Superman Returns - Past Meets Present

Nearly 20 years. That was the amount of time between Superman IV and Superman Returns. It was a long process to get there with numerous failed attempts to get it going again. Each one as peculiar as the next. After the failure of Superman IV, the rights went back to the original owners and a fifth film was in the works, but nothing came of it.

In 1992, The Death of Superman arc breathed some life into the Superman franchise as a whole. For the better part of the year, this ambitious crossover led to the death of one of the world’s greatest heroes. Naturally, Warner wanted to jump on that train and tried to make a movie version of it happen. You may have noticed, it never got made. They got a writer, but the script never came together right. Even before rewrites, the plot involved his death and his life force entering and impregnating Lois. She would have given birth to a rapidly aging Clark. Brainiac would have been involved in creating Doomsday, it was just a bit of a mess. Then, Kevin Smith came to the studio with an idea.

This is the project most every Superman fanboy knows about. Superman Lives, by Kevin Smith starring…Nic Cage. While I appreciate his body of work, in both good and oh my God why did he even make that, this was never going to be a good role for him. It takes a special caliber actor to take on the duality of the role and great as he is, Cage would have made a terrible Superman. 

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Jon Peters, a producer on the project had some ground rules: no flying, no iconic costume, and had to fight a giant spider at the end of the movie…the fact those words came out of anyone’s mouth about a Superman movie unironically is just painful. This too never saw the light of day, but we did get some test images of Cage in the costume. With Burton possibly directing, this would have been a mess. Especially if he went full Burton. You don’t want him to go full Burton.

An early Batman vs Superman project was tossed around. As seen in the summer hit I Am Legend in a NYC advertisement. JJ Abrams was even in talks to do a movie. None of these films made it past script rewrites and a few tests. It wasn’t until after the popularity of the X-Men movies that Bryan Singer was brought on board where he crafted what would become Superman Returns.

He decided to make it a requel, a sequel to Superman II and a reboot all in one. This, in my opinion, was one of the first steps in making the movie flop. I absolutely love the Reeve movies. Singer should have instead, honored the past and what he loved about those Superman movies and did a full reboot. You can tell how hard he was trying to honor the originals, but you have to grow and evolve as a franchise. Move forward, but remember the past.

So, let’s take a deeper look at Superman Returns.

We get the backstory of what’s been going on. Scientists found remnants of Krypton, so Superman took a ship and flew to find it, in hopes of finding his home planet. An early scene showed Superman there on the barren planet before heading home.

Then the credits begin. After a long…LONG wait, the John Williams theme plays as we hurtle through CGI space, not just stars with the words flying in and out. I remember seeing this in theaters and the movie just hit inside my soul. Transporting me back to my six year old self watching these movies on VHS. As the music swells to completion, we land on Earth.

An old woman (played by Noell Niel, a former Lois Lane) lays dying and gives all her money to her husband…Lex Luthor played by Kevin Spacey. With his money, he and Kitty Kowalski (Parker Posey) head off to begin their plans.

Martha, having finished game night with Ben Hubbard (with not so subtle ALIENATION being on the Scrabble board) Clark crashes his ship, returning home after five years away. Martha finds the ship and helps her weak son inside.

Luthor takes his new yacht out for a spin, heading north. North to a very familiar location, the Fortress of Solitude. His plan is to steal Superman’s technology (the crystals) so he can get rich, stealing Superman’s power. The Fortress really does need to upgrade its defense systems. It should know that Lex is not Kal-El. But plots gotta plot, so put on those Suspenders of Disbelief, its a superhero movie afterall. Enjoy the ride. With archive footage of Brando, we get the same spiel he gave Reeve the first time the fortress was formed, but instead of learning the past, he wants to know all about the crystals and how they work.

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Clark awakens in his childhood bedroom with his glow stars on the ceiling (member those?!). He walks the farm, and we see a flashback of the first time he learned to really run and fly. Leaping as he used to before the Fleischer cartoons gave him flight. Powers seem to have returned as he throws the ball for his dog, but hurls it into space.

He sits eating breakfast watching news reports from all over the world of fires and people in trouble. Clark tells his mom where he went was a graveyard and that he was alone. I think they were subtly setting up future Kryptoinans when his mom said maybe he wasn’t the last one. We cut to Metropolis and Clark bumbling his way through the Planet newsroom. We meet Jimmy and Perry (played by Sam Huntington and Frank Langella respectively). 

A news report catches his eye. Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) asking questions on a plane that’s about to go into space. He goes to her desk and sees she won a Pulitzer Prize for “Why The World Doesn’t Need Superman” and a family photo of her, her son, and RIchard (James Marsden).

Lex returns to the mansion to truly begin his plan. Using the crystals to create alien continents on Earth. All about land.

Jimmy takes Clark out for a drink, the bartender played by the OG Jimmy from the 50s TV series. They watch a test flight of a space plane that’s piggy backing off another plane. While Lex performs his test experiment, using a small piece of the crystal and putting it in a model of the city of Metropolis. Lights begin flickering across the city, causing the space launch to go off the rails as the land mass forms in the water. We see the chaos in the model with earthquakes, crashes, fires. Everything that will happen when Luthor enacts his plan.

They try to cancel the launch, but of course, there’s a problem with the boosters. They’re still counting down to launch and they can’t detach from the plane. Spaceship launches, sending the hostess flying to the ground. Lois gets out of her seat to help the hostess and starts getting tossed around as the plane heads into space.

People in trouble. What’s a Clark Kent to do? Quietly leave, run and change into Superman to save the day! What follows is a great tense sequence. We get our first look at the Blue Boy Scout as he flies and uses his heat vision to free the shuttle and ease the plane back down to earth, but since its in space and doesn’t have much control it goes in a tail spin. Lois being tossed around like a rag doll and should have died or at the very least a lot of broken bones.

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Superman flies down trying to grab the wing, but it breaks off, cause physics are a bitch. So, he flies back down, crashing through the other wing and gets to the front of the plane and slows its descent, placing it in the middle of a baseball field during a game. Crowd cheers! Superman has saved the day for the first time in the movie. He goes in to check on everyone, and by everyone I mean Lois, who’s stunned to see him back. He gives the line from the first movie about flying, “statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel”. He steps out to cheers, Superman is back and he has work to do.

Back at the mansion, Luthor marvels at the destruction that one sliver of the crystal has done and the scale of what it could mean.

Back to the Planet, Perry being Perry throwing out story ideas to every section of the paper to do a story on Superman. Lois, however, doesn’t care about that. She wants to do a story on the mysterious blackout. Perry’s being myopic here, even for a hardened newspaper man, you’d think he’d have a little more faith in his reporter who can smell a story a mile away. Clark’s eavesdropping on this until he gets distracted by a little boy…Jason, Lois’ son. He’s got asthma. 

Lois and Clark share an awkward hello and he meets Richard, Perry’s nephew. Richard heard a lot about him, through Jimmy. Jason, never heard of him. Kind of a gut punch. Lois is going after the blackout story, despite Perry’s objections.

After a long day, Lois has a conversation with Clark where you know she’s talking about Superman, but could also be venting her anger with Clark disappearing too. It’s possible, subconsciously she knows the two are one in the same, but it’s never said explicitly. The tone she had was clearly anger and frustration, but coming out and asking about connection and disappearing without any kind of warning or notice. Seems weird she’s just randomly come out and ask that with Clark only being back a day and her never talking about him to Richard or her own son. They were at least friends.

He changes and follows her home as Superman, which was a little messed up. Spying on her and her small family was a little creepy. Though its part of the core of the movie. He was gone for five years, but the world kept spinning and they moved on and lived their lives without Clark/Superman there. His love for her is still there, as is hers, but she’s moved on and with Richard. He, however, is worried about his place now that Superman is back, knowing how she felt for the Man of Steel.

He flies off into space and in a beautiful shot, we hear the words of Jor-El on why he was sent to Earth. He hovers in space, just listening, focusing and with the sounds of people in trouble he hones in and begins his night of rescuing with a woosh and a boom. Bunch of thieves are escaping on a chopper. They have a huge gattling gun, firing on the police below and two police officers who arrive on the roof. Those two, saved by Superman taking all the bullets. Including one in the eye with his smaller gun. Neat shot, bit over the top. We get it, he’s bullet proof including his eye sockets.

He also saves Kitty who’s brakes are out. Part of a plan to distract Superman as he robs a museum looking for Kryptonite. When he saves her, setting the car down was a nod to the original Action #1 comic that introduced Superman to the world. She begs for him to take her to the hospital and with everyone watching, he does. Lex finds what he needs at the museum. A chunk of Kryptonite to use with the crystals he stole.

Next day, news reports from all over the world, Superman is back. No job too big, no job too small. During a meeting with Perry, Clark learns that Lex got out of prison because Superman wasn’t around to be a witness. Perry assigns Lois to interview Superman and Clark to Lois’ blackout story, much to Lois’ chagrin. Richard suggests they work together on the blackout story so they both get the story. As the reports continue, young Jason eyeballs Clark as a photo of Superman is on screen. Think he’s starting to suspect something.

Kitty? Not happy with Lex. But he has the materials he needs. A missile and Kryptonite, including a sharp shard that could be turned into a knife.

At the Planet, Clark uses his hearing as Lois and Richard discuss if Superman is Clark, but with a goofy wave, they laugh it off. Lois heads to the roof for a smoke (she still hasn’t quit, shame) and Clark meets her up there as his alter ego where they finally talk, giving her the interview she needs, but giving her the explanation he knows she needs and wants. He tells her he went to where astronomers think they found Krypton. She tells them that she moved on and the world doesn’t need a savior, still rightfully angry for him leaving.

He flies with her as they have in the past. Slowly floating up into the sky as the love theme for them plays. Superman holds her close as they fly around the city. Telling her to listen, she hears nothing, but he hears everything. She wrote the world doesn’t need a savior, but he hears people crying out for one. He apologizes for leaving and takes her back. Short, but sweet scene, telling her what he needed to get off his chest hoping for a modicum of forgiveness. He was wrong to leave, and the excuse it would have been too hard is valid, but doesn’t erase the anger and resentment she had for him leaving.

They nearly kiss, but she stops herself because of Richard, because she loves him, even though her feelings for Superman are clearly still there. Otherwise she wouldn’t be as mad. She gets back to the office and Clark is there with a mouth full of food with a goofy look on his face.

Superman finally heads back to the fortress and discovers that he’s been robbed. All the crystals that contained knowledge of the known galaxies were stolen and he knows by who.

It’s Pulitzer Prize night for Lois, but she’s still working her blackout story, bringing her closer to Lex. She picks up her son from school and goes to investigate the center point of the blackout. Lex Luthor’s mansion. Yes, Lois took Jason on a dangerous story. Mother and Reporter of the Year. Instead of investigating the mansion, they go to the yacht where they discover music playing, a room with wigs, and Lex Luthor. The boat takes off and they’re trapped and now taken prisoner by Lex and his crew.

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She plays into his ego, trying to get him to let Jason go and in turn, she’ll interview him and make him a headline. Lex does the typical villain thing where he explains his diabolical plan. He’s going to use the crystal and Kryptonite to make an entirely new continent that would destroy almost the entire country. It’s another land plan with the added alien tech at the cost of billions of lives.

As he explains, Kitty looks like she’s starting to have a change of heart. As he shows her the kryptonite, Jason starts looking a little funny. It starts the wheels turning in Lex’s mind…is Jason Superman’s son? But, it appears to have no effect. As they get closer to where they want to launch, Lex has his goon watch Lois and Jason.

Clark and Richard try to get into Lois’ computer to find out where she was headed and find where Lois was headed.

To keep her son calm, Lois tells him to go practice the piano. Turns out Goon #1 is pretty good on the piano as well and plays with him as Lois tries to send out a fax with her coordinates for help.

The weapon is primed and launched. The pulse goes out and stalls Lois’ fax from going fully through. The crystal begins to take form, expanding with no way to reverse it. Goon catches Lois and her plan and attacks her. She's saved by…a speeding piano. Jason has latent powers and is the son of Superman…adds a layer to her anger leaving her a single mom don’t it? Both are locked into a pantry area where she demands to be let go…like it was going to work. Young Jason apologizes that he can’t help and for what happened.

Power restores and Jimmy finds the partial fax. Richard gets the sea plane to save Lois while Clark heads up up and away, heading to save them. But he sees cracks in the ocean floor heading towards Metropolis. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve reached the climax of the film. Superman stares back to where Lois and Jason are, knowing he’s not going to be able to save them. In a classic Trolley Car question, he knows he has to go and save the people of Metropolis. He trusts Jason to make it to her in time as the city begins to fall apart with an earthquake and electromagnetic wave.

Save the City or Save Lois and Jason

Superman begins flying around the city saving people as signs fall, construction workers fall, explosions and glass debris. Catching the Daily Planet globe from falling on top of Perry was done well and looked great and we get a ‘Great Caesar's Ghost’. Perry’s catchphrase in the comics.

Superman Carries the Globe

With Superman busy saving the city, Lex and his team head to the middle of the ocean as their new continent starts to get bigger, which breaks through the glass floor of the yacht. A serious design flaw if I’ve ever seen one.

Young Jason tries to open the door and it opens! Because Richard has finally arrived as the boat breaks and starts to collapse into the ocean like the Titanic. The back half begins to submerge and water starts filling up in a tense action sequence with the small family. They try to swim to the top, but as they get up, the door slams shut on them, knocking out Lois. The water continues to rise as they’re trapped with the door locked and sinking to the ground.

With a thunk, Superman arrives and pulls the back half of the ship up out of the water. He frees them and drops the ship, getting them safely to Richard’s airboat. Once he knows Lois is fine, he helps them take off and Superman heads for his showdown with Lex. He sees the remnants of his home, and starts to slowly feel the effects of the kryptonite.

Superman recognizes Kitty, realizing he was duped. But with a bead of sweat, Lex knows Superman is now weak enough to take down. Lois regains consciousness and demands they go back to help him, knowing its made of kryptonite and he’s in danger and will die if they don’t help. Richard agrees and they go to help the man who has always saved them.

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He’s bleeding and being beaten by Lex. He tries to fight back, but he’s too weak from the kryptonite. Kitty can’t bear to watch, feeling guilty for her part in all of it, begging Lex to stop. But he wants his revenge. Lex pulls out his dagger and stabs him with the kryptonite shard. Broken and defeated he still stands up with the gusto of a hero before he falls off the cliff into the ocean below.

As he drowns, he tries to pull the shard out. Young Jason spots him from the plane and the group flies in to save him. Lois pulls him out with Richard’s help. As they take off again, with a few overly tense moments, Lois pulls the shard out of him and tosses it out of the plane. He starts to feel himself again. They share a look after he says he’s going back and he flies up above the storm clouds and recharges himself with the sunlight. The music and look make this a very powerful moment.

After the power up, he uses his heat vision and strength to crack the solid structure and starts to lift it into the sky. Lex and company start to feel it shake as Superman lifts it up. They escape on their chopper, with Kitty dropping the crystals so that he can’t try this again. She may have been with the bad guys, but she was, deep down, a good person. She couldn’t live with what he was doing and didn’t want people to die.

It takes literally every ounce of strength Superman had to lift that thing out of the ocean. He was essentially lifting a small city into the air with chunks falling the higher he got. The mass continued growing as he did it, creating kryptonite that made it harder for him. He pushed through with every second to toss it into space as the people below watched their hero. Once he threw it into space, he was completely depleted of strength and passed out, hurtling towards earth like a meteor, crashing into the earth below as the citizens watched in silence as he fell.

Police rush him into the hospital, but their equipment doesn’t work on him. The needles can’t pierce his skin and the paddles only send the shock back into the machine.

Flatline.

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Superman Is Dead…but also Superman Lives. Two separate headlines for the Planet, just in case. Richard takes her to the hospital where they let her in. Crowds outside gathered in support for their hero. She takes Jason with her to see Superman who’s in a coma as he tries to regain his strength. Just give him a room with a view of the sunrise…he’ll be right as rain.

As he lays still, Lois stands by his side as Jason looks at the costume on a chair nearby. She tells him what we already knew (even though we don’t hear her say it) that Jason is his son. Jason feels the crest and probably feels the weight of what he’s going to have to live up to if he ever fully develops powers. A quick beat of the heart gives Lois some hope. As they leave, Jason runs back in to kiss Superman’s forehead. Outside Martha Kent watches, praying her boy wakes up.

Lex and KItty are stuck on an island with only a dog and six coconuts. Gonna get messy there real fast.

A nurse walks into Superman’s room to see he’s missing, along with the suit. He’s fully healed, awake and heads to visit Lois who’s trying to work on her article, “Why the World Needs Superman”. But before he sees her, he sits with Jason, saying much of what his father told him in the Fortress. 

“You’ll be different. Sometimes you’ll feel like an outcast, but you’ll never be alone. You’ll make my strength your own. You’ll see your life through my eyes as I will see my life through yours. The son becomes the father, the father becomes the son.”

Lois hears Jason saying goodnight to someone and she turns to see Superman, alive. He flies off as the choir sings and theme starts to kick in. Much like the movies before he does what Reeve did: saved the day, flies over the world, smiles for the camera as he flies into the sequ–oh wait.

Brandon Routh was excellent in this role with what he was given. He looked the part and embodied both Clark and Superman very well. The problem was arriving back on Earth, he felt isolated and alone. More so than how he had before when he was growing up. So, he lacked part of the hopeful and shining light of Superman. 

The movie had so much potential, but the weak script and basing it as a Superman 2.5 just didn’t work. If Singer had done a true reboot, honoring what he loved about the originals and bringing it in for a modern audience like he did with X-Men, this would have been great.

The chemistry between Lois and Clark was there, but it wasn’t very strong. Bosworth was an okay Lois, but she didn’t have the magic of Kidder. I think the role was just a little too big for her. She was strong and tough, but as a mom, you know she wouldn’t bring Jason with her on a story. Not one with the dangerous components they were dealing with.

The addition of Richard worked. It showed Lois had moved on with a decent guy. She still loves Superman and always will, but she will ultimately choose Richard over him because they have a life together and she knows that she can’t truly be with Superman. Which is good, cause that summer, James Marsden got a raw deal with this one and X-3.

Spacey did great with the role of Lex. Given the script and the classic feel, he was just as over the top as Hackman. Though this Lex’s plan was grander and would have sank the entire continent of North America into the ocean as his new one took over.

Tristen was good as Jason. He’s a kid actor playing a kid in a Superman movie. He was cute, funny and in the more important scenes he gave it his all.

While it wasn’t an outright bomb, it didn’t make as much as the studios were expecting. There were plans for a sequel, but that never got made. The landmass that Superman threw into space would become New Krypton and Brainiac would be set up as the new villain.

Routh would get the chance to don the red and blue one more time in the Arrowverse. During their ambitious Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, he returned as this Clark/Superman, but as Kingdom Come Superman. Lois and Jason were dead thanks to the Joker and he was a Paragon that would help stop the Crisis that was going to destroy every word in the multiverse.

He took on the role and was given great material to work with. The best line was when he was talking to Supergirl’s Lois Lane about his black S.

Routh was Superman and should have been given another chance. I’d still like to see a Kingdom Come movie or limited series with him as Superman. But that may not happen unfortunately.

The studios would wait seven years this time before rebooting the franchise in a completely different direction and tone. We move past the classic, bright and hopeful Superman as we enter a new era. A realistic, serious take on the Man of Steel with…well, Man of Steel.

Was a darker, grittier take what we needed? Was it the success the studios needed? You know the answer to that, but I’m going to dive into Snyderverse anyway.

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