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Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) is a Pulitzer Prize winner for her article "Why the World Does Not Need Superman," and that isn't all. She has a new love interest in likable assistant editor Richard White (James Marsden) and a young son named Jason. This poses quite a problem for Clark/Superman, but he has little time to dwell on personal problems. The evil Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is out of prison again, planning to use some stolen Kryptonite crystals to create a new continent in the middle of the Atlantic, thus threatening the world's climate and bringing all governments under his control.
The special effects are well done, especially the sequence involving Superman rescuing a giant airliner with a space shuttle piggy-backed on it, and Christopher Reeve look-alike Brandon Routh is a good replacement in the title role. However, he is given very little dialogue, and the storyline concerning the asthmatic son of Lois Lane, whose father is not named, but whose identity is easy to guess, is way underdeveloped. The film tries to recapture some of the magic of that delightful scene in the first Superman extravaganza, in which Superman takes Lois Lane into his arms and treats her (and us) to an exhilarating nighttime aerial tour of Metropolis, but it falls short of the original.
What will intrigue Christian viewers about Superman in the latest film are the parallels between him and Christ. Stephen Skelton's just-published book, The Gospel According to the World's Greatest Superhero (Harvest House) is an extreme example of making the case for Superman as a Christ figure. In the film Clark/Superman hears the words of his long-dead father Jor-El, "Even though you've been raised as a human being you're not one of them. They can be a great people, Kal-El. They wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all—their capacity for good—I have sent them you ... my only son." This certainly has echoes of John 3:16 and 8:12.
No doubt Kal-El (Superman's Kryptonic name — and Skelton makes much of the "El" in the names of the father and son and the Hebrew name for God, "El.") is a savior figure, but before we add him to the list of Christ figures in film, we ought to note the big difference between the two visitors to our planet: that which theologians call "the kenosis" of Christ—from the Greek of Philippians 2:7—meaning that Christ "emptied" himself of divine prerogatives and powers when he came to us as a man. Except for some special signs or miracles, Jesus was largely devoid of divine power, whereas Superman retains his powers of flying, X-ray vision, super speed, skin (and clothing) impervious to bullets and fire, and super hearing (there is a touching scene of him flying high in the night sky and hearing the plaintive cries of humanity). But whatever we think of the nature of this comic book hero, there is no question of the deep hold he has on our imaginations and hearts.
In another superhero film, Spiderman 2, Aunt May tells nephew Peter Parker that everyone needs a hero for example and inspiration. Superman has filled that role for almost 70 years in the comics, on radio and television, and in the movies. Judging by the enthusiastic response of the audience at the first-night screening that I attended, we are all richer for his return.
—Edward
McNulty
For a fuller review and discussion questions go to the Visual Parables Web site and click the "Current Movies" tab. |
