Superman Returns in a Nutshell

»Superman Returns« is the Superman movie for everyone who was sitting around thinking, »I just wish someone would make another Superman movie.« For everyone else, the picture has to cross one little threshold of skepticism: Why this again?

Last year, »Batman Begins« answered that question by going deeper into the Batman backstory, while still delivering a first-rate action movie. But »Superman Returns« finds no reason for being, other than that it's summer and computer graphics have improved since the superhero days of Christopher Reeve.

Sicher bietet Superman Returns einige lustige Szenen, und einige nette Special-FX. Aber leider bietet der Film auch genausoviel Hausmannskost und Klischees, voraussehbare Gags und übertriebene Computergrafik-Effekte, gepaart mit einer doch unnötig in die 160-Minutenlänge gezogener Storyausbreitung ohne sachlichen Tiefgang.

Superman is vulnerable to one, and only one, substance: kryptonite. He knows this. We know this. Lex Luthor knows this. Yet he has been disabled by kryptonite in every one of the movies. Does he think Lex Luthor would pull another stunt without a supply on hand? Why doesn't he take the most elementary precautions? How can a middle-aged bald man stab the Man of Steel with kryptonite?

Er mag ja ein toller Hengst sein, eine Granate im Bett, aber ein sehr geistreicher oder witziger Geselle ist er beleibe nicht. Ganz abgesehen davon, das er eine merkwürdige Arbeitsauffassung hat was sowohl seinen Reportersjob als auch das Weltenretten angeht. Ich ertappe mich stets dabei mich zu fragen, was mit all jenen Menschen in Not passiert die während Supis Arbeitszeit verunglücken oder die das Pech haben vom Schicksal ereilt zu werden, wenn er grade in »romatisch Rumfliegen«-Stimmung ist oder aus Eifersucht bei Lois im Vorgarten rumschwebt.

Every era gets the superhero it deserves, or at least the one filmmakers think we want. For Mr. Singer that means a Superman who fights his foes in a scene that visually echoes the garden betrayal in »The Passion of the Christ« and even hangs in the air much as Jesus did on the cross. It's hard to see what the point is beyond the usual grandiosity that comes whenever B-movie material is pumped up with ambition and money. As he proved with his first two installments of »The X-Men« franchise, Mr. Singer likes to make important pop entertainments that trumpet their seriousness as loudly as they deploy their bangs. It's hard not to think that Superman isn't the only one here with a savior complex.