The Best Thing About Superman Returns

Watched the original Superman the other night. I still stand by the fact that it's only the 2nd best of the original four movies, although it's still better than Superman Returns for the fact that there is actually some interplay between Lois and Superman.

But it did make me realize something else about Superman Returns. Bryan Singer, the writer and director, did something very smart that most superhero movies (that aren't sequels) fail to do: he assumes we know who Superman is.

When you start a series of superhero movies, invariably, the first movie in the series is basically the setup for the sequels. This is the "origin" movie, where the history of the superhero is given. They all start this way. They have to, because most people don't know anything about the characters, and you have to tell them what the deal is. (Comic book fans usually hate this first movie, because this is where the screenwriters tend to fuck up their beloved characters.)

But Superman Returns is different. It doesn't start out on Krypton with Jor-El sending Kal-El to Earth, or young Clark growing up in Smallville, or any of the classic Superman origin bits. Here, Superman is already an established character, Clark already works at the Daily Planet, and Superman already has a relationship with Lois Lane (in more ways than one). And because of this, there's no need to waste screen time telling the story of Superman, because the movie already assumes we know everything about Superman.

This setup also circumvents the problems of "retconning," where writers rewrite history by changing the details of an established character's origins. Batman Begins had Bruce Wayne meeting Ra's Al Ghul first thing, while, in the comics, he didn't show up until much, much later. The Hulk gave Bruce Banner a Hulk-like father. Fantastic Four gave Dr. Doom some ridiculous powers and mutations, and Spiderman was actually able to generate webbing, something he did through artificial means in the comics. It drives long-time fans of the characters nuts.

(The comics make these same mistakes as well. At one time, there were two Supermen, Superboy, Supergirl, Superdog, and the inhabitants of the miniature Kryptonian city of Kandor. They were all "disappeared" 20 years ago, in order to make Superman the sole survivor from Krypton, only to reappear a month or so ago. This shit actually happens all the time.)

But Superman Returns foregoes all of that character exposition, and gives us a good, old-fashioned Superman story. It's the ultimate fanboy movie. Too bad it was mostly not very good.