Superman Returns - I Gave It A Third Chance

You bet I went to the opening of Superman Returns when it was released to theaters in 2006.  I did the midnight show.  I was super-excited for it, and I left the theater feeling very satisfied.  The movie is dripping with nostalgia, and I was very happy that it didn't veer from the original Christopher Reeve flicks.  It pretty much said, "we're not gonna mess around with a good thing," and did their best to keep the Reeve ball rolling.  I liked it so much I saw it twice in theaters.  That rarely happens.

Then I watched it again a few months later on DVD and I really disliked the movie.

It was too long.... downright boring at times... and what originally seemed like "nostalgia" and "paying homage" was actually more like Bryan Singer trying to re-make the original Superman movie.  There are direct quotes from the 1978 film in Superman Returns.  It uses the same musical score that John Williams wrote for '78.  Even the plot is pretty much the same: Luthor wants to get a bunch of land so he can get rich.  The only really new aspect was the inclusion of Superman's love-child with Lois Lane. 

The crazy part was that this little boy received so much criticism from fans at the time.  I thought it was a fresh approach, especially since this movie was considered loosely to be a sequel to Superman II.

I ended up really not liking Superman Returns and, for lack of a better word, I trashed it when people would talk about it.

Recently, a video essay surfaced on the Superman Homepage (watch it here if you have 20 minutes to kill) that examines Superman Returns in a different manner.  It suggests that the movie has a melancholic pace on purpose, and that all of those references to '78 are part of each character's attempt to move on with their life and tie up the loose ends that have been eating at them.  Essentially, the only way Superman can exist on planet Earth is to finally let go of the dead Krypton, which he does metaphorically in the movie's island-raising climax.

So I gave the movie a third chance on Friday night while I had the house to myself and could allow myself to watch it in a different light.  And now on Blu-Ray.

It's still too long.  They could've easily shaved twenty-five minutes off.  But I did understand what the essay was getting at.  This is a lonely Superman.  He lost his home, and gave up his adopted home to try and find his roots.  The one person he cared the most for on Earth, Lois Lane, moved on just fine without him.  He doesn't know how to fit back in.  This Superman isn't moody, or EMO, or even really whiny... he's just lost.

I enjoyed Superman Returns much more when watching it from this perspective.  It's better than I've been saying for the past couple years.  I still have a hard time accepting that they didn't give it a fresh face, but I can also look forward to Man Of Steel next year for that.

What do you think of this movie?

- Ryan