But I'll still wear the T-shirts

So anyone who knows me basically knows that I am an absolute, beyond the pale, insanely fanatical follower of any and all things having to do with Superman. If you've met me in person, or been to my apartment, or talked to me for any length of time, this is probably obvious. As obsessions go, it's a gentle and lifelong one. I am no latecomer to this. Keep in mind that, in the months leading up to this, I have gotten a little teary-eyed just watching the movie trailers ("They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be... they only lack the light to show them the way..." Ah, it gets me every time).

So I am not speaking off the cuff or without a lot of consideration when I say (and sad I am to have to admit it) that I really, um, was not so taken with the latest installment in the ill-fated Superman movie franchise, Superman Returns.

I'll start by saying I think they definitely made the right casting choice with Brandon Routh. He really surprised me - he managed to inhabit the big shoes left by Chris Reeve and add his own touches as well. So he kept the right "feel" to maintan continutiy with the earlier franchise, but brought his own dignity and goofiness to the Superman/Clark Kent personae. Plus he looks great in the suit. Better than Reeve did (or George Reeves, for that matter).

However, in terms of the story, this felt very much like Superman I - meaning that the character depth and story were pretty flat all around. Worse, many of the "gee whiz" aspects of the story were reminiscent of Superman III (and the never to be mentioned fourth installment). There were lots of plot gaps, and Lex Luthor still comes of as a farce - even with Kevin Spacey in the role. Really. This is the arch enemy of Superman? Hardly.

At nearly two and a half hours, it amazed me that so little was actually said, and so many huge plot holes were left gaping (and some pretty deep messing with the mythology. Supes is basically an absentee father [??!?!] in this installment. He and Lois have apparently had intimate relations, and a relationship [which is not a problem - that has precedent], but when they meet again on the roof of the daily planet, it is as stiff and formal as a tax audit. Weird.)

So, the sad thing is, it's trying really hard to be Spider Man 2, and failing. It should have aspired to Superman II instead.

(and I'm not even going to get into the goldmine of character development, nuance, and mythology they basically tossed away by choosing to ignore the entirety of the last five seasons of Smallville. Really. In light of that whole corpus, the thought of playing Lex Luthor for laughs is just ludicrous. Finally we might get to see him for the scary and tyrannical mastermind he is, with an actor the calibre of Kevin Spacey, no less, and they go trying to make him a bad Gene Hackman copy [and even Gene Hackman should have been allowed to play the role much darker, and could have brilliantly. In both cases, I blame the directors]. Luther's 'master plans' come across as poorly executed science projects. What the HELL people?)

It is sad to say that, with so many years and such good mythology to work from, the earliest Superman movies are still the best Superman movies. On the balance, though, I'll still stick with Smallville. Somebody over in Vancouver seems to be paying attention to the important stuff.

If they decide to make yet another Superman movie, holding on to Brandon Routh and scrapping the screenwriters and perhaps also (though I'm sad to say it, given his excellent work on the X-Men films) Bryan Singer, I'll probably go see it, because that's the kind of guy I am. But my confidence in this franchise is shaken. I'll admit it.

I've still got my DVD box sets and the comic books and old radio shows, though. And yeah, you'll still see me in those t-shirts.