Superman Returns (2006)

Starring Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, and Kevin Spacey

Superman Returns promises a lot but under delivers. It’s a blockbuster, filled with amazing special effects and heroic actions. But the movie falls down on a psychology-laden screenplay and lackluster directing, and ultimately doesn’t measure up to the superlative work seen in Superman and Superman II starring Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman. If you want some of that old Superman magic, make a point of watching the first two movies again on DVD.

Brandon Routh puts on the cape and tights for this outing. He’s an Iowa boy, and shows a lot of promise playing the alien from Krypton with superhuman powers. At times he reminded me of the young Christopher Reeve. He could have been a great Superman with a better screenplay and better directing; in this film he seems too serious. Perhaps he’ll do better in his next outing, assuming he gets a better script.

Kate Bosworth is moving as Lois Lane, torn between her husband and child and Superman, who has just returned after five years away visiting the remains of Krypton. She is a bright spot in the movie.

Frank Langella tries mightily to be Perry White, but Jackie Cooper pretty well defined the character for us in the original movies.

Kevin Spacey plays Lex Luthor, but is unable to muster the difficult mix of humor and malice that Gene Hackman practically patented in the first two Superman films. Hackman was a genial con man; you enjoyed watching his character even as he tried to destroy California and kill millions of people. Spacey, in contrast, simply comes across as a nasty and vicious criminal.

This film lacks a critical ingredient of the original films: humor. They managed to make fun of the title character, and the people around him, and the challenges he faced while spinning entertaining blockbuster stories. Reeve understood that he had to add lightness and playfulness to his character in order to make him more human. Routh, in contrast, is not given the lines or the directing to allow him similar fun within his role.

The special effects are light-years ahead of the original Superman. But they fail to move us the way those in the original did. I’ll take somewhat cheesy special effects combined with wonderful writing, directing, and acting over superlative special effects combined with so-so writing, uneven directing, and decent performances.

It’s sad to see so much great potential wasted. I wish a director like Peter Jackson (whose King Kong remake shines) had been given a crack at this movie. But it’s too late; the cat is out of the bag and Superman has left the building.