Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Superman Returns
2006
**½
Director: Bryan Singer
Cast: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden, Parker Posey, Frank Langella, Sam Huntington, Eva Marie Saint, Kal Penn

After a five-year absence Superman returns to Earth only to discover that Lois Lane is now a mother and engaged to be married. At the same time Lex Luthor plans to use Kryptonian crystals to reshape the Atlantic Seaboard. (Sadly we don't see how he plans to profit from the craggy new landmass.) Brian Singer's reboot doesn't attempt to make the Superman franchise darker, like Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins did. Lois Lane has a child out of wedlock, that's as edgy as it gets. In fact Singer wants to destroy the memory of the terrible sequels (III and Iv) and take us back to the innocent charm of the original. But what exactly is the point of giving us something we've seen done better almost 30 years ago, especially when Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth clearly lack the charisma of Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder?