Awesome

And when I say awesome, I mean it in the traditional dictionary sense, not the more contemporary, 80′s coined Valley Girl sense. Of all the films I’ve seen in the last few months, this is the one that fulfilled my hopes for a Really Freaking Good Summer Movie. It had the action, it had the drama, it had the seriousness of universal themes while at the same time retaining a sense of “comic bookiness” in its spirit, but more than that, it managed to inspire a sense of wonder, of hope, and–at least in me–of awe.

In both the literal and metaphorical sense, Superman Returns is the Second Coming. Only instead of trying to bowl people over from the pulpit with a lot of fire and brimstone rhetoric, it actually just goes and SHOWS you the miraculous and leaves your mouth open with the only thought in your head being “I want to believe in that. I wish that were in my life.” Only because of the popcorn/pop culture underpinnings, and because of the demands of modern cinema, it does all this without beating you over the head with dogma. In essence, it brings the mystery and inexplicable feelings of faith to the screen, without attaching a formal religion to it. In that sense, Superman is like the apotheosis of the messiah/saviour, because his comic book origins disqualify him from being offensive to anyone and thus acceptable to everyone.

But let’s get back to the movie proper.

As almost everyone knows, the plot of the film is that Superman returns to Earth after a five year absence, and that is the catalyst for all the drama and action that ensues. What impresses me most about the approach that director Bryan Singer has taken is that he’s pulled off the near impossible trick of ripping something off without being accused of plaigerism, lack of imagination or unoriginality. We see Marlon Brando, we hear his words, we hear the original John Williams theme (To be fair, there can be only ONE Superman theme, and this is it. Unquestionably) we even see a newly modernized version of the classic “zooming opening credits in space” from the original. We hear characters actually re-invoking classic lines from the 70′s original, and yet, for all of this, it doesn’t feel like Singer is mining or exploiting the existing material. It doesn’t feel like he’s being lazy and recycling content to save himself the effort of coming up with his own. There’s a reverence here, a rightness. There is a sense of respect that does not make it feel like recycling, so much as giving credit where it’s due. Bryan Singer loves Superman the character and he loves Superman: The Movie by Richard Donner. And it is the Donner movie that Singer tries to stay the most true to. Particularly in the area of performance.

Brandon Routh is eerie as Kal El/Clark Kent. It’s like Christopher Reeves himself is sometimes channeling through him when he speaks his lines and it’s made all the more amazing when you consider this guy used to be a bartender out in the mid-west USA prior to this. Spacey as Luthor is… well, he’s Spacey, which is to say he’s brilliant, but there’s an edge to him that makes you keep your distance. Especially when he shows it. Bosworth does a good job of portraying Lois Lane, though I do find myself missing the “pluckiness” that has traditionally been portrayed in the character. Whether it’s Hatcher in Lois & Clark or Kidder in the original 70′s movie, that gutsy, intrepid reporter has settled down quite a bit. Of course being a mother may explain that.

But where the movie really blows the doors open is when it comes to presenting and examining the Man Of Steel himself. When you see Superman in action, you see the closest thing most of us ever will to a literal God On Earth. It helps tremendously that 21st century digital effects are bolstering the movie, because it brings Superman to life in a way that has just never been seen before. I’ve “seen” Superman lift heavy objects before–like when he actually pushed EARTH itself in his pre-reboot days, prior to the John Byrne ret-con. I’ve seen him use his heat vision, soar across the sky, all that stuff, but never until this movie have I seen it in a way that made me think, “This is what it would be like if I were actually there watching it.” Comics–as both a strength and a weakness, depending on who you ask–rely on the reader doing a lot of work between panels, forcing the imagination to make connections, constructions. Superman of the 70′s and 80′s was limited by his analog special effects, with no digital visuals, and no ability to erase wires from the frame, making medium shots unfeasible. Superman Returns has neither of these characteristics, and so when you first see him go into action, bringing all that power to bear, it is an amazing sight. It’s something you’ve never seen before. It’s the kind of thing you’ve maybe imagined, maybe even wished for, but you never thought you’d see it, and now you are.

I can only imagine what kind of reaction this engenders in American viewers. Superman’s first big debut in the film is the rescue of a crashing plane, and for Americans, who still live under the shadow of 9-11, this kind of imagery, of their great American hero preventing a disaster which is VERY relatable and identifiable to the American people… it’s almost cathartic. In a way, it’s the wish fulfillment of Americans, it’s seeing on screen what many of them may thought on that day or the days afterwards; how very different 9-11 would have been if Superman had existed, had the power to save those lives and prevent that tragedy. And when you see the bravado effects sequence put into it, then witness the reaction of the public as Superman saves the day, the cheer, the elation, the hope rekindled you experience as the crowd literarlly goes wild, is genuine. There is a hero among us. Someone who is good and pure and will do the things we cannot. Someone we can trust and put our faith in. Someone we can believe in, even if we can’t believe in ourselves.

And this is where the film begins to elevate itself for me. Because for all the godlike power that Superman has, while we all want to focus on the super aspect, he is a man. A good man, but still a man, and that means he has the same flaws, hopes and vulnerabilities of the heart that any man has. Unlike us, however he is not allowed to show it, because he is Superman, and we don’t want to see that in our savior. But Bryan Singer does, and he lifts the film by letting us see it.

The central question the film seems to be exploring is, “What do you with the body of a god and the soul of a man?” The answer, if such it could be called is, “Be conflicted as hell.” For every moment of More Human Than Human that Singer shows us, it’s counterbalanced by very real moments of loss, of longing, of sacrifice. S
uperman has always had a human face, but Singer shows us his human heart in a way not seriously explored by other films or television forays. For the first time, the mainstream audience at large gets to see that their hero has to endure a tremendous personal cost in order for us to pin our hopes and faith in him. It’s a sobering and emotional exploration, and for the first time ever, I found myself watching a guy that could toss cars around, fly faster than sound and be the object of adoration for millions everywhere, and all I could think was “You poor bastard. How I pity you.”

At the end of it, when the lights came back on, the movie had met my expectations. After almost 20 years of relentlessly nihilistic, angst-ridden, dark, cynical, gritty, jaded heroes (All almost singlehandedly borne of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns) I was ready to believe in something again. I wanted something, some one I could admire and respect, rather than fear and mistrust. We now live in a world where so many of the people that are accomplished, or acknowledged as exceptional are ugly human beings who do great things at the cost of being incredibly dangerous to themselves and others around them. Superman finally breaks that trend, and gives–in the very best sense of the words–an Old Fashioned Hero. He is noble. He is admirable. He will do the right thing. He is, unlike so, so many of the people in the public eye today, someone that you can approve of when your kid says “I want to be like him when I grow up.”

Of all the comic book heroes that have appeared in movies in the last 10 years, I can say with heartfelt, unironic sincerity that Superman is the fist Superhero that is more heroic than super.

I am SO getting this on DVD the second it’s available. So yeah, in case you hadn’t figured it out yet, I freakin’ loved this movie and may even watch it again.