The McVie Show Season 4

WARNING! WARNING! SPOILERS APPROACHING! AVOID LIKE KRYPONITE!
(Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

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Superman Returns is a fairly well-made summer movie. Thanks to his experience in the first two X-Men movies, director Bryan Singer has proven once again that he can make big summer movies that, despite its size, can still have a solid beating heart inside all that special effects. And he does this by making sure that he has an underlying theme running through the whole movie.

In Superman Returns it’s all about being different and yet being asked to carry a huge responsibility. This internal struggle is the core conflict of Superman in this movie; in other words, Superman as the Messiah. Singer piles on the references throughout the movie: when God-the-Son Superman returns and falls into Mama Mary, er, Ma Kent’s arms in a faint, it’s an instant La Pieta. In the Fortress of Solitude, Lex Luthor and company listen to God-the-Father Jor-El (Marlon Brando in a special post-death appearance) lecturing; when Kitty Kowalski (played to ditzy perfection by Parker Possey) asks, “Can he hear us?” Lex says, “No, he’s dead.” At the climactic battle wherein Luther’s goons are beating up a weakened Superman, it’s super-Scourging At The Pillar. In the same battle, Lex stabs Superman with a spear of kryptonite on his side. And after throwing the landmass into space, Superman falls back to Earth with arms outstretched, like Christ on the cross.

Still not convinced? Lex says, “Gods are selfish beings who fly around in little red capes and don’t share their power with mankind.” And lastly, Superman tells Lois, “You wrote that the world doesn’t need a savior, but every day I hear people crying for one.”

With Lois as Mary Magdalene and her 5-yr old son as the offspring of Superman, this movie has more in common with The Da Vinci Code than people realize.

The good thing about Bryan Singer is that while his religious references are obvious, he doesn’t hit you on the head with them, unlike, say, a younger Steven Spielberg. Singer does not linger, nor does he underline, embolden and italicize his points. Which is a good thing—religion can be such a bummer in an action flick. Besides, summer movies have become so idiot-friendly that they’re now unfriendly to non-idiots.

But enough with the religion. Bryan Singer has made a movie that those over 35 years old who have seen the first two Christopher Reeves originals will get a kick out several sequences. The opening title sequence is an homage to Superman II’s opening credits. The ending scene of Superman flying high above Metropolis is a tip of the hat to the ending of Superman I. And thanks to the John Williams original score, those scenes packed an additional wallop—I was as giddy as a girl while watching the opening credits fly across the screen.

All in all, Superman Returns to the screen with a fairly successful film. Wait for him to return again on screen.