Superman Returns and Man of Steel Comparisons

I recently watched the DVD of Superman Returns (2006). I haven't seen it since it was in theaters years ago. It actually holds up pretty well. And I was surprised how high it scored on the Rotten Tomatoes site. When I compare it to the more recent Man of Steel (2013) on the movie rating site, I was struck by the fact that the critics loved Superman Returns more than the general audience while they rated Man of Steel poorly as the movie-going public gave it high marks. Each movie is nearly an inverse of the other as far as critics vs general audience is concerned.

But aside from that, I must say that for all the derision that Superman Returns has received over the years since it was released, it actually has some admirable qualities. It's well-written and paced. The special effects were decent and it payed proper homage to the earlier Superman movies starring Christopher Reeves as it used the same Fortress of Solitude design and even grafted in footage of Marlon Brando as Jor-El from the earlier films. Superman Returns' nod to the earlier "classic" Superman movies was something that many people complained that the Man of Steel was missing. Although I, personally, was glad to see that Man of Steel made a clean break with the past depictions of Superman.

Superman Returns is an introspective movie that raises the question of why Superman matters. In fact, one of the best quotes from the movie is given as Superman takes Lois Lane on a flight above the Earth and tells her, "I hear everything. You wrote that the world doesn't need a savior, but every day I hear people crying for one."

Speaking of the Savior, the way that Superman takes a beating by Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey in a respectable performance) and his henchmen made me think of Mel Gibson's Passion of The Christ movie (2004). I felt that, during certain scenes in Superman Returns, I was watching "The Passion of the Superman". But in The Man of Steel the allusion to Superman as a Christ figure is surprisingly much more overt.

I liked both movies. They each have complimentary strengths and weaknesses. It's too bad there can't be a movie that combines the strengths of both. But I think Warner Bros. would rather have the high regard (and higher ticket sales) of the movie-going public they garnered with Man of Steel than the high critical praise they achieved with Superman Returns.

My MAN OF STEEL review from an earlier post.