My review of “Superman Returns” or “Did I see the same movie as you guys?”

Let me give fair warning right now, this is not a spoiler free review. There are lots of them. So what I’ll do is give my spoiler free review right now-
This movie is the most “real” superhero movie ever made. The emotions are adult and complex, and the layers of the various interrelationships and plots are so deep I had to just sit and think about this movie for about as long as I watched it. Then I watched it again. This is a movie that is more than worthy of a Best Picture nomination. Unfortunately, looking at the internet and box office response, this seems to have scared away people who just wanted to see Superman catch airplanes and beat up Lex Luthor. There’s plot and emotion, and apparently that’s a detriment to some people. Spoilers begin now…
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If the movie suffers in my book from anything it is that it should have been longer. I did walk out wanting to see some scenes between scenes, and luckily these are things that I understand were filmed and we should see on the DVD release. The film stands beautifully on its own however, provided you are willing to give the movie a little thought. This is no popcorn film. It is grown up. Very grown up. Once again- this is the spoiler part, so here’s your last chance. Superman goes to visit the remnants of Krypton resulting in a five year absence from the Earth, which learns to move on without him. Lois Lane in particular has moved on and has a child with her fiancé Richard. They live together in bliss in a lovely house. Lois has made herself a life, grown up and settled down. Yet deep within her she is hurt- hurt that Superman would leave without even saying goodbye. Her resentment manifests itself as an article entitled “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman.” This article has also earned Lois a Pulitzer Prize.

Then, He comes back.

I capitalize personal pronouns for Superman in this film, as He is painted as a deity. His five years away seem to be His forty days in the desert. He returns to His mission, and Lois’ resentment still holds.

I expected from this film for Richard White to be a jackass. I waited for the scene where Lois realizes she’s just settled for some jerk in lieu of Superman. Not here. Richard is a great guy, a great father, and a hero in his own right. When Luthor’s plot (which I will get to in a moment) endangers Lois and her son Jason, it is not Superman, but Richard who gets there first. And herein lies the complexity- you see, Jason is not actually Richard’s son; he is Superman’s. It is my suspicion that Lois doesn’t even know this. You may remember in Superman II Superman has erased her memory of their intimacy with a kiss- I don’t doubt that Lois thinks Jason is Richard’s, at least until an incredible feat on Jason’s part proves otherwise. The movie leaves us with this scenario- Mommy, Daddy, Kid, and kid’s real Daddy- the modern nuclear family, only this time with a cape. There is no easy solution, but as humans they are going to get by. It makes me consider the relationship between Joseph/Mary/Jesus/God- How does the surrogate father of God’s son look upon the boy he’s raising? In this film Richard gets it- gets Lois’ feelings for Superman, and moves forward. They are going to make it work no matter how difficult. It’s a mature, difficult relationship usually reserved for films about British servants at the turn of the century with lots of people named “Hopkins” and “Thompson” in them. Here, we get it bundled with Superman. Now, to react to naysayers who say Kate Bosworth doesn’t pull off the feisty Lois here I say- have a kid. Your hell brand days are over. Lois here is a mature woman who still carries the spark of her youth but has to pick the kid up from school- she doesn’t have the ability to sit in the Daily Planet all night. Is Bosworth a little young for this role? Maybe, but I think she pulls it off well enough, and I didn’t end up questioning her in the role- she still wouldn’t be my first pick, but her spark with Routh is good.

Routh is Superman. From the moment you see Him, you know He is the Man of Steel. It is interesting that this incarnation has Superman bring a little of Clark into His life. In the scene of news montages chronicling Superman’s return, you see a building burning, which is blown out by Superman. Before He flies off, He gives a self conscious smile and wave- very similar to one given by Clark to throw Richard and Lois’ suspicions off in the Daily Planet office. I can’t wait to see Routh in this role again.

Lex Luthor. He is diabolical. I have seen a lot of bashing on his plan, and frankly I wonder if they saw the same movie I did. Luthor historically in the films has been a land obsessed megalomaniac who hates that Superman even exists. He sits waiting in jail, the events of Superman II in his mind, knowing there is Kryptonian technology just sitting there. And Superman is gone! Gone! Lex must get out. He does, he tracks his way back to the Fortress of Solitude, stepping on hearts and souls to do so. And in the Fortress he finds not only tech, but tech that can give him what he so loves- land. Sure, creating a new continent is going to do some damage, and billions will die, but it is what they deserve for not bowing to his genius in the first place (is it a coincidence that Metropolis will be the first city wiped out by New Krypton? I think not…). More than that, he achieves his goal by besmirching the memory of the missing Superman, by bastardizing everything Superman stood for, and using Superman’s own home technology to do it. It is a perfect plan.

Then He comes back.

Lex is not to be outdone however. He will still create his continent, but this time he will not only use the Kryptonian technology to defend himself from human retaliation, he will lace the entire thing with Kryptonite, making him invulnerable to Superman- at least he believes. And indeed, when Superman arrives he is brutalized by Luthor and his minions (think Jesus beaten by the Romans, the imagery is there). Lex proves what a thug he really is as he violently shivs Superman with a chunk of His homeworld. Even more brutal though is the simple fact that Luthor has created a bizarro version of Krypton. The place Superman so desperately wanted to see that he went to visit “a graveyard” and was missing for five years is now recreated right here on Earth in Lex Luthor’s twisted way. It is Satan reinterpreting the Kingdom of Heaven, and Heaven’s Son must stop it.

But on Superman’s trip to Golgotha, he is first helped by Veronica wiping his face in the form of Lois pulling him from the ocean (finally, after sixty years she gets to save Him). We see a moment of Superman ascending to absorb power from the sun and then he descends, cutting the cancer that is New Krypton away from the Earth, and despite the hardship, despite the agony he conquers the Kryptonite laden rock and casts it out into space, throwing Hades into the bottomless pit. You can almost hear him whisper “It is finished” before He spreads his arms in the shape of the cross and plummets into the Earth.

Here, as Superman is rushed into an emergency room that can do almost nothing for Him we see the shortest heart-rending scene in movie history. Martha Kent stand in the throng of people waiting to see what happens to their hero, and she can do nothing. She must sit at the foot of the cross like Mary as her son does not belong to her anymore but to the world.

Then comes my one true complaint with the movie. Lois Lane brings Jason to see Superman who is now in a hospital bed. She doesn’t recognize him as Clark. Let’s face it; the disguise has never been the glasses. It’s how Clark moves and acts versus the confidence of Superman. Yet here, vulnerable and weak like Clark, Lois cannot see him in Superman. That is my one minor complaint (indeed, counter to this is a scene earlier where Jason immediately recognizes that Clark and Superman are one in the same, and I love that a child who does not bear the prejudices of an adult would see right through Superman’s role playing).

Soon after, a nurse comes into the room to find the bed empty and the window open- the tomb is empty, the stone’s been rolled away and now His body isn’t there. Then Superman gets a chance to speak to His son as His son… quoting Jor-El in a moment that shows that he understands the irony of the fact that he spent five years searching the cosmos to find a true connection to another living thing- when that connection was waiting for Him on Earth all along. Beautiful.

There are a million wonderful little moments in this film, several of which come from simple reaction- Jimmy eating a Burrito as Clark looks on with tortilla stuck on his face; the image of Superman with the world on his shoulders as he catches the Daily Planet’s globe, and Perry’s response; a bathrobed Lex Luthor finding Lois Lane on his boat, and soon noticing her young son’s reaction to Kryptonite. There are moments for the fanboys- Glenn Ford’s picture on the mantle at the Kent’s; the iconic Action Comics number one pose captured by a 12 year old with a cell phone; the opening credits taken directly from the original movies; Marlon Brando; the quick mention of Gotham City; guest cameos by the fifty’s TV show’s Jimmy and Lois. Good stuff.

And yet, we see slow box office, and people on line calling the movie slow or so-so. I know everyone has a right to an opinion, but it is such a shame to see this movie perform in a mediocre fashion. There is love in this movie for the source material from the makers, and it is obvious in every scene. There are a couple of specific nit picks I’ve seen I want to address:

Lex’s plan has him controlling barren rock on an island—He isn’t done yet, that’s why the map in the boat is incremental, and he still has six more crystals. Once he applies the rest of the crystals it will be more than a rocky island, but indeed a Superman proof version of Kryptonian Utopia. Oh, on a side note, isn’t it great that at the end, that though it isn’t Australia or New Krypton, Lex gets his island…?

Lois has been lying about Jason to Richard—she had her memory erased, she doesn’t know she slept with Superman.

Superman is gay—I’ve seen this in several places, and I can only say… what? He spends the whole movie regretting what he did to Lois and hoping to see her, even watching to make sure her life is good. Can someone tell me the gay part?

It’s too long—I wanted more, I want to see Superman on the remains of Krypton, I wanted to see more of Singer’s version of Clark’s childhood. I wanted to see more of Clark back in Smallville. I wanted more Daily Planet scenes. The movie stands alone fine, but I am sure ready to watch Superman Returns 2.

Please, if you saw this movie and didn’t like it, reconsider. Give it another look and peel away some of the layers that are waiting below the surface. I’m four pages in, and frankly I could go on for more about all the things I’ve seen in this film in just two viewings, and I know there’s more. This is a superhero movie, and a great film, and deserves recognition. I only hope we the fans don’t shoot ourselves in the foot by wanting to bash this movie and sound smart. Sell this movie to adults- it is grown up; sell this movie to kids- it is spectacular; sell this movie to geeks- it is Superman.

He has returned.