Superman Returns (2006)

Director: Bryan Singer

Cast: Brandon Routh as Clark Kent / Superman, Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, James Marsden as Richard White, Parker Posey as Kitty Kowalski, Frank Langella as Perry White, Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olsen, Eva Marie Saint as Martha Kent, Marlon Brando as Jor-El (archive footage), Kal Penn as Stanford, Tristan Lake Leabu as Jason White, David Fabrizio as Brutus, Ian Roberts as Riley, Vincent Stone as Grant, Jack Larson as Bo the Bartender

What can I say about this movie? To say the least, it was beautifully
crafted.

Brandon Routh- who, as Shaq pointed out at the film's premiere in less
flowery language- sometimes appears to be Christopher Reeve reborn. Not
in appearance and voice alone, but also in his representation of Clark
Kent. Of course, this should not be too surprising seeing as he has
admitted to studying Reeve's performances in the earlier Superman
films.

Nonetheless, Brandon Routh is excellent in his own right. He "is"
Superman as wholly and perfectly as Smallville's Tom Welling (who is,
ironically 2 years older).

The other characters of the cast were as equally well -chosen. I had
perhaps biased doubts about Kate Bosworth's portrayal of Lois Lane, but
she does extremely well with the part. I had even more doubts about
Kevin Spacey...I mean, come on, Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor? To my
delight, however, he did more than just shave his head to prepare for
the challenging role.

Over an hour of the two and a half the film provided was spent with
Superman "returning." Note, that I already have a slightly biased
dislike of Superman. You can probably guess what that dislike concerns.

However, I found myself enjoying Superman's excessive showing off.

The movie in general is probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing
superhero movies that I have ever seen. I usually hate to focus too
much on good graphics, but the 3D scenes are done amazingly well most
of the time. Superman's red underwear is lacking most of its usual
luster and utterly underwearish shape, much to my relief. In fact,
thanks to the perfect length of his cape and good use of the camera, we
avoid even seeing it most of the time.

All this, combined with that classical Superman theme song, makes our
hearts cry, "It's Superman!" with a surprising joy.

The problem is, despite the perfection found in the cast and direction,
the plot is sadly lacking. Lex Luthor's plan is foolish, rash, and
surprisingly cheap coming from someone of his caliber. Last I saw of
the old Batman and Superman adventures TV show on Cartoon Network those
years ago, Lex Luthor was a man devoted to subtle mechanics. He would
do things, like destroy land by draining oil from the wrong areas, sell
weapons to the enemies of metropolis. Mass destruction was never his
goal, although people were inadvertently hurt by his methods. He had
huge factories, all covered with lead so that Superman could not see
inside, and worked tactfully with the enemies of Superman to bring
about his demise.

The one villain who could have saved this movie- Metallo, a.k.a. "The
Man With the Kryptonite Heart" was left out much to my disappointment.

Instead of either adding a more powerful villain or making Lex Luthor
the intelligent- however insane- businessman that he is, they
surrounded him with idiots and gave him a faux plan.

In this way, they insulted the intelligence of the audience. They
perhaps thought that an involved, complicated plot was the wrong way to
bring Superman back, and the movie was probably also geared to young
children (despite it's PG-13 rating, which was not understandable to me
as the movie was quite mild) who were just being introduced to the Man
of Steel.

Despite these major flaws, though, now that they have gotten over
"bringing Superman back" the seeds have been planted for an excellent
sequel. Sequels usually make me wary and I do not want them, but
ironically, with this movie of all things, I hope for one with absolute
anticipation and excitement.