Child of a Lesser God

Superman Returns (4/5 stars)

The Superman franchise is back after several years with a whole new cast. Much like Batman Begins, this movie does much to bring revive a once great franchise from the absolute dreadfulness of the last few installments.

The story is that after a five year absence from Earth on a mission to find out what happened to his home planet of Krypton, Superman (Brandon Routh) returns to Earth to find it has changed a great deal while he was away. Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) now has a boyfriend (James Marsden) and a five year old child, and Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) has gotten himself out of prison and is beginning to hatch a new plan for riches and destruction which is a twist on his scheme from the original movie with Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman. At first it seems as if the world does not need him; Lois has even been awarded the pulitzer prize in his absence for an article entitled "Why the World Does Not Need Superman." Soon enough though, with Luthor's plan, and Lois's re-emerging feelings for him, he has his place back again in the world.

Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men parts one and two) directs and does well to do tribute to the original version but also add a lot of new flair. The action is exciting, the pace is quick despite the long running time, and unlike most comic book adaptations there is actually some character development. Perhaps more importantly, there is a just a great sense of wonder and awe at what you are watching throughout the entire movie.

The performances range between average (Routh) to good (Bosworth, surprisngly, Spacey, clearly having a lot fun in the best role I've seen him in for a long time, and Parker Posey whom I absolutely love in a supporting role as Luthor's tag-along). What is especially good here though is that the movie does not veer too far into camp, and the non-action sequences actually enhance the movie rather than detract from it, something that the Spider-Man franchise (which attempts, but in my opinion, sadly fails at) suffers from greatly. To top it off, the movie is absolutely stunning visually, with some of the best cinematography I've ever seen in a hero/comic movie.

Overall, this is probably one of (if not the) best action movies you are going to end up seeing this year, and is certainly much better than most comic book adaptations ever done. It does not quite measure up to Batman Begins, but in my opinion that is quite a difficult task. It makes up for the disappointment of X-Men: The Last Stand easily.