Monthly Archive

Brandon Routh (pronounced, I have learned, like “south”) may look and act like an amazingly well-crafted Christopher Reeve clone, but his performance can’t save Superman Returns from itself. This is a movie that, above all, longs to recapture the respectability of the Superman brand following two big-screen failures, but in doing so manages to siphon out all the swashbuckling fun that was once paramount to the franchise. It’s been a long time since I saw Superman (the 1978 version), but I distinctly remember being excited, even inspired, by Reeve’s bespandexed do-gooder. Routh’s Superman (through no fault of the actor’s) is monosyllabic and dull, even when he’s not in costume. He does do a great job of impersonating Reeve’s style; he fluidly pulls off the Jekyll and Hyde personality switch that’s required to separate nerdy Clark from hunky Superman, above and beyond a simple pair of glasses. Something about the way Routh carries himself, the way he speaks and moves, harkens back to an earlier time. If only the film had allowed the actor to stretch his legs a bit. Clark Kent barely gets any screen time–Routh spends most of the movie in tights. To me, Clark has always been a much more compelling character than the alter-ego in the cape. Superman is a straightforward guy, bordering on boring. He fights, he saves people, he kisses Lois sometimes. How is a guy with no faults an interesting subject? Clark Kent gets to have a multi-faceted personality, complete with hang-ups and nervousness. That’s the guy I want to see a movie about. As for the ancillary characters, Kate Bosworth is awful–AWFUL–as a lifeless Lois Lane, Kevin Spacey is passable but not particularly interesting as supervillain Lex Luthor, and Frank Langella plays a very jaded and depressing Perry White. Even his single utterance of “great Caesar’s ghost” sounds more like an apology than an exclamation.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve been watching a lot of old episodes of “Lois and Clark” lately, and it’s coloring my judgment of Superman Returns. I can’t help contrasting Routh’s somber superhero with Dean Cain’s funny and sweet portrayal, Bosworth’s ho-hum Lois with Teri Hatcher’s spunky, stubborn reporter. Even the venerable Langella fails as Perry White when compared to the late Lane Smith’s charming, Southern, “great shades of Elvis!” Perry White. Obviously a feature film striving for weighty pathos would do well to take a few steps back from the cartoony, often preposterous dialogue and plotlines of “Lois and Clark,” but surely a happy medium between silly and sullen could have been found. Maybe it’s just because I’ve always had a crush on Dean Cain (who I think looks better in the tie and glasses than he does in the supersuit, which can’t be said of Routh). Maybe it’s just because I have fond memories of watching “Lois and Clark” with my family on Sunday nights. But I’m having a lot more fun kicking back with my Season 3 DVDs than I was having a few nights ago at the theater.

Technorati tag: Movies, Superman, Superman Returns