Man o' Steel

The tights return in a very surprising fun role of Superman Returns.

In the days of blockbuster movies that seem to be sequel after sequel we have the revival picture. Often we see revivals of old classics, Superman Returns brought a very fresh look at our Heroes catalogue of the new millennium. Superman/Kal-El/Clark Kent (Brandon Routh) joins the very esteemed league of actors who were able to pull off a comic book role, including Toby Maguire, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, and so forth. When first looking at Brandon I thought that he is not a SuperMAN, but more a Superkid? Superboy? Something along those lines. Dressed as Clark Kent, he is perfect for the role, however the first time you see him in the tights, you have two feelings come over you at once, "man... He's really young to be Superman" and the other is "woah... Its not Christopher Reeves... But damn does it look like him!" The latter thought you put across yourself much more often when good ol' Kal-El is fronting as his human alter ego Clark Kent.

The man playing opposite Brandon Routh is not Gene Hackman but instead the only other true famous actor in the movie, Kevin Spacey. Now I am a Spacey fan. I think him as Walken or him as Brando is fantastic way to spend time, watching him. My personation of Christopher Walken is really Kevin Spacey doing Christopher Walken. As the evil Lex Luthor, Kevin Spacey does quite well, he made most of the hiccups of your evil villain to be more enjoyable than other people I could think of. Its very hard to play both the hero and the villain in such a cliched role, and Superman is extremely difficult. There were a few times where the dialogue was cliched to a point it took you out of the movie but in all superhero flicks, it will be there. I am not talking about Christian Bale screaming "do i look like the police to you?".... Yes I am. Playing the female sidekick of Lex, Kitty Kowalski (Parker Posey) the actress pulled it off nice enough for her quick antagonizing dialogue back towards to her man Lex. It works out nicely and she fits well into the very male dominated movie, but since the title is SuperMan... It seems fitting. One more thing, one of Lex's cronies is none other than Kal Penn... aka Kumar from Harold and Kumar. He did well in Superman, but it did take away from the feeling that you are watching a Superman Flick and not a pot headed comedy about food... Now I could go for white castle... Damn you large scale advertisement!

Playing Supermans love intrest in the movie, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has seemingly moved on with her Superman free life, and has won a Pulitzer for her article titled Why The World Does'nt Need Superman. Tense indeed when the Man of Steel returns. When initially hearing that she had landed the role of Lois, I was not sure, I only knew of her from Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, she is a Blonde, not a Brunette, though with dyed hair, she makes a fitting enough Lois. Very hard and straight foward, she played the role well however there were a few occasions where the chemistry between Superman and Lois was not as strong as it could of been in the sense that both actors did not fully engage into the dialogue. It felt bland when being delivered. This could be attributed to the "Fantasy World" effect which was so greatly demonstrated by StarWars, the actors take themselves away and literally have to believe that there is a 7 foot wookie walkin around and that the person is not wearing tights, but can jump over buildings, stop bullets, and save crashing airplanes.

The back story is kinda rushed through in that it fits with the new millenniums rush through plot to get to action. Superman Returns from being away for five long years. The retelling of his youth is only shown in a 5 minute sequence as a young Clark Kent runs and jumps through fields near SmallVille. I think that more time should of been devoted to the sequence but alas it was not. Speaking of SmallVille and sets, Smallville does represent the same one that was seen in the original Superman, with the breath taking view and sunset of the distant mountains. Metropolis also has been updated however the city itself feels like a smaller New York City, and though it doesn't have the Burroughs that are represented in SpiderMan, Metropolis seems like a large scale Manhattan, though it is still gritty enough to bring it into the real world. I do not know my true feelings on this NYC-esque town but it works for the movies, the only problem I had was the wide scale shots of the city, I guess its just preference. Spidey is in NYC, Batman is in a gritty city of Gotham (Which is referenced to in Superman) and Superman is in Metropolis, a very large clean city. I suppose Manhattan most greatly represents, just a few uncleanness details kept it being more NYC and less City of Tommorow.

The Man of tommorow and his world of villains and evil doers and of Truth, Justice and the American Way is all present in Superman Returns. In all it was a well done movie with a very large franchise that could of made a box office flop. The movie is everything but however. It wont win any awards granted, but its a fun romp through our child hood dreams and often makes you feel like a child again staring up in awe in the great power and great role model that is Superman. Superman does Return to the American Psyche and in a good way.