Back to the Super

Director Bryan Singer and screenwriters Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris (X2: X-Men United) picked a pretty self-explanatory title to tell this new chapter in the story of Superman, arguably the world’s favorite superhero, and his alter ego Clark Kent.

Following a mysterious absence of five years, Superman (played by newcomer Brandon Routh) has indeed returned to Earth. It is without further ado and with great wide-eyed pleasure that I declare Superman Returns a triumphant homecoming for a dear friend.

The movie picks up right where the Christopher Reeve-starring Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980) left off. As we know, the Man of Steel was born on Krypton, a planet that is no longer, and was raised by adoptive parents on a farm in Kansas.

Having adopted his Clark Kent persona, working at the Daily Planet in Metropolis and pining after his beloved Lois Lane (Blue Crush’s Kate Bosworth), Superman has made it his mission to fight for "truth, justice, and all that stuff."

But when scientists discovered what they believed could be Krypton, Superman had to see it for himself, and so he left Earth.

While he was gone, crime rose in Metropolis and everywhere else, and Lois Lane moved on with her life. She wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial "Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman," got engaged to quite a man, and had a son who is about 5.

Oh, and his archenemy, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), was sprung from prison dead-set on using Superman's secrets for his own personal gain and glory. Talk about coming home to a mess!

As I said, though, if anyone can rise above these challenges – in this case literally – it is our Superman. And that he does in Superman Returns, a terrific superhero movie with enough action and gravitas to restore an iconic character to glory.

Routh fills the famous Superman suit beautifully (and that’s not a take on his good looks…or maybe it is, come to think about it), and makes the character his own. He may not be as imposing as Reeve was when he donned it just yet, but I am looking forward to seeing Routh grow into the role.

The same goes for Bosworth as Lois Lane, who had to win me over more than anyone would have thought it (let me just say that, from the movie’s trailer, I had issues with her hair, if you will).

The story is – and I’m loosely quoting Singer – quite the "chick flick," told as much from Superman/Clark Kent’s perspective as from Lois Lane’s.

By not dwelling for too long, if at all, in our hero’s dual personality, Singer manages to deal rather nicely with the issue at hand – the Man of Steel’s return – and set up the story for future exploration of this particular conflict (and you know there will be sequels).

The one thing I could say the movie lacked was a show-stopping fight between Superman and Lex Luthor.

The epic battle between good and evil that ought to have accompanied this epic return is all-too brief and perhaps somewhat unremarkable (then again, for as much a threat as Lex Luthor is, dealing with his mischief is more pressing, so I’ll let this slide for now).

Seeing Superman return is like seeing a good old friend come back into our lives. The world is much different from when we first met him, but I’m glad to see he isn’t.

My Rating ***1/2

Photo: Warner Bros.