This movie satisfies expectations, and also stretches them. By now, "Superman" represents America at least as much as "Uncle Sam" does, making him a mirror of our nation. What do we see? Power, of course, and problem-solving. Also vulnerability, and willingness to turn back around and rush back into danger for others' sake. Once in the movie, through a montage-like survey of international TV screens, we hear commentators in German and French telling how Superman came to the rescue in their countries. The screenwriters have peppered the script with references to other myths: a "god in blue tights," Prometheus, and in a visual pun, Atlas -- all good images of technological giant USA with the world on its shoulders. Bringing back an element from the 1976 movie, there's also a good bit of talk about father, son, and savior.
There's more here, though, a post-9/11 iconography that also lifted last year's Spider-man movie: More than once, we see firemen, policemen, doctors, and they're not the helpless props of earlier movies. One pair of policemen, clearly fearful for their lives nonetheless step into the line of fire to stop a killer. In another scene, the emergency personnel are rescuing the Man of Steel himself. (The Spider-man movie's best scene was one in which the hero exhausts himself rescuing an out-of-control commuter train, and the people on board band together to defend him from the super villain.)
Now, some reviewers have said that all this is leaden and no fun. The fun stuff is there, too, along with good old-fashioned emotional movie making. All the old catch phrases are in there, including "it's a bird, it's a plane. . ." A vivid sequence early on shows adolescent Clark Kent joyously leaping dozens of yards at a time through a cornfield and in a great moment, discovering that he can fly.
The main thread of the movie isn't really the villain's plot, but the question about romance: Will Lois Lane take Superman back? He's been gone five years, and she's got a boy friend and a son, and she's "moved on." To make this difficult, the boy friend is likable, devoted to her and the son, and something of an action hero himself. One of the director/screenwriters' best touches in the movie is a pair of scenes. In one, Superman comes to the rescue of Lois's little family, and his romantic rival depends on him. But minutes later, the boyfriend risks everything to save Superman.
I checked reviews at Rotten Tomatoes where 75% of a hundred-plus reviews were running positive. The performers are appealing and natural. The effects don't look like effects, as on many occasions we see Superman just enjoying flight, passing out of the camera's range, blending in with a twilight shot of the skyline, as if it were no big deal, and that makes it all the more magical. Better yet, the special effects make sense -- when Superman must somehow land a plane that's spinning out of control, you can think through the problem with him, and when he has to go to plan "B," you're right there with him -- and then the director still manages to surprise and delight with one of those hair-breadth deliveries. In another sequence, in one of those situations we've grown used to seeing in dozens of movies, there's a whole city falling apart, a chaos of breaking glass, falling debris, a workman thrown through the air, gas mains blowing up all at the same time. Again, we get to watch Superman respond to these in a kind of triage-operation, and (evidently) not one person perishes.
The negative reviews all seem to remember the 1976 movie as wonderful. They forget how the first one clumsily interrupted a five-act Greek tragedy by Godfather novelist Mario Puzo with a jokey script by a couple of guys who wrote the musical comedy "It's Superman." In that movie, Christopher Reeve was funny and believable as Clark Kent, but just a pawn of the special effects guys in his blue tights -- not his fault, but the director's.
The bad guy is Lex Luthor again, who was played by Gene Hackman as a stand-up comedian in the 70s series -- all ego and casual cruelty. Kevin Spacey has all that going for him, but a much stronger presence, and something better: Thanks to good acting and good close-ups, we often see his eyes as he's watching events unfold. We see curiosity, dawning ideas, surprise, and vitality.
This version has it all over the 70s one, and retains the best thing about it, John Williams' themes.
Superman Returns : Myth or Merchandise? | Category: Religion, News & History, Drama
1 comment:
Forgot to mention:
There's a sort of dance sequence in the middle of the movie, and it's spectacular and warm, and also unprecedented: it's the world dancing around the couple while they don't seem to move. The set up is Superman trying to get close to Lois on a rooftop, and she's resistant, but she'll go along for a ride "if she's not gone too long." We see her slip off her shoes and step barefoot on his boots; they hold each other as if to slow dance. We're aware of movement out of focus behind them as they talk up close; then Lois looks down: he is slowly flying them out over the skyscrapers of Metropolis and out into the sunset. He asks simply what she hears, which is nothing; and he says he hears everything -- people who need a "savior."
Another good touch in this good-hearted movie: Early on, Lois is antagonizing an officious woman, the publicity agent on board a chartered plane. But when disaster strikes and those oxygen masks come down, and the officious agent is thrown helpless into the aisle, Lois immediately lunges to help, giving up her own seat and oxygen to save the agent -- and leaving herself vulnerable to what comes next.
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