Recent viewings

Superman Returns. The latest installment in the Superman franchise is pretty good entertainment. The effects are impressive, although more than once good ol' Supes seems to have a suspiciously synthetic sheen to his skin. Brandon Routh, as many reviewers have noted, looks something like Christopher Reeve, and does a good job of portraying the Man of Steel as a heroic outsider who is slowly coming to realize just how isolated he really is. (Even so, despite all the heavy drama, my favorite moment was the quick, grimly reproving grin that he gives to a dismayed bank-robber who has just discovered that his big, impressive arsenal of firepower doesn't quite cut the mustard against any part of the Kryptonian anatomy.) The actress who plays Lois Lane, on the other hand, seems miscast for the role, petulant and brittle rather than gutsy and determined. Lex Luthor is dapper and surprisingly sympathetic, and even makes a plausible-sounding speech about why he hates Superman. But his schemes and his deeds are still villainous. The expensive toys he plays with -- a glorious yacht equipped with a vast interior library complete with fireplace and grand piano; a fantastically elaborate if ill-fated model train layout -- could overshadow a lesser villain, but rest assured he has dastardly schemes in mind that will dwarf such mere gewgaws. Parker Posey has some fun as a gangster's moll who may not be quite as dimwitted as she looks. The filmmakers have some fun with obscure allusions to the long-running Superman mythos, replicating the iconic cover of Superman's first comic-book appearance in a news photo halfway through the movie and casting archival footage of Marlon Brando as the hologram of Superman's long-deceased father.

All in all, a fun , effects-heavy adventure, but it seems unlikely to acquire the iconic status of older interpretations.

PS: I ordinarily try to avoid supplying spoilers in movie and book commentaries; however, I can't help but wonder whether the screenwriter for Superman Returns was deliberately trying to skim around some of the implications of Larry Niven's ... er, ... seminal essay on the subject of human/Kryptonian sexual relationships, Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex, by implying that the offspring of Kryptonians -- or at least of Kryptonian-human hybrids -- begin life in a "fragile" state and only gradually gain their super-powers. Still, they fail to explain how such a child could be engendered at all, given the difficulties presented by Niven.