Daily Planet.
But Luthor is back to his old tricks again. After acquiring his ill-gotten fortune, he and his cronies travelled to the Arctic and found the Fortress of Solitude, and stole a multitude of Kryptonian crystals. Luthor discovers that ancient Kryptonians used the crystal technology to terraform their world to their liking, prompting Luthor to use the same methods to grow a massive pseudo-continent in the middle of the Atlantic, causing EMPs and earthquakes in the process. Now Superman must stop Luthor once again while also trying to win back the heart of the woman he once loved.
Phew, that's a lot!
As a fan of the Richard Donner films, I loved this movie. It was an incredible trip through my childhood nostalgia, coupled with modern film techniques and effects, awesome action sequences, and a musical score by John Ottman that could honestly give John Williams' score a run for it's money. And while it did do a couple of things that I didn't like, I consider it a great Superman film nonetheless.
There are two categories when it comes to actors who've played Superman: Christopher Reeve and everybody else. And out of the "everybody else" category, Brandon Routh is my favorite.
Routh's portrayal of Superman is filled with a sense of warmth and confidence and humility that I've not really seen in anyone else since Reeve. His Clark Kent is equally great too, and I think he's the only one besides Reeve to really sell the two as entirely different people. The fact that he looks just like him helps a lot as well. I liked the updated suit as well. It keeps all the basics of the classic uniform, but renders it in a sleek, modern form that makes it look like it was made from advanced Kryptonian materials and not just sewn together (I happen to be a fan of the Kryptonian-made suit idea).
Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane was okay, I thought. I admit, I've never too fond of Lois as a character. I don't hate her, but I don't like her, either. So I really can't say whether she made a good Lois or not.
Now, I think I ought to address the elephant in the room here: Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Keep in mind, this film came out a long time before he turned out to be a sexually-assaulting jerk, and I feel the movie will be forever tarnished because of that. And that's a pity, because Returns' portrayal of Luthor is probably the best version ever put on screen. This take on Luthor has all the sarcastic wit of the famous Gene Hackman version, but also carries a greater sense of menace than ever before. That, and he spawned an entire meme. Yes, that was this movie that people got it from.
On that note, a lot of people slam Luthor's plan, but I actually think it's a logical progression from what we've seen before, considering this version has always been into real estate scandals. Think about it: in the first film, he hijacked two nuclear missiles to destroy the San Andreas fault and sink California, rendering the land he bought as high-selling beach front property. In the second, he gave vital information to General Zod and his minions in exchange for ruling certain parts of the world (he actually snagged Australia and Cuba before Superman took them out). Now, he's planning to make his land exactly the way he wants it with advanced alien technology, even going so far as to mix Kryptonite in with the crystal matrix to keep Superman at bay (which it does, in one of the most gut-wrenching scenes in any Superman movie ever). Although, now that I think of it, it has been discovered that Kryptonite does give humans cancer over long-term exposure...yeah, I think I'm starting to see the holes in this plan. But still.
Now onto my biggest gripe about the movie. Lois and Richard's son Jason is actually Superman's. That means at some point prior to his disappearance. Superman and Lois got...you know. There's just something about the idea of Superman having sex outside of marriage that rubs me the wrong way. It doesn't seem like something he'd normally do. Don't get me wrong, Jason is a cute kid (and he does save Lois at one point when he starts developing powers), but it still seems kind of off.
But overall, I personally think Superman Returns deserves a much better rap than what it commonly gets. In a time where Superman has been made dark and edgy and depressed, and attempts to lighten him up have fallen utterly flat for the most part, this film is an absolute joy to watch. This is the real deal. This is Superman.
This is Jade Dawn, signing off...for now.
You know, the way I visualize it I now see Spacey's role as Lex Luthor as more menacing after the allegations come out. Same with his voice as Hopper from A Bug's Life.
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I thought so too.
Huh. This movie...I don't remember this at all. It feels more like a b-list Superman 1. Although that plane rescue is arguably the best scene in any Superman movie.
I only saw this movie once, but I thought it was alright. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. There's stuff in here that still sticks with me (Luthor growing his own continent, and shanking Superman with Kryptonite - that's a moment I still wince to think about, I still find unsettling and very well-done), but at the same time I'm not a fan of other aspects of the movie (namely, the idea of Superman fathering a child out of wedlock - not because he had sex outside marriage, just the fact that the whole idea of Superman impregnating Lois and not being there when the kid is born and growing up kinda makes Clark look like a deadbeat). Not to mention, the very idea of how Lex gets the money for this latest scheme of his is just gross. Ugh...
And as you said, there's the whole can of worms pertaining to Kevin Spacey and his performance given the later discoveries about him. On the one hand, as HolyCross says, it might make the performance more menacing, but at the same time, it's just uncomfortable as well.