Superman Returns

Superman Returns (Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, Parker Posey, Frank Langella) – It took both guts and a lot of millions to bring the Man of Steel back to the big screen in what will be a blockbuster.  The computer graphics are unprecedented and the “blue screen” work by Norwalk, Iowa, native Routh and the technicians is first rate as we see a very different Superman than created by George Reeves for television or Christopher Reeve to film.  As pointed out in the Time magazine review, this is a Superman that is more God than alien and more the product of both his father and his adopted parents than of his innate search for “truth, justice and the American way.”  Indeed, Routh looks like Reeves and had the blessing of Reeves’ wife to reprise the role.  But he also captured the character well, both as the super-hero and as Clark Kent, who super-reporter Lois Lane (Bosworth) thinks of as a relatively incompetent journalist, but a nice guy.  To create the nuances of a new Superman, the film’s connections (Brian Singer of X-Men directs) stretched the imagination by saying that Superman left earth for five years to search for the possible remnants of Krypton.  This sets up the film’s central love triangle since Lois has a boyfriend and a five-year-old son (figure it out yet?).  But they still love each other despite the absence.  The plot centers on the return of Lex Luthor, played amazingly by Kevin Spacey (welcome back to a hit movie, Kevin!).  He takes on the Gene Hackman character from the original movie with a passion, seriousness and irony.  He almost gets our hero this time in a story more out of James Bond than comic book, but this can be forgiven.  An incredible score (by John Ottman, it sounds like Star Wars), glorious scenery, and an unprecedented number of excellent computer graphics make this movie almost perfect, even for those of us who don’t usually like the comic book-turned-film genre.  My early prediction is that this one might even get an Oscar nomination for Best Picture in addition to the boatload it will get for the special effects.