Forgive me for continuing to blather on about the same subject, but I started thinking on the train home from work tonight and I realized that I’ve still got a lot to say about this particular movie. I hope you’ll bear with me…

In the previous entry, I made much about the fact that Superman Returns follows the plot line of Christopher Reeve’s Superman: The Movie too closely for my comfort. I was troubled by the lack of originality, and the failure to fully explore the possbilities of the film’s core concept. But there are other problems, too:

The sub-plot about Supes visiting Krypton amounts to nothing more than a plot device to get him out of the way for a while; his five-year odyssey, which could’ve been a movie in itself, is dismissed with a couple lines of dialog, but I wanted to know more about it. At the very least, there should’ve been more discussion about his finally learning, once and for all, that he’s the last of his kind (at least so far as he knows; as readers of the comics know, quite a lot of Kryptonians escaped through various means. And why wouldn’t he tell Lois Lane he was going on this journey, anyway? She’s the closest thing to a best friend he’s got, even if you leave aside the romantic tension between them, and I would think she deserved to know he was leaving town for awhile, even if he didn’t want her to know where he was going for some reason. I didn’t buy the film’s explanation that it was too hard for him to say goodbye. Sounds like a clear case of superdickery to me.)

The threat represented by Luthor’s plan is constantly talked about, but we see very little actual damage as a result of it — where is the tsunami and flooding he predicts in his “monologing” (to borrow a term from The Incredibles)? How is it that Supes is incapacitated by Luthor’s threat (I’m trying to be vague here for those who haven’t seen the movie yet) in one scene but a few minutes later he manages to push his abilities to the limit in order to stop said threat?

When did they start building 747s that could survive being accelerated beyond the sound barrier? They must’ve done some serious upgrading on that airframe… (Actually, I’m willing to let this one go, considering all the messed-up physics in the ’78 movie. And I’m not even thinking of the turn-back-the-world thing. Which, for the record, has never bothered me because I’ve long understood it as Superman, in his anger and grief and need to do something, exceeding the speed of light, causing time to start flowing backwards for him, subjectively speaking.)

The Christ imagery, although obvious when you think about the nature of the Superman character, was pretty heavy-handed. And, even though I’m willing to believe that no one connects Clark and Superman based on appearance alone, how is it that no one realizes that (a) Superman was missing for five years, and Clark was on sabbatical for the same amount of time, and (b) when Superman is badly injured and lying in hospital, Clark is no where to be found? There’s a time-honored plot device and then there’s abject stupidity, people.

Moving on to performances, Brandon Routh was adequate as in his dual role as Clark Kent and Superman, but not outstanding. He seemed a little stiff in certain scenes; I’m guessing he was nervous because of the burden of playing an icon, so I’ll reserve final judgment on him until I see him take another crack at the role (come on, you know there’s going to be another one). Kevin Spacey was suitably menacing as Lex Luthor, but he didn’t have the charm of Gene Hackman’s take on the character; he was all yin without the yang (although the scene where he explains to Kitty why he allowed her to be endangered by one of their stunts was brilliant). I didn’t miss Ned Beatty’s bumbling Otis, but it was distracting to have Kumar as the most prominent henchman.

However, the one thing that bothered me more than anything else about Superman Returns was that Kate Bosworth, the actress cast as Lois Lane, is just too damn young for her part. She’s beautiful and far more appealing than poor Margot Kidder, and she turns in a fine performance, given that her character is called upon to do some astoundingly stupid things, but she can’t be a day over 23… which means she must’ve been around 17 when her son was conceived, which doesn’t mesh well with the events of Superman II (I’m trying to be vague again, can you tell?). I just didn’t buy her in the part, not as a star reporter, not as a Pulitzer winner, not at 23. Sorry. There are some age issues with her son as well, which I’ll say no more about, other than to point out that, if SR is supposed to be a sequel to Superman II, the timeframe doesn’t match up properly. (Wouldn’t it have been interesting if Superman had been gone the same number of years that really elapsed between this film and Superman II? He’s Superman and he’s been traveling — presumably — at supralight speeds, so he wouldn’t have aged, but back on Earth, 20 years were gone. Hmm. Now that would’ve been a movie…)

On the positive side, Frank Langella is wonderful as the Daily Planet’s editor Perry White, and James Marsden is good in a small role as Lois’ all-too-human boyfriend (and Perry’s son), Richard White. (One thing I especially liked, and which struck me as a typical Bryan Singer touch based on the X-Men films, was the way Superman displayed sensitivity for Richard’s feelings and masculine ego during the shipwreck rescue sequence; Supes seemed to go out of his way to make Richard a participant in the situation, rather than just a passive victim.) Also notable is a young actor named Tristan Lake Leabu as Lois’ son, Jason; he’s very natural and not at all annoying like most child actors, aside from desperately needing a haircut. I liked the sonic boom when Superman flew off at high speed in a couple of scenes. And I liked the homages to incarnations of Superman that predate even Chris Reeve’s: two actors from the 1950s Superman TV series appear in cameos, and there’s a nifty visual nod to the iconic cover of Action Comics #1. (To return to the point from my previous entry, I actually think it would’ve been more effective if Reeve’s Superman flicks had referenced in small ways like this instead of SR making this weird attempt at being a sequel twenty years after the fact.)

The bottom line is pretty much what I’ve already said: I liked the movie more than I thought I would, but it could’ve been so much more if Bryan Singer had tried harder to make his own Superman movie instead of replicating Richard Donner’s. Maybe Brandon Routh’s next outing as the Last Son of Krypton will be a little more sure of itself and more willing to take chances. I’m certainly willing to give it a try when it comes along. But I wasn’t overly impressed with his first one…