For many of us, when we think of Superman on the screen, we remember the late Christopher Reeve.  But it is 28 years since he appeared in Superman: the Movie and 18 years since he starred in Superman IV.  The powers that be have decided that it is his time again (just as last year we saw Batman Begins).  The X Men have been with us three times in six years and next year we expect another visit from Spiderman.

There’s an old Tina Turner song which proclaims ‘we don’t need another hero…’.  It looks as though she is wrong.  In fact, early in this film, we see that in Superman’s five year absence from Metropolis (when he went in search of his roots and visited the collapsed planet, Krypton), Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) won a Pulitzer prize for an article.  The title: ‘The world does not need a saviour’.  She soon finds out that she too was wrong.

It is interesting for Christians to note how often the word ‘saviour’ is mentioned in this film.  After all, it was one of the big features of the first film with Christopher Reeve.  It was Mario Puzo, the author of The Godfather, who wrote the screenplay for the first 40 minutes or more (before it became a big visual comic strip).  Puzo drew on his knowledge of the New Testament, the Gospel of John and a number of theological ideas about the person of Jesus.  He put into the mouth of Jor-El, Superman’s father, echoes of the Gospel where the father and the son are seen as one.  These words, again spoken by Marlon Brando, are used several times in the new film.

Clearly, Superman is being presented as in the pattern of the Gospel Jesus.  He comes down to earth, lives a hidden life at home (and here Eva Marie Saint appears as his mother) until it was time for him to go out and achieve his mission: to save people, and to save them from themselves.

In Superman Returns he combats the evil-figure, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey at his most nasty) who is a Lucifer, trying to upstage God in creating a new world and being Satanic in his hostility towards Superman and his attempts to destroy him.  Superman’s power is emptied out of him, his side is pierced and he seems to die and rise again.  It is amazing still how many film-makers, even if they are not Christians or believers, see the Gospel pattern and the Jesus saviour and redeemer story as a metaphor for people’s desire for salvation.

However, when it comes to Superman going into action, he is a Christ-figure in his principles and genial helping of people.  But when he goes into action, as in the previous films, he actually seems more like a super guardian angel, watching over people, listening to their anguish, and immediately saving them from peril.  He is almost like how many people would want God to be, intervening as soon as there is a natural or human-made threat and getting them out of trouble.  A trouble-free life is not at the core of faith and, after all, Superman is a comic-strip fairytale of how we would like the world to be.

Superman/Clark Kent is played by little known actor, Brandon Routh.  He is a credible Christopher Reeve look-alike and the actor has obviously been studying Reeve’s style in the films: his reassuring but modest smile, his self-deprecating manner, the intonations of his voice both as Superman and as Clark.  He is a satisfying successor.  And the producers have happily used John Williams’ familiar theme music from the earlier films whenever there is action – and that is pleasantly reassuring.

A sequel will be welcome.

Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto: