SUPERMAN RETURNS Review By Kashif Ahmed
Resurrecting the ‘Man Of Steel’ was never going to be an easy task for ‘Usual Suspects’ director Bryan Singer; having been denied his trilogy with ‘X-Men’, Singer embarked upon on an altogether riskier project, after all, no comic book saga carries as much baggage as Superman. Still, in spite of the odds, Bryan Singer and 26 year-old newcomer Brandon Routh (excellent, and at times eerily reminiscent of the late/great Christopher Reeve) successfully reinvent Krypton’s favourite, albeit only, son in a well-paced, consistently entertaining movie which stands up to repeated viewings.
The story is a pretty straightforward: hero-meets-girl, hero-spends-one-night-with-girl, hero-leaves-Earth-to-find-the-remenants-of-his-home-planet-and-returns-to-discover-girl-has-moved-in-with- Cyclopes-from-‘X-Men’, and the girl in question is, of course, none other than ‘The Daily Planet’s’ intrepid reporter; Lois Lane (a blank but believable Kate Bosworth, who was cast on the recommendation of Kevin Spacey after the two worked together in ‘Beyond The Sea’).
“Is it bird, is it a plane?”…No, for Superman Returns’ is part action movie and part character study (though I think David Carradine already nailed the Superman psyche in ‘Kill Bill 2’), Kevin Spacey is brilliant as Lex Luther and the interplay between Luther and his moll Kitty Kowalski (a typically hilarious turn by Parker Posey) makes for some of the film’s best moments. Superman’s action sequences are also quite impressive; the attack on Metropolis in particular, sees our man flying and diving about all over the place, culminating with a suitably heroic shot of Superman hoisting ‘The Daily Planet’ globe high above his head. All in all, and despite some bizarre, ‘Passion Of The Christ’-esque melodrama, ‘Superman Returns’ is a resounding return to form for a franchise that ran out of steam back in 1983, though with its astronomical budget (a cool $270 million), modest returns and the fact that they’ve written themselves into a corner with the whole Lois baby subplot, it may be a while before we’re looking up for that flying man in the sky. Superman Lives!
9/10