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If director Bryan Singer
gets Superman Returns off to a rousing start, he is not able to
sustain the action. Though some of the visuals are awesome, even a
semblance of narrative is missing,
Superman Returns must not be confused with Batman Returns. It is a brand new film and Clark Kent alias Superman has been in hibernation for nearly two decades. It was Christopher Reeve who launched him in 1978 in that magnum opus along with Marlon Brando and Margot Kidder. Three sequels followed in quick succession, the last being in 1987, all with Reeve in the lead role. Now they’ve had to find a new Superman (Reeve died over a year ago after being paralysed for over a decade after falling from a horse) Brandon Routh who vaguely resembles Reeve. The story: Well, as thin as a wafer. After his mysterious absence on another planet, Clark Kent (Routh) comes back to earth to save it from cataclysmic destruction. Don’t all these one-man armies all do it? And like Zorro, Superman has two personas, one human and the other, well superhuman. Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) of course is the man opposed to God and obsessed with fire and crystals and has a bimbo in tow named Kitty (Parker Posey). How Luthor wages war against Superman is quite beyond the realms of reality. Cities rise from the ocean and sink at will and our hero is able to thwart any destruction, even planes from crashing. A tie-up with Adidas of "Impossible is nothing" fame would have been quite in order. Superman is virtually like God. There’s also a romantic element. Remember Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth replaces Margot Kidder), the reporter he was in love with? She has since moved on in life, married Richard (James Marsden) and has a son. Can she pick up the old threads? Or will it have to be a platonic relationship? No prizes for guessing correctly. If director Bryan Singer gets Superman Returns off to a rousing start with good establishing shots, he is not able to sustain the action. Superman crashing through the barn is brilliant, shades of Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossibe. Also, some of the visuals are awesome. He is helped no doubt by cinematographer Newton Thomas Siegel. But one doesn’t live by visuals alone. Narrative is important. But even a semblance of it is missing. There are a few cameos, which evoke nostalgia. Like Frank Langella playing the editor. He played Dracula quite effectively some decades ago. Then Eva Marie Saint plays Kent’s mother. In her salad days she played opposite Cary Grant in Hitchcock’s North By Northwest. But they offer only marginal relief. It is only razzle-dazzlery and loads of it, all 150 minutes of it. Too much of a good thing too can be bad. John Ottoman’s music is okay but the screenplay by Michael Dougherty is very weak and that drastically affects the narrative. So, the need of the hour is to leave your thinking cap at home and resign oneself to battering, shattering action. Acting-wise, the newcomers Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth are enthusiastic and give good accounts of themselves while Kevin Spacey is quite at home in yet another villainous role. James Mardsen impresses as Lois’ husband but the others are merely academic, like moths flitting in and out of the frame. May be this reviewer is rather too harsh on the film but kiddies just ignore the review. After all isn’t Superman the stuff that kids dote upon. So, enjoy.
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