Date:02/07/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/07/02/stories/2006070210860200.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Good, but just not super

READY FOR ACTION: Brandon Routh in Superman Returns

Superman Returns (English)

Director: Bryan Singer

Cast: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth

It's an age-old debate. Does more technology mean less thought? If a film boasts of greater special effects is it destined to simply fill in the intervening with left over footage and pop-culture tributes? If you go by recent releases like Spiderman 2 or the third X-men film, indeed the hypothesis stands grimly confirmed. Even Batman Begins struggled with the human story behind the supernatural effects dangerously veering towards easy melodrama. And now you have Superman Returns, which falls into the same trap that its predecessors did.

Brandon Routh stars as Superman and Clarke Kent, perhaps for his obvious resemblance to Christopher Reeve. This time, Superman has been away to the graveyard of Krypton, and returns to find that hot-shot reporter Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has a fiance and a son, a Pulitzer Prize and an editorial that rejects the man in blue on behalf of the rest of the world. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor finds the Kryptonite version of Jack's magic beans. Just add water and chango presto, you've got land.

The film is watch-able for its special effects. No matter what other faults one might heap on director Bryan Singer one has to admit that he is a genius at crafting CGI-enhanced action sequences.

And so you have a Superman film that finally manages the majesty that the Man of Steel deserves.

Coupled with the use of fascinating perspectives and unusual lighting and sound, the film presents a masterful visual fabric that gives the film a sense of spectacle that makes the trip worthwhile.

Rakesh Mehar