FILM - "Superman Returns"

Can anybody say that Bryan Singer doesn't give the fans what they want? Save for a shortage of action, this is a modernized classic: the natural fifth film in the Superman franchise. It's not a reinvention--it's too chock full of nostalgia and anachronism--and to its credit, Superman Returns is marvelously entertaining in that regard. But much as Singer is a great caterer, he's not that great of a chef, and the majority of scenes come across as too bland, too scripted, and too silly to rise above the "comic book" moniker that haunts so many new movies. (Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins is still one of the few good adaptations out there, Tim Burton's Batman is perhaps the other.)

Singer's done a great job casting the film though: Brandon Routh is (so I'm told) both a heartthrob and an adorable klutz, and he does manage to uphold the awkward grace of a god among men. On the reverse of the coin, Kevin Spacey exudes his own brand of charm: he hasn't been this delightfully sinister since Seven. But whereas Seven was a dark film, here, Spacey lets words like "kryptonite" roll off his tongue; he teases out the insanity of Lex Luthor ala Gene Hackman, but gives the man a real spine too. Kate Bosworth is the one questionable cast member: she seems far too young to be a mother, and far too ditzy to be a Pulitzer-winner reporter. (Her son, by the way, is another problem with the film: his true father's identity is all-too obvious, but also completely against the mythos, and ultimately tangental to the plot.)

Superman's back, and he's believable, but it's hard to give him a villain to fight. As the mad scientist, Luthor only throws things at him, and watching him "fight" a giant landmass (think crystal tumor) isn't much of a climactic showdown. His five-year absence isn't really much of a plot device either--it's used only to give Lois a child (what writers call "an obstacle"), and contributes nothing towards what's essentially another go-around on the same damn ride. Comic books adapted to this by giving Superman equally powerful and often more intelligent villains; movies are still hobbled by budgets or, in Singer's case, too much allegience to the Golden Age of comics, and not enough to the darker, and more entertaining, modern ones.

When you take action out of a comic-book movie, you cripple it; what else is there? In the case of Superman Returns: a whole lot of villanous comic relief, lush backdrops, and ambiguous romance. Homage or not, as a film it's certainly not super, man.