After setting the bar for modern
comic book movies with X-Men and X-Men 2, Bryan Singer abandoned
the third installment of that series to direct a new Superman movie. Singer
chose to pick up where Richard Donner and Richard Lester left off with
Superman and Superman II over twenty-five years before and cemented
connections to those films by securing the rights to John Williams’
unforgettable theme music and accessing unused footage of Marlon Brando as
Superman’s father. Despite commercial and critical disappointment, the
resulting movie, Superman Returns, prevails as a curious experiment in
recent blockbuster movies, an unfinished chapter of a superhero’s legend, and a
testament to the appeal of Superman.
One afternoon while visiting my
father a year after I first saw Superman Returns, I handed him a recent
issue of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s excellent comic book series, All-Star
Superman. Later, I asked my dad what he thought about the comic book and
with a furrowed brow he replied, “Well, I don’t mean to slight these creators,
but I stopped reading Superman comics when I was teenager in the ‘50s and
reading this one I felt like I was able to pick back up without missing a beat.
Surely, something should have changed in fifty years.” I reframed my dad’s
critique and told him that Morrison and Quitely would probably be delighted to
hear that their story achieved this manner of timelessness. With Superman
Returns, and all of its ties to the first two Christopher Reeve movies,
Singer aimed for a similar kind of endurance. From Brando’s posthumous
performance, Singer forged new dramatic vitality and threaded a powerful theme
of father/son relationships that propelled Brandon Routh’s Superman into
uncharted territory for the character and anchored the most successful elements
of Superman Returns. However, the links to the previous Superman movies
proved to be troublesome by inviting comparisons, especially among the
principal actors, that distracted from what worked in this movie. Brandon Routh
and Kate Bosworth were not Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder and they
certainly did not share the same kind of chemistry, but Singer created a more
subtle universe that allowed Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane to live and struggle
with greater dimension than their earlier counterparts. Unfortunately, Superman
Returns laid the groundwork for a new series that would never see the light
of day, but deserved at least as much of a chance for continuation as another
unexpected and highly scrutinized DC Comics adaptation from the previous year,
Christopher Nolan’s first segment of The Dark Knight Trilogy, Batman Begins.
The true essence of Superman may remain elusive throughout this movie, but the
nobility of Singer’s efforts deserve recognition and, most importantly, by the
time the credits roll, Superman Returns looks, sounds, and feels like a
Superman movie.
of father/son relationships that propelled Brandon Routh’s Superman into
uncharted territory for the character and anchored the most successful elements
of Superman Returns. However, the links to the previous Superman movies
proved to be troublesome by inviting comparisons, especially among the
principal actors, that distracted from what worked in this movie. Brandon Routh
and Kate Bosworth were not Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder and they
certainly did not share the same kind of chemistry, but Singer created a more
subtle universe that allowed Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane to live and struggle
with greater dimension than their earlier counterparts. Unfortunately, Superman
Returns laid the groundwork for a new series that would never see the light
of day, but deserved at least as much of a chance for continuation as another
unexpected and highly scrutinized DC Comics adaptation from the previous year,
Christopher Nolan’s first segment of The Dark Knight Trilogy, Batman Begins.
The true essence of Superman may remain elusive throughout this movie, but the
nobility of Singer’s efforts deserve recognition and, most importantly, by the
time the credits roll, Superman Returns looks, sounds, and feels like a
Superman movie.
In the summer of 2013, just a few
months after my father’s death, I watched Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot, Man
of Steel, and came away feeling bludgeoned by a grim and joyless movie that
bore little connection to a character who can inspire so much wonder, hope, and
awe. Superman has had such a challenging recent history with big screen
appearances because he isn’t just a character from another planet, he’s from
another time, as well. Wolverine and Batman may thrive in morally ambiguous
quagmires, but Superman’s idealism and goodness have fallen out of step with
the demands of today’s Hollywood blockbusters. Maybe it’s time to go back to
comics like All-Star Superman for a reminder of what still makes
Superman so great and why we need him now more than ever.
-
John Parsell
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