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Superman Returns

Synopsis:

It's been five years since Superman (Brandon Routh) suddenly disappeared from Metropolis (and planet earth) and her citizens have finally accepted that the man of steel is no longer around to protect them. The Daily Planet's star reporter, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has even written an award-winning piece on the subject - "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman". What they don't realise is that their saviour has been on an intergalactic visit to his doomed home planet of Krypton. Luckily his trip has only convinced him that Earth is his true home. He reappears just as suddenly as he left, donning his trusty disguise as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent. But returning isn't going to be that easy. Lois, the love of his life, is married to another man (James Marsden), and his nemesis, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), has managed to win his appeal and is roaming free with a newly swindled fortune to finance his mischief. It looks like the world may need Superman after all.

Review:

It's probably never been more challenging to make a successful superhero flick than it is right now. Sure, technology lets you do things that were dreams only 5 years ago, but any arena where $100m is an average budget and at least two competing films appear each year is going to be tough. Yet Superman Returns rises well above the background noise of lesser challengers. A true crowd pleaser, it blends spectacular action sequences with knowing humour and emotional depth, bringing the man of steel back into the public imagination in high style.

And yet it is also a strangely empty and distant film. It captures the scope and grandeur of the world's first superhero, but is reluctant to grab hold of its subject and shake some new life into it. At over two and a half hours in length it has the air of a meticulous homage to its subject, more like a historical costume drama than a blockbuster. Of course reverence is prudent when dealing with such a beloved and well-established character, but director Bryan Singer has wrapped his whole film in cotton wool, making it tiptoe where it should soar.

Subtleties aside, Superman Returns is a technological and visual masterpiece. Unlike the vivid gloss of a film like X-Men (Singer's first foray into the superhero arena), Superman is bathed in a gorgeous, muted, golden light. The whole project was shot in the notoriously tricky but visually astounding 70mm format, and the results are well worth the trouble they required. The film has a remarkable visual consistency considering that it was staged across over 80 different sets. The production and costume designs are equally good, with a kind of ruddy, Norman Rockwell-esque majesty to them.

But it's action set pieces that are the real highlight of the film. Like King Kong, the film's special effects are so smooth and utterly convincing that you have no choice but to suspend any disbelief. In fact the effects are so good they actually become invisible - blending seamlessly into the action of the plot. It helps to have a director with the kind of flair for visual drama that Singer possesses. He and his screenwriters have dreamed up feats of epic scale that make Batman, Spiderman and even the X-Men look relatively unimpressive.

As far as performances go, Brandon Routh seems born to play the part. He manages to capture both the wide-eyed innocence of Clark Kent and the steely-eyed purity of Superman. Of course most of his appeal comes from his near perfect "look". It's as though he literally stepped off the pages of the comic book. The screenwriters have cannily kept his lines to a minimum, allowing his actions and appearance to dominate.

Kate Bosworth, however, seems out of place in the Lois Lane role. She comes across as tentative and girlish, rather than spunky and tenacious. They have done their best to make her dowdy, but this only makes her seem more uncomfortable and unnatural.

Kevin Spacey dominates the supporting cast, clearly enjoying his role as the super-villainous Luthor. The marvelously eccentric Parker Posey gives one of her trademark performances as Lex's ditzy girlfriend Kitty - a perfect foil for Spacey's machinations. The smaller roles are lent weight and depth by great actors like Frank Langella and Eva Marie Saint. It's always a pleasure to see actors of this caliber perform, even when the roles aren't worthy of their talents. One truly bizarre inclusion is the normally hilarious Kal Penn (of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle fame). He barely has a line in the film and is totally miscast as a villainous henchman.

There's no doubt that Superman Returns is the blockbuster to beat this season, but this is more to do with the quality of its competitors than its own intrinsic greatness. Despite all the care, expertise and millions of dollars poured into the project, it never captures the verve of the Richard Donner's corny but iconic 1978 original. It may loom large over the plastic-and-polystyrene fare that passes for popular film nowadays, but in the end Superman Returns is no less disposable.

- Alistair Fairweather

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