It’s funny how your opinion can change regarding a character or a movie, depending on your perspective, or even how the character or franchise had itself changed since you last watched the particular character or movie.
In 2006, not quite yet that controversial director Bryan Singer brought us the next chapter of the Richard Donner Superman universe. He cast a young Brandon Routh as Clark/Superman, an even younger Kate Bosworth as Lois and the really, not nearly that controversial yet Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. The John Williams magnificent theme music was still in place and as inspirational as ever.
Basically, Supes has been gone 5 years, but is back to find out Lois has a new guy and a kid. He’s got to adjust, Lex hatches a new plan, which Supes eventually foils but it damn near kills him but not. He survives and the kid is his after all.
When first watching it back in 2006, there was some great stuff in there — Supes saving the plane at the baseball field was incredible and every bit as joyous as the Reeve stuff a generation ago. In fact, Routh did a great job as Supes, easily worthy of Reeve himself but his Clark was simply refreshing and wonderful. Spacey was great as Luthor too. Not as camp as Hackman but great style. Actually, all the performances were great when I think about it.
But there were some concerning issues back then. First, it takes place five years down the road, yet Supes and Lois actually look a LOT younger than Reeve and Kidder. Bosworth actually looked like she could be Kidder’s daughter, not a five year older Lois. Next, the peeping Tom scene, where Supes flies over to Lois and boyfriend Richard’s house to see WTF happened here, using x-ray vision. A bit creepy? Superman’s costume was another thing. Gone was the bright and bold red, replaced by a dark maroon. Hey made the S Shield smaller as well. The new design took some getting used to. And the real elephant in the room, Supes had a kid now. And the circumstances around him felt a bit off. Kinda left a bad taste in your mouth. But aside from that, a pretty good film.
Flash forward another decade. Warner bros puts out the dark and dour Man of Steel, directed by Zach Snyder. The studio figured if Dark Knight worked so well, let’s go really dark with Supes too. What followed was a great sci fi alien movie with violence and massive destruction porn. It just wasn’t really a “Superman” film. This was followed up and compacted with Batman v Superman.
Meanwhile, over in the comics, long story short, thanks to some dimension skipping and time hopping in one crossover event, Clark and Lois now had a son, Jon, who was about 10. DC comics had since had the new 52 reboot and the Rebirth reboot and things were different.
So now it’s 2019 and I revisit Superman Returns. Boy. After Man of Steel and BVS, this is a helluva lot brighter and more fun all the way around. And when you can say that about a movie in which Supes gets stabbed with a sharp chunk of Kryptonite, it just goes to show you how dark everything else got. The kid was also cute and a decent actor. Suddenly, after all the changes in the comics over the last several years, him having a kid hardly registered a blip. Even the peeping Tom scene was harmless when you really think about it. He’s concerned about Lois and wants to make sure she’s ok, as well as the kid, because Supes is good at math. It’s not like he stayed and watched bathroom or bedroom antics. He left a minute or two after he got there. After five years, was that really such an offense? Making sure the woman you love and your new found kid are alright?
Yes, Bosworth was still too young but aside from that, this film not only holds up very well but I think is deserving of another look, because the thing is…
…it’s all a matter of perspective.
Epilogue: it’s not often a certain “take” on a character gets a second chance, much less a third. The Routh version of Superman never got a proper sequel, but it did get a certain kind of closure. In the recent Crisis on Infinite Earths TV miniseries on the CW, we got to see an older version of the Donnerverse Superman played by Routh again. Touching on different points in comics history in the midst of the Crisis, he embodied the Kingdom Come Superman, beset by tragedy, but as the universe realigned after the Crisis, all was set right and this particular Superman was given his happily ever after ending. It was good to see.
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