Ink Blotting - Superman Returns

Posted on Tuesday, July 04, 2006 at 12:00 AM

Superman Returns

Superman Returns is as cold and lifeless as Krypton doubtlessly was for Cal'El when he went there between Superman II and this movie. There is little joy in this movie and at 157 minutes in length that's managing quite a feat.

Bryan Singer is more heavyhanded with his artistic metaphors than he ever was in X-Men or X-Men II. Critics everywhere comment on the continual allusion to Christ, and though there is a good analogy to be made between the two (Jor'El certainly did send his only son to save humankind) it seems to get white-washed at about the same time the rest of the movie receives its glow and filtration.

It is with Superman Returns that this reviewer finally found himself disgruntled. I have commented in the past about how beautiful a movie was in its special effects and cinematography. Superman Returns is such a piece. But it is not enough to look good on the big screen these days. There needs to be substance behind the package, and although all of the actors look the part of the character they are playing there is little depth to either the characterization or the lines they are delivering. One critic, for the New Yorker, went so far as to belittle and demean the costumes the characters wore, but his review was pedantic, insipid and trite (and I use those words so that in the off-chance he reads them he'll get the message, for the rest of us I would say - tiresome and sarcastic without meaning).

In 1978 Christopher Reeve and Richard Donner created a Superman movie. That franchise went on to make three subsequent sequels but eventually died while on IV. Why Bryan Singer chooses to add on to the Superman movies in the past rather than simply create anew the world of Superman is unclear. What is clear, however, is that though a great deal of care and attention went into the movie, very little heart seems to have been involved.

Critics comment favorably for the overall tremendous quality of the film, but regard a lack of emotional intensity found in the movie in several ways. A few blame and criticize the screenwriting in the film. Many blame the acting and lack of care the actors placed behind their characterizations, while the rest direct the blame upon the plot. For me, though, it was a lack of humor and lightness in the movie. There was far too much that was drab and without joy. Superman wears bright blue and red, flies and saves the day - but Superman Returns instead focuses on his personal dilemmas and feelings of impotency in regards to his lack of relationship with Lois Lane - all the while doing battle with his most calculating of foes.

Superman Returns was a solid 3 out of 4. I don't know what I was expecting, or other critics were expecting that would have made for a better, stronger movie. I do know it was worth the money... it just wasn't super.

Kyle Gould is a University of Calgary Graduate in English devoutly trying to make the 25,000 dollar piece of parchment not just a glorified ink blot. Currently it would serve better as a Rorschach test. Feel free to throw some ink his way at wkkgould@hotmail.com.