Superman Returns – Review

This movie was mostly a continuation of the prior Superman movies from the 70s and 80s, however it does the smart thing and ignores Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. It opens with words about Superman’s origin, and how when remnants of his planet were discovered that he disappeared from Earth to go searching in space.

Utilizing the classic John Williams credits and similar whooshes to the original film, Superman Returns sets the stage for a triumphant film, bringing back the nostalgia of the past and modernizing it with a 2000s setting, cast, tone and story. Does it succeed? Well, yes and no. Mostly it’s pretty solid however, so up, up, and away we go.

Luthor (Spacey) works to inherit some useful estate assets, and Superman (Routh) returns from space with a fiery crash in Smallville reminiscent of when he was a baby. Martha (Saint) finds him, along with a large crystal-like formation he crashed with.

In a stormy ocean setting, Lex’s yacht is piloted by Stanford (Penn) while Kitty Kowalski (Posey) counsels the boss man himself, who talks about Prometheus and his stealing of fire and giving it to the common man. Whomever controls technology, controls the world. He’s looking for his Prometheus moment. Gods are selfish beings who fly around in red capes and don’t share their power, after all. Lex just wants to bring fire to the people! He searches for his moment in the ocean…

Remnants of the Fortress of Solitude remain, and Lex infiltrates it with his crew. Endless possibilities remain. Meanwhile, Superman remembers his past, and tries to figure out how to re-insert Clark into the world again. Will Lois (Bosworth) be pissed, or has she moved on to Perry’s (Langella) son Richard (Marsden)?

This movie is fairly solid, but does move a bit slow and is too long overall, which is similar to the older movies that it emulates. The cast is great, and script is okay, with some action sprinkled in here or there. It does focus on many human and family elements, as well as some coming of age with Superman himself growing up.

Routh was a solid choice for Superman, and it is sort of too bad we didn’t get another Superman feature with him as lead. I think he may have returned to the role in some of the DC TV show crossovers, but I didn’t see any of them.