Superman Returns

Superman Returns (2006) dir. Bryan Singer
Starring: Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, James Marsdon, Parker Posey, Frank Langella

***1/2

By Alan Bacchus

It’s too bad this film missed its mark 6 summers ago. It’s a rather unique and wholly admirable vision for this Superman. Virtually anything could have been done with the character and the franchise, and Jon Peters, the producer, tried many different directors to relaunch the series, including using his old Batman pal Tim Burton with Nicolas Cage as the man of steel. Bryan Singer’s film resonates strongly based on his meticulous precision in plugging it into the style, tone and overall mythology of the Richard Donner films (Superman The Movie and most of Superman II). Perceived success or not, Superman Returns is a terrific film.

What’s to be cherished most from the 1978 Superman The Movie is the treatment of the origin story, both the father-son relationship between Jor-El (as played by Marlon Brando) and Superman (nee Ka-Lel), and Superman's relationship with his adopted father on Earth played by Glenn Ford. What a stroke of genius to bring Brando back from the dead, incorporating outtakes from the original in this new one to provide a unique tie between the two films. In production, the announcement of Brando’s presence signified Singer’s desire to stay in sync with the other films.

Tonally, Singer hits the same marks as Donner. Brandon Routh not only looks strikingly similar to Christopher Reeve, but he possesses some of the same slapstick steps as Reeve playing Clark Kent. Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey admirably step into the shoes of Gene Hackman and Ned Beatty, the sometimes bumbling, sometimes deadly affable opposing duo.

John Ottman’s score admirably reworks John Williams’ recognizable music to find a satisfiable hybrid.

In terms of story, Singer finds a fun medium between continuing the story established by Donner, finding his own journey for Superman and even adapting/recreating a number of the scenes from the original for his own purposes. Lois Lane’s interview of Superman, for example, is choreographed and directed note-for-note with Donner’s memorable scene in the original. After getting the assignment to do a personal piece on Superman, he meets up with Lois on the art deco rooftop flying in from the sky. A fun conversation piece filled by sexual subtext and double-entendres ensues before Superman whisks Lois off into the sky for a nighttime jaunt.

Singer’s new addition, Lois’s child, who may or may not be Superman’s kid, also fits in wonderfully. It connects to his strong feelings for his two paternal figures, Jor-El and Pa Kent. If anything, it’s a shame we couldn’t see Ford, like Brando, somehow return in a flashback. The surprise moment in the third act when the child discovers his powers for the first time offers a pretty darn exciting piece of action, and the denouement, the final admonition of Superman as father to his sleeping son, is deeply affecting.

Where Superman Returns doesn’t land as softly, arguably, are in the overstocked action scenes. Sequences such as the airplane crash and the boat rescue at the end feel perfunctory, exercises in blockbuster excess demanded by its tent pole requirements. The overuse of CGI to replicate Superman during the scenes adds a negative cartoon nature to its generally serious subject matter.

Perhaps this is why the filmed failed – the needs and desires to create an action film conflicted with Bryan Singer’s desire to romance the genre as Richard Donner did so many years ago. Regardless, the work speaks for itself and succeeds as a worthy final chapter in the long yet truncated saga.

Superman Returns is available on Blu-ray in the Superman Anthology 1978-2006 set from Warner Home Entertainment.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

The Usual Suspects (1995) dir. Bryan Singer
Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollack

****

By Alan Bacchus

I can still remember the reaction of the audience in that final moment in “The Usual Suspects”. Kevin Spacey’s overlapping voiceover revealing the identity of Keyser Soze, culminating in Spacey’s final words ‘and like that he’s gone’. The cut to black along with John Ottman’s brooding music sting sent the audience in an uproar of spontaneous applause.

Bryan’s Singer bysantine neo-noir still has the ability to send shivers down my spine in those final moments. The film launched Singer’s career, as well that of Kevin Spacey, Benicio Del Toro as well as some of his key creatives like John Ottman (editor/composer) and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel.

The film opens in the present in the Los Angeles harbour, as we witness the final moments of what appears to be a notorious and wanted criminal Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne). A cloaked gunman shoots him dead then blows up the entire ship. Customs officer Dave Kujan bent on proving that his nemesis Dean Keaton is dead interrogates the only witness, a hapless cripple named Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey).

An elaborate series of flashbacks during Kint’s interrogation unfolds revealing a deadly game of criminal vs. criminal. Five men, including Keaton and Kint, conspicuously get holed up together in a police line-up, with their association masterminded by a legendary criminal spook story named, Keyser Soze.

Christopher McQuarrie’s screenplay is a pitch perfect example of noir storytelling and Singer and his collaborators drench the film with ice-cold crime slickness. The various tough guy posturing of the characters, sharp oneliners, Hungarian mob, Turkish coke, billowing smoke from dimly lit cigarettes, corrupt cops, shifty lawyers, and the perfectly manufactured myth of Keyser Soze make for a great genre film dripping with texture and intrigue.

As Singer’s second feature, he shows remarkable confidence and command of all aspects of the medium. McQuarrie’s convoluted script doesn’t exactly dot all its Is and cross its Ts. But a degree of confusion is acceptable for the genre. Classic noirs like “The Big Sleep” and “Touch of Evil” continue to confound audiences and part the mystique of the genre is the idea of ordinary men engulfed in an ever expanding and confusing world of crime.

There’s a constantly changing point of view, which Singer manages to make clear and accessible even with its numerous flashbacks, and flash forwards. McQuarrie’s dialogue crackles as sharp as any noir ever written. Even after several viewings I still marvel at the intricate dialogue. One of its most underappreciated but expert performances belongs to Giancarlo Esposito, whose lines are read with the rhythm of a machine gun. My favourite line of his: “I got a guy trying to walk out of the hospital on a fried drumstick to get away from Soze. I’ll run it up the flagpole” or “…I need to send me someone who can speak Hungarian. He’s talking like a Thai hooker.”

Wit, intelligence and a genuine love for cinema fuels this unmistakable classic which has survived with all its grandeur intact.

The Usual Suspects is available on Blu-Ray from MGM Home Entertainment

VALKYRIE

Valkyrie (2008) dir. Bryan Singer
Starring: Tom Cruise, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard

***

Tom Cruise’s celebrity continues to overshadow his work. From the outset of this production there appeared to be an effort as dedicated as the rebellion in this film to knock down this latest Cruise venture. First it was a German protest against allowing the couch-surfing Scientologist to film a German story in their country, then it was an over-the-top slag campaign after a test screening in the summer. 

The reteaming of Bryan Singer, Christopher McQuarrie and John Ottman, the three key collaborators behind “the Usual Suspects” back in a thriller genre they tore apart and re-invented 13 years ago should be receiving top billing in the headlines. The finished film, outside of any hype, is a decent film in the genre of Hollywood wartime thrillers.

Tom Cruise plays Col Claus von Stauffenberg a German officer recently blown half to bits in Rommel’s desert campaign who desires to overthrow the Hitler regime to reclaim Germany’s honour. There happens to be a whole group of similar dissidents within the Nazi high ranks who feel the same. After a botched attempt by Kenneth Branagh’s Nazi character to blow up de Fuhrer he recruits Stauffenberg to command the team with a new plan of attack.

Stauffenberg’s bold single-minded leadership is just the energy the group needs to get the job done. For Stauffenberg killing the man is only half the battle, overthrowing the government is the hardest part. The solution finds Stauffenberg when he hears his child play Wagner’s Valkyrie during an air-raid. Using sharp politicking and crafty progaganda techniques Stauffenberg plans to use an obscure Martial Law action plan called Operation Valkyrie to cease allow his secret SS group to cease control of the government.

It’s a slow and uninspired set-up. McQuarrie skips over the hardest bit of writing by making no explanation as to how Stauffenberg gets recruited into the SS group. I always thought the most difficult aspect of a revolution is finding the like-minded individuals willing to stick their necks out for the cause. For good and bad McQuarrie quickly jumps this hurdle and directly into the scheming and plotting. The hallmarks of Bryan Singer’s talent as director lay dormant in this set-up. But once Stauffenberg is on board the second act is kicked off with the executed plan of action. Singer’s razor sharp pace, impeccable composition and shot selection suddenly jumps off the screen.

As with “Usual Suspects” John Ottman’s unique skills as both editor and composer compliment Singer’s direction. Having an editor the same person as composer though extremely rare in filmmaking is in practise are natural roles to combine. Especially in the thriller genre where montage scenes rule. Singer and Ottman are careful to show the detailed machinations of the plotting, which replacing the lack of no action scenes, gunfights, or stunts.

“Valkyrie” shouldn’t be watched for any kind of history lesson nor anyone looking for profound statements about the war, just another entry in the long history of Hollywood's exploitatioin of the war for disposable entertainment value. Enjoy.