Superman Returns Review

By: Michael Lee

Starring: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey
Year: 2006

"Superman (It's Not Easy)" is a very emotional song by Five For Fighting dealing with Supe's struggle to fit in a world of normal yet special-in-their-own-right people as he feels he is a normal person too and doesn't want to fly or wear that awesome cape. The Man of Tomorrow is just misunderstood people! While it arguably pussifies Supes, this is a nice reimagining. As a child I never really was a Superman man fan, and even as I grew older and moved from the cartoons to the comic books I still had a hard time appreciating him. He's just too invincible, and I never could feel for him. Batman was brooding and hurt. Spidey was a troubled teen. Superman was well... Super. It's seems as if this was a common complaint from non-Superman fans, and the studios needed away to appeal to everybody. Thus, Superman (It's Not Easy)" comes out, becomes a hit, and studios seemed to see this as their guiding light. Heck, it's almost as if this whole movie is based on that one song alone, and that's not as great as it may seem.

Though I've only seen Brandon Routh in two movies ("Supes" and "Zack and Merri") I don't have nothing against the guy. He just doesn't seem super. I've heard from almost everybody who has dismissed this film that they felt "He was only cast because of his likeness to Christopher Reeves" and I too feel this is the case. My dad has always told me "Don't pull on Superman's cape" (which he stole from some country along older than he is, I'm sure) when ever I would taunt or boast to someone much bigger or better at something than me. I hate to say it but I don't think tugging at this Man of Steel's cape would end badly for me. Instead, I could see him run off to his Fortress of Solitude and pout about how Batman's cape wouldn't get pulled at. I did like, however, the scene where Superman has to save that jet Lois Lane was riding in. He was rather super there

Probably my biggest complaint was giving Superman a child. Not only does this film portray Superman as a deadbeat dad as he leaves his kid at the end of this film, but it angers me that the writers took it upon themselves to add a major element to this movie that is nowhere present in the comics. Even if you do want to make Supes relatable, giving him a kid isn't the way to do it! This just angers the fans, whose opinions you still need to respect! This ruined the movie for me. Completely.

If I was to say some good of this movie, it must be Kevin Spacey's portrayal of Lex Luthor. Never have I ever liked Lex Luthor. For the most part, he never had a cool costume nor any awesome powers. I mean sure, he became president of the US and nearly wiped out both Superman and the Dark Knight, but Mr. Freeze shot ice beams from his gun! How badass is that!? But Mr. Spacey gave Lex such a suave persona here that I had to praise it. Hell, his part earn this movie half the Nerdism Nerd points this movie shall receive at the end of this article.

In all honesty, I'm not that fond of the original Superman films either. Christopher Reeves was badass but some of the situations he was in was just stupid (the last twenty minutes of "Superman: The Movie" I'm looking at you). Still, those movies have some cheesiness and whimsy that puts them miles ahead of "Superman Returns". I'd give this a four an that's pushing it. If anything, I'd rather have seen the Superman movie Kevin Smith wrote but never filmed, where Nic Cage was to play The Man of Steel, Chris Rock was to play Jimmy Olsen, the brother from "Fraiser" was to play Superman's black suit, and they were supposed to fight Brainiac, gay robots, polar bears, and giant spiders! The sheer ridiculousness of that premise is nothing short of epic.

4 out of 10 Nerdism Nerds.