of characters and symbols

[travisezell]

Upon rewatching, I think the only real major faults Superman Returns has are the ones that are inherent to the character. I love the mythology, the Sun God/Jesus stuff, the way pieces of his destroyed homeworld are posion to him, the bizarre love triangle where Clark loves Lois and Lois loves Superman, and the great inner struggle of identity that is Am I Clark? or Am I Kal-El? It's all great -- but from a narrative standpoint, how do you make a story with any peril, with anything at stake, when you are God? The problem is, I can only think of three possibilities:

1. The age-old comic book trope that by being a hero you risk the lives of those you love... but how many times can Lois and Jimmy and Ma & Pa Kent be kidnapped, tortured, cloned, or killed before we just get tired of it? And even so, Superman can stop bullets, move at the speed of light, and turn back time... so just exactly how threatening is hurting his loved ones anyway? (The first time he spins the Earth backwards to save Lois it's awesome... if he ever pulls that stunt again, we will hate him forever. At least I will.)
2. Something conveniently blocks out the sun, or there's suddenly and conveniently a whole lot of kryptonite around, or we learn some new weakness in Superman like he can't have hot dogs on Arbor Day or he becomes Anti-Superman... the point is some sort of act one deus ex machina comes in and un-supers the Man of Steel. This is fine, this is a good story, how the mighty can fall, but you can't keep doing this (and yet they do); if every episode or issue or movie something conveniently exists to remove or diminish Superman's powers and make him defeatable, you're just admitting the problem: Superman's undefeatable unless the writers cheat!
3. Something comes along and destroys or threatens to destroy the Earth (which in a sense is like the macro version of point #1). Superman, as mankind's noble savior and God-figure, is expected and required to do something. At least this story has a scope, generally, that is to be believed. Something big enough to eat or smash or melt or knock off its axis an entire planet, I'm willing to believe that that's an equal foe for a Super Man. But then you're in Clash of the Titans, and the story isn't really about character or the human condition or anything at all, really; it's just big space punch-outs and planet-eating monsters (or machines) the scale of which we can't even fathom.

I guess the point is, Superman isn't human enough to care about in a fair fight, and he's too powerful and, again, godlike, to limit the story to the more interesting interpersonal dramas. A real love story about Clark and Lois, or an existential story about Which Is The Costume And Which Is The Man, that may work beautifully every rare while in the comics, between big battles and whatnot, but it doesn't fill a $500 Million movie script with much to work with. So the writers have to keep cheating. And more specifically, the writers have to keep rebooting.

To their credit, I think if you consider Superman, Superman II and Superman Returns only, you can say they've done a good job. Origin story, that works. Criminals from Krypton who share Superman's powers but not Superman's morals, that works. Superman returning from sabbatical and Lex playing the Convenient Kryptonite card... well, it works as well as it's going to. Superman realizing human lives go on without him, that worked at least. Kryptonite Island and Lex Luthor's hamfisted hopes of destroying North America... well, what are you gonna do? As much fun as Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey have made watching Lex Luthor, he's cartoony, silly, and ultimately unthreatening. In terms of Superman mythology, what he represents (cold intellect, pure greed, avarice and self-righteousness) makes a great archnemesis and alter-ego for Superman, but he's just a man. How has he not been squished dead like a fruit fly by now? It doesn't satisfy.

Anyway, I've never liked Superman but I've always liked the idea. I think he would make (would have made) a fantastic One Movie or One Story hero. Even a trilogy, at the end of which he leaves or dies (a sacrifice to save all the little people? like anyone anywhere doesn't see the Jesus parallels in the new one), but an ongoing, multiply-serialized hero, it doesn't work for me. There's nothing lasting at stake.

If I were to tell a Superman story, it would be about the frustration of fighting for fifty years to keep this species safe and happy and how it hasn't amounted to anything, that it is One Dude vs. Human Nature. Talk about Sisyphean. (I'm reminded of one of Mr. Incredible's lines in the opening interviews of The Incredibles... "No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again. Sometimes I just want it to stay saved!")

Superman, for my money, is more purely symbolic than any other comic book superhero: he stands for so much and there is so much to read into him, but as a character the Strongest Man On The Planet is weak.

Oh, and before I forget, about the casting: I liked Brandon Routh quite a lot, but I couldn't stop looking at him and thinking how much he looks like Jason Schwartzman all buffed out. Scwartzman was (I think?) rumored to play Supes at some point, among a million other names, but I'm still glad it went the way it did. Singer insisted on (like Reeves before) getting a non-celebrity to play the part. However: nothing against Kate Bosworth as an actress but she made, if I may say, a poor replacement for Margot Kidder's ballbuster Lois Lane. Weakened that character way up. That is all.

Also: I watched The Fountain again. It actually probably deserves more thought and attention than Superman, but I got on a rant. What a tight (almost claustrophobic) closed world of a film, what a strange and beautiful and original fantasy story, what a nice way to make characters symbols. Aronofsky is an interesting and challenging filmmaker who doesn't write stories quite like other people. I know a lot of filmmakers who don't like him, but I really do. More unique voices and less Hollywood films, please.