Superman Returns with Brandon Routh

Honestly, I avoid disaster movies these days. After 911, a little post-tramatic stress disorder makes them less than fun for me. I never really liked them, but now they cause me a bit more stress than I can enjoy. The idea of going to see the latest Poseidon Adventure movie sounded as much fun as nails on a chalkboard. Of course, the movie turned out to be at least that bad, based on the reviews I read, so I guess I didn't miss a thing.

When I went to see Superman Returns, I was thinking more about the myth of the man of steel, and less about what disasters he would be called upon to stop in order to save the world. These disasters, such as an earthquake that hits Metropolis gave me a bit of pause, but also brought out the best of the hero within Superman.

Brandon Routh is a more complex and darker Superman than the Christopher Reeve incarnation. While Reeve represented the Americana of the past, Routh brings us a more conflicted Superman who cannot look at the world as 100% black and white. It's about 95% black and white in this version.

While Superman will probably always be an overly simple 1950's-esque super hero, it is nice to see the man of steel have a little more depth to match the world as we currently know it. It allows the viewer to escape from today's terrorist scares (real and politically driven) to the slightly safer fantasy world of Superman, without the tale becoming laughable.

Bryan Singer, the director who lovingly brought out the humanity and character in the first two X-Men movies, worked wonders with this cast to find that same sense of personality that makes the difference between a good movie and a flat cartoon. I am not going to talk about that disaster of a movie, X-Men 3, other than to say that Singer had nothing to do with it and it stunk. I want my $11.00 back.

Singer cast Superman Returns with well known names, outside of Routh. Kevin Spacey has gotten such fame over the years, that I feel his swollen ego has hurt his acting. He usually runs around the screen with the attitude and pomposity that can usually be found only in say a cartoon super villain. And, thus, he is well cast in the role of Lex Luthor, a man who, like Kevin Spacey, can compare himself to Prometheus and think nothing wrong with the comparison.

Parker Posey, as Kitty Kowalski, stomps around the sets of this movie, literally and figuratively.  She chews the scenery and then regurgitates and spits it out on the audience. Her character is the most cartoonish and predictable of the bunch, with moments where she literally telegraphs every bit of her script to the audience until they know every move Kitty will make throughout the film. In a part that almost became as laughable as the ridiculous wigs someone stuck on her head, Posey somehow manages to save her performance by delivering the funniest lines of the movie at just the right moments. Were it not for her moments as comic foil, I would instead be shredding her to pieces. For some reason, I admire Posey as an actor, and I think she is just too far outside the Hollywood machine to be doing roles like this. Lets get her back to the indie scene before she is lost.

In the end, the movie works. It is long, but you hang on to it for every minute. The idea of that 50's super hero with the black and white sense of morality saving the world make it appealing right now when the world needs so much saving. But then again, Superman Returns also admits to us all that we can never truly return to that sense of innocence.

tags: film  routh  brian singer  movie  kevin spacey  parker posey  brandon routh  superman returns  review  superman  

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