It is a contested discipline, however John Williams’ majestic “Superman” theme is up there with the most effective the composer’s ever written. Nearly 5 many years on, that stirring orchestral march stays synonymous with Krypton’s most well-known son, nonetheless greater than able to making grown males wish to run out of phone containers (bear in mind these?) whereas ripping their shirts open.
It is maybe not stunning, then, that Bryan Singer could not think about utilizing every other music when signed as much as direct “Superman Returns”, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this weekend.
“From day one, Bryan mentioned he would not even greenlight the film if he could not use the John Williams music,” composer John Ottman instructed IGN on the time of launch. “That is how necessary it was to Bryan. I had moments of desirous to evolve the theme somewhat bit and alter it barely, however Bryan was in opposition to any modifications in any respect, even right down to the final flute flourish.”
However the filmmaker’s devotion to Richard Donner’s traditional 1978 “Superman: The Film” (nonetheless undoubtedly the greatest “Superman” film) stretched method past replicating that well-known rating — a homage James Gunn repeated in his personal Man of Metal reboot final yr. As a result of, for higher and worse, “Superman Returns” is an unashamed love letter to the movie that made us consider a person may fly all these years in the past.
“Smallville” could have been flying excessive on TV, however the early ’00s had hardly soared for DC on the massive display. The success of “Blade”, “X-Males” (additionally directed by Singer), and “Spider-Man” had turned Marvel into Hollywood’s pre-eminent supply of comic-book blockbusters, and the Distinguished Competitors was taking part in catch-up.
They had been additionally licking their wounds following notorious stinkers “Batman & Robin” (1997) and “Catwoman” (2004), and the DC renaissance would not really start till Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed “Batman Begins” in 2005.
There had been attempts to bring Supes back to theaters for the first time since 1987’s disastrous “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace”. Tim Burton, who’d directed the ridiculously successful 1989 “Batman” reboot, was attached to “Superman Lives” in the ’90s, while “Das Boot”/”Air Force One” helmer Wolfgang Petersen spent several years developing a standalone “Batman v Superman” movie, working from a screenplay by “Seven” writer Andrew Kevin Walker.
Then Brett Ratner was all set to direct “Superman: Flyby”, scripted by a certain JJ Abrams, until he left the project in March 2003, citing difficulties casting the lead role — not to mention his desire to make “Rush Hour 3” — as causes for his departure. “Charlie’s Angels” director McG briefly picked up the cape, however by July 2024, Warner Bros had handed the Fortress of Solitude keys to Singer. Singer subsequently departed the X-Males threequel, which was in the end directed — after a weird sport of Hollywood musical chairs — by Ratner, earlier than he made “Rush Hour 3”.
Working with “X2” writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, Singer jettisoned these earlier remedies to craft an all-new — albeit nostalgic — tackle Superman. Conveniently, the trio pretended that the disappointing “Superman III” and “Superman IV” by no means occurred, as a substitute selecting up the story 5 years after the occasions of “Superman II” — aka the one the place Clark and Lois Lane fall in love, Superman renounces his powers, inexplicably will get them again, and makes Lois neglect the entire affair.
It turns out that Superman (and, naturally, Clark Kent) has been away ever since, exploring the remains of Krypton in the hope of finding survivors of his race. In the meantime, Lois has moved in with the nephew of “Daily Planet” editor Perry White, had a kid called Jason, and written a Pulitzer Prize-winning article entitled “Why the world doesn’t need Superman”. She, and planet Earth, have apparently moved on.
The world’s greatest criminal mastermind has not, however, so Lex Luthor comes out of retirement to defeat the Man of Steel once and for all. His dastardly scheme involves using Kryptonian tech to build an all-new continent off the coast of Metropolis — even after all these years, he’s still obsessed with real estate.
“Superman Returns” is a movie of contradictions. While it’s technically a continuation of the Christopher Reeve series, it’s also a reboot. So even though, in Superman and Lois’s timeline, only five years have passed, the film is set in 2006 rather than 1985. There’s also an entirely new cast.
Although established names like Nicolas Cage, Brendan Fraser, Josh Hartnett, and Jude Law had been linked with previous incarnations of Superman, Singer opted to cast an unknown, just as Donner had done with the peerless Reeve. Brandon Routh actually makes a decent Superman — heroic, yet understated and touchingly melancholic — but never gets a chance to do much as Clark Kent.
As Lois, meanwhile, Kate Bosworth certainly didn’t deserve the excessive criticism she received at the time, yet is miscast in an underwritten role that lacks the screwball energy of Margot Kidder’s performance. But it’s Kevin Spacey (who’d won an Oscar for his performance in Singer’s “The Usual Suspects) who feels most out of place as an overly vicious Lex Luthor, no match for the timeless, ridiculously charming Gene Hackman version.
Even in the pre-social media world of 2006, “Superman Returns” was attracting negative hype long before it flew into theaters. The darker red of Superman’s cape and reduced size of the House of El logo proved particularly controversial, as Singer eschewed the primary colored hues of the Reeve outfit for something more muted and more in keeping with the “realistic” superhero uniforms of the era.
And when it landed, it turned out to be very different from what many fans had wanted. Indeed, anyone expecting all-out action — or the giant robot spiders that would, infamously, have featured in Burton’s “Superman Lives” project — was left massively disappointed by this reflective character piece. “Superman Returns” was less a film for kids and teens than adults who’d grown up on the Donner movie. As such, saving the day often takes a backseat to themes of lost love and paths not taken.
“I think that ‘Superman Returns’ was a bit nostalgic and romantic, and I don’t think that was what people were expecting, especially in the summer,” Singer told Empire in 2016. “What I had observed is that there weren’t lots of girls lining as much as see a comic book e-book film, however they had been lining as much as see ‘The Satan Wears Prada’, which can have been one thing I needed to deal with.”
Within the movie’s massive reveal, Jason (Tristan Lake Leabu) is revealed to be Clark’s son, and he throws a piano at a foul man to show it. However the extra fascinating storyline is definitely the love triangle between Superman, Lois, and Richard White (“X-Males”‘s James Marsden). It might have been really easy to make Richard a foul man, however right here he is completely respectable and — whereas he wants a seaplane to fly — simply as heroic as his Spandex-clad love rival. By the tip of the movie, it is clear that he — not Clark/Superman — is the proper man for Lois.
“Superman Returns”‘ $391 million box office take made it the ninth highest grossing film of the year, coming in behind “The Da Vinci Code”, “Casino Royale”, “Cars” and — in an intriguing twist of fate — “X-Men: The Last Stand”. It was a respectable return, yet not enough for Warner Bros, who opted not to make a sequel.
It remains, however, a memorable experiment in nostalgia, making some brave creative decisions without ever standing on its own two feet. Besides, whatever else anyone says about it, it’s still bookended by the greatest superhero theme tune ever written.
“Superman Returns” is available to stream on HBO Max in the US, and Netflix and Prime Video in the UK.
