.MOVIE LISTINGS | MOVIE REVIEW ARCHIVE | THEATER INFO Chiseled in Tights The Man of Steel is back, and still needed. BY MOLLY TEMPLETON SUPERMAN RETURNS: Directed by Bryan Singer. Written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris; story by Harris, Dougherty and Singer. Music, John Ottman. Starring Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden, Parker Posey, Frank Langella and Sam Huntington. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2006. PG-13. 154 minutes. Extra! Extra! Clark Kent (Brandon Routh) reads all about ... himself. While the revamping of a superhero franchise may not quite have the same awe-factor as the first cinematic vision of Batman driving through Gotham or Spiderman swinging from a web, in the case of Superman Returns, it's certainly close. Director Bryan Singer has taken his experience directing a troupe of superheroes (in the first two X-Men movies) and tightened his focus to just one — the lone alien in shiny blue tights, played this time by the impossibly chiseled, Christopher Reeve-esque Brandon Routh. Superman Returns picks up after Superman II, in which Superman gave up his powers for the love of intrepid reporter Lois Lane. That didn't work out so well. When Returns begins, Superman's been gone for five years, off exploring the part of space where his homeworld once was. Nothing's there; back on Earth, nothing's the same. Singer is generous and lyrical with pacing, especially in the first third of the movie, which sets up Superman's relationships, his bright-eyed Clark Kent alter ego, the state of the world and the current diabolical plan of criminal mastermind Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey). Lex is out of prison and flush with cash after swindling an old widow. His plot, when it really boils down to it, is ... well, it's about real estate. But the details of Lex's plan are less important than Spacey's sinister, slightly campy portrayal of bitter, vengeful Lex. Spacey owns his scenes, which are even more fun when Kitty (Parker Posey) is sulking behind him. Kitty's a little slow on the uptake, but her dawning horror as she begins to understand Lex's plan is plain on Posey's face. It takes Superman a little longer to figure out what Lex is up to. At first, he's got other things on his mind. Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth), his great love, has a son. And she's engaged. The love triangle is central to Superman Returns, which is not just interested in what superheroes can do, but what they can't do as well. And Superman, like many a hero before him, can't be there for Lois as Richard (James Marsden) can. There are too many other people counting on him. A whole planetful of people, actually. Superman Returns excels at the vital elements of a superhero blockbuster: stylish sets, great effects, snappy dialogue (with a few familiar lines and a few snortingly funny ones), epic disasters, capable actors. Our new Superman is taciturn unfailingly polite and a tiny bit sly. Donning glasses as Clark, he's enthusiastic but always a step behind (it's unclear whether Clark does any actual reporting). Singer has a particular knack for telling detail and crisp tension, and an eye for the small ways in which a scene's outcome can be obvious yet the path it takes to reach that outcome nail-bitingly unclear. But what makes this Superman truly soar is the clarity and sympathy with which Singer and his pair of writers approach the idea of the superhero in a world where there is only one. This isn't just a whiz-bang movie about saving the world or the girl, though both are important (refreshingly, the girl does some saving as well). It's a story about reconciling the past with hopes for the future and creating a functional present. It's also about the divide between seeing the hero as just a little more than human and as something far different, as savior (an idea reinforced by the voice of Marlon Brando as Superman's dead father). Lois Lane has a Pulitzer for an article called "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman," but, Superman Returns suggests, maybe we do need someone who can catch jets with his bare hands and stop bullets with his eyeballs. Especially if he can also make us cheer and lift our faces to the sky in wonder.
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