Word: supermans
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...film is a kind of stepchild to the Superman movies of 1978 and '80. Superman (Brandon Routh) has been away from Metropolis for five years, searching for remains of his home planet, Krypton. He's back on Earth just in time, since his very arch enemy, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), has been sprung from prison and has a plan--diabolical, of course--to debilitate Superman using kryptonite crystals and, with the big guy out of the way, make the world miserable and profit from...
Returning to his cover ID as Clark Kent, Daily Planet reporter, our hero has an awkward reunion with Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth), who loved him as Superman but not as Clark. Lois has three new acquisitions: a Pulitzer Prize for her editorial "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman" (clearly, she was in deep denial over the fellow who deserted her), a boyfriend named Richard (James Marsden) and a young son, Jason (Tristan Leabu...
...must discuss it, for this is where the movie displays its impressive ambition and cunning. Earlier versions of Superman stressed the hero's humanity: his attachment to his Earth parents, his country-boy clumsiness around Lois. The Singer version emphasizes his divinity. He is not a super man; he is a god (named Kal-El), sent by his heavenly father (Jor-El) to protect Earth. That is a mission that takes more than muscles; it requires sacrifice, perhaps of his own life. So he is no simple comic-book hunk. He is Earth's savior: Jesus Christ Superman...
...which Brando passes on the wisdom "The son becomes the father, and the father becomes the son," Singer establishes his own film's central relationship. It is not romantic, between Lois and Clark. It's familial--the bond of two sets of fathers and sons: Jor-El and Superman, then Superman and Jason. Each parent tells his child that he must surpass the old man's feats, improve on Dad's legend. Poignantly, this strength, this divinity, isolates Superman from Earth's humans. He can save them but not be one of them. Lois can love him but never understand...
...movie cogently ransacks elements from all kinds of myths, classic and modern. Superman is the god who fell to Earth, enduring a cycle of death and transfiguration. And since he has sired a boy who is part human, he could be the Jesus of the Gnostic Gospels. And Lois? Mary Magdalene...