(This movie "review" was originally sent to Swan in an e-mail. It's been edited some and posted here.)
G took me to see "Superman Returns" in IMAX 3D as part of our anniversary fun. I enjoyed the movie very much. As the movie started, it was as if I were transported back to my childhood when I saw the original with my parents. She astutely observed that it was nearly scene for scene a re-make of the 1979 original, which I made her watch prior to seeing "Returns."
Superman is a difficult superhero to write for b/c he is so powerful and such a perfect person and drama requires tension and conflict. An impossible situation has to be created for him to overcome.
In the original, the two rockets racing in opposite directions created a dilemma for him and he had to deal w/ it. The ending, turning back time to save Lois, really made the point that he is a god.
I liked "Returns" b/c of the 2 impossible situations. First, how to save the mainland U.S. from the growing land mass that was laced w/ Kryptonite? Second, what to do about the non-relationship w/ Lois. The first one he solved by brute strength and determination- lifting the land mass into space. But it is the Lois storyline that really interested me- b/c of Superman's character he can not steal Lois from Richard, yet there is still that yearning for her- That is the impossible situation.
Although he is a god and Christ-figure, the movies also carry the theme that there are things he (seemingly) can not do. In the original, his Earth father dies of a heart attack and he says to his mother, "all those powers and I couldn't save him." The same thing happens when Lois dies at the end of the movie but he is then able to bring her back from the dead. In Returns, the theme is carried further. "All those powers" but he can't have the love of his life.
But the Jor-El/Superman/Jason(the kid) "Christ" speeches- the son becomes the father and the father the son -just give me goosebumps.
I think the biggest plot hole is the fact that Lois does not remember when she had sex w/ Superman to conceive the emerging Super-kid. This is due to the amnesia kiss at the end of Superman 2. Wouldn't a woman immediately ask that question?!? The amnesia kiss is like today's date-rape drug. (That also wiped out her knowing Clark is Superman.) Finally, the movie doesn't address the fact that Jason's powers will continue to develop and that Richard will find out eventually. To sweep that under the rug in the sequel would be to lose credibility.
Swan responded w/ an awesome reference to Greek mythology:
Like I said to Leon, Superman returns is // to Da Vinci code. Both movies speak of a super powerful man having an offspring with an earth woman. The only difference is Jesus had a daughter and Clark had a son. Jason is a mythological hero Hercules, a half man half god who has super strength. When he grows up what will he be? Superboy? It is going to be an interesting sequel.
The sequel can't arrive soon enough!
