I don’t normally write about the movies that I see, though on retrospect that may not be a bad set of topics for the blogs, but I had to give my take on “Superman Returns”

First impression of Superman Returns is this… Great movie and I think it will be one of the summers top earners. Bryan Singer does a great job bringing the story to life while holding true to the 1978 version of Superman. The acting is strong for the most part (Spacey could have put a bit more into it) and the story reflects Singers style of emphasizing relationship to sell the story. Needless to say the special effects are top rate and so smooth you hardly notice them and just let them sell you on the comic book style. The only issue left is the message, and to be honest, it was hammered at you with plenty of force.

In the past many critics bashed Superman as an allegory for the Christ Story. Think about it, it fits well. Superman father send him to Earth to save them from themselves. He dies, and is reborn, and so many other little things it is hard to miss. But while Richard Donner (director of the 1978 version) may not have been fully aware of the similes, he certainly was after the release. Now with history behind Superman, there is no way that Bryan Singer did not know about the similes and did not play them to the hilt.

This movie is rife with messianic imagery. Just a few… Superman on the cross to save an airliner. Superman stabbed in the side. Superman dying after saving the planet. Superman falling into water (fall from grace). Superman saving many people from a falling “grace” sign (how alliterative can you get). Superman saving people from the falling “Daily Planet Globe” (literally saving the planet again). Same image could also be interpreted as the cover of “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand, or even Hercules bearing the burden of the planet, or that Superman must bare the weight of humanities sins. A sliver of a Kryptonite shard is Supermans downfall (tip of the spear.) Resurrected with a kiss from a male (father/son). And the list can go on. Oh and of course there is his mother, named Martha, who I learned was originally named Mary.

So why do I give a darn about this? Because in this day of ever increasing conservative driven media, seems that the movies are going that way as well. I simply do not like to be preached to. It is movies like this and Passion of the Christ (to name a couple) that espouse a philosophy and promote religious ideology that I am not in favor of. I especially do not like the fact that they are disguising it in an action/adventure flick.

I know that we cannot eliminate all religious iconography from all films, it would be practically impossible, but we can at least be up front about it. If the film makers are intentionally promoting a religious agenda, maybe they should say so up front, sort of like a movie rating. It just ticks me off that I have to sit through a sermon for an action film.