Saturday, July 01, 2006

Superman Returns Super Boring.

At 2 1/2 hours in length the new "Superman Returns" is at least a half hour too long. But, I am not sure even editing it could have save it. I was hoping for something that would be a great afternoon diversion but this wasn't it. At the beginning of the movie, when I first saw Eva Marie Saint (Clark Kent's mother) I thought, I need to rent "North By Northwest" and by the end, when we see her again holding vigil outside the hospital where Superman is recovering I was wishing I had left and rented it.

What about the Superman as Christ figure talk? Superman starts with his father sending the son to earth. When Superman and Lex have their final confrontation he gets speared in the side and when he is beaten the only sympathetic figure looking on is a woman. When Superman sacrifices his life (almost) to save the world he descends through the sky arms outstretched like Christ on the cross. But, I don't see any serious theological meaning here. Not that I really expect to.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"Superman" is a continuing myth, all religions can relate too, I guess, and the films that make big at the box office are indeed playing on those shared archetypes.

check out if you are interested

"Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters"

the theologly functions, i'm guessing as I haven't seen the film, on a sub-textual level, and encourages a sympathy with the metaphor of the sacrificial son in the name of the father, kinda freudian and shakespearian too.

Also with Superman you can certainly draw a parallel with Nietzsche's idea of "the overman" (Ubermensch) -


Love your site.

J