FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

With the inkling of hope that there may be something left of his home planet of Krypton, Superman abandons his friends, his job and his superhero obligations on Earth to investigate. Unfortunately, the search turns up nothing and he has no other choice but to return to the life he left behind. Upon his return, he finds that his whole world has completely changed, and there may not be as much left for him on this world either. He resumes his job as reporter for the Daily Planet under the secret identity Clark Kent, but finds that his coworker, and love interest Lois Lane, has already moved on, is engaged and has a young child. The world seems to have adapted to not having a superhero to save them as well. Lex Luthor too has enjoyed life without Superman. He’s ready to hatch another giant scheme for world domination. Looks like Superman may just be needed after all.

I guess that description is a little melodramatic. Superman actually adapts to coming back about as quickly as the audience who didn’t know he was gone. There was no downward spiral, or soul searching for a sense of self and belonging. Maybe the movie would have been a little better if there were. On the other side of things, the movie also would have been better if there was less exposition and more action, or just more action. For how long the movie is, not a whole lot of interesting stuff happens. It flows well enough, but it’s not all that exciting. I kind of don’t care about all the stuff that changed since Superman went away, because as the audience we didn’t notice his absence. Maybe if they spent time in the beginning on what things were like before he left it would be different. But that would be adding more length to a movie that’s already 154 minutes long.

The biggest problem, however, is that the ending is incredibly anticlimactic. Not only do we not see the full range of Superman’s powers at any time, but the story just sort of peters out into nothingness at the end. It’s really tough to pinpoint a climax, because it’s all rather drab. Sure there are a lot of loud noises and quick edits to give the illusion of action, but the scenes are actually rather stagnant. Probably the coolest part is when a run of the mill criminal baddie shoots a gun and the bullet collides with Superman’s unblinking eye. That’s early on, and me telling you about it makes it less cool. I was expecting more from director Bryan Singer (“X-Men” & “X2: X-Men United”).

I guess the movie isn’t horrible, but it’s still pretty bland and mostly takes advantage of the audience’s existing love of Superman without giving us any substance to remind us why we do. Virtual newcomer Brandon Routh does a decent job as the man of steel, and Kevin Spacey (who worked with Singer on “The Usual Suspects”) essentially mimics Gene Hackman’s great performance as Lex Luthor from the 1978 movie. Otherwise, there’s not much to get excited about. I guess the world really doesn’t need Superman. At least, not until the next installment.

respond to jon@filmbrats.com