| Superman Returns To Screen Glory |
Superman ReturnsDirected by Bryan SingerStarring Brandon Routh, Eva Marie Saint, Frank Langella, Sam Huntington, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, Parker Posey, Kal Penn   Brandon Routh plays The Man of Steel in "Superman Returns"  Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane with Brandon Routh as Superman  Routh's flying pose is impressive Sure, it's ridiculous, but this is fantasy, and an iconic one at that. This is the result of decades of work and hundreds of millions in development costs. If Bryan Singer and company can't make you believe a man can fly, then its all a waste. And by this reviewer's standards, it's not a waste at all. Okay, Clark/Supes (Brandon Routh) has been gone for five years on a pilgrimage to the remains of what once was the planet Krypton, and after the audience gets past the wonderful opening credits, it sees his return to Earth, crash landing in his adoptive mother's (Eva Marie Saint) farm in Kansas. There lies what, in my opinion is the only major screw-up in the entire film; in a flashback, the teenaged Clark (Stephan Bender), has glasses. He doesn't need a disguise yet, so why the heck does he need glasses? I mention this now because the rest of the film is near perfect. Clark/Supes then heads back to Metropolis, where he gets his old job back. It's smart that Singer decided to base the film on the Chris Reeve versions because it has a familiar lived-in look. Perry White (Frank Langella) looks like Perry White and Jimmy Olsen (Sam Huntington) looks like Jimmy Olsen, they even brought Jack Larson out of retirement as a bartender for comparison purposes. The acting is indeed dead-on. Kate Bosworth is sooo good as Lois Lane that she makes you forget that Margot Kidder ever had the job. The conservatism of the film's design is one of its strengths. We don't have to get used to anything really new. There's obviously new stuff, of course. Lois is a mother to an illegitimate kid named Jason (Tristan Leabu) and has been engaged to Perry's nephew Richard White (James Marsden) for years. Rich is one of Supe's greatest rivals for Lois' affections because he's actually a wonderful guy, close to being a super-hero himself. The other not-so-great thing about the film is Parker Posey as Kitty Kowalski, Lex Luthor's (Kevin Spacey) love interest. It's not that Posey is BAD in the role, far from it; it's just that Spacey's Lex is a genuine villain this time, not a cartoon from the old "Batman" TV show like Gene Hackman was. Lex's henchmen look like thugs, even the one (David Fabrizio) who does a piano duet with Jason. Luthor's plot to take over the world doesn't seem as completely silly as it does when first mentioned in various spoilers. It actually makes some sense in a twisted sort of way. The special effects are perfect. As Peter O'Toole once said, "The power of the computer has finally gotten strong enough to replicate the human imagination." The action sequences are all that one hopes for. Bryan Singer hit one out of the park with "Superman Returns." supermanreturns.warnerbros.com
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