I have no idea why, but recently I rewatched both Superman Returns and Man of Steel on consecutive nights because I’ve seen a lot of posts recently comparing Supermen from different eras. Perhaps it’s because we’re about to welcome the next actor about to dawn the red cape David Corenswet and it makes for good social media fodder.
So I guess I’m going to add to that with my slightly uninformed opinion. Brandon Routh gets very little love and I don’t think that’s very fair.
Let me begin by saying, I’m not a big comic book guy, so I’m only commenting on the screen portrayals of Kal-El. Also, to me, Christopher Reeve is THE Superman.
But in a world where there are many James Bonds, you can be a Roger Moore, guy or a Sean Connery guy, or a Daniel Craig guy…allow me for a moment to be the Timothy Dalton guy when it comes to Superman.
But first…
Let’s look at the timeline of all the on-screen Supes-portrayers. We’ll stick to live-action.
We’ll breeze past Kirk Alyn and George Reeves because I’m too young to have seen their versions of The Man Of Steel.
Christopher Reeve is, of course, the star of the classic Richard Donner Superman film from 1978 and 3 more sequels after that. Reeve proved to be a super man on and off the screen when later in life he battled a spinal chord injury that left him paralyzed from the neck down. He’s still my Superman.
Dean Cain played Superman on the Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman television series. I never really got into that show, so I have no opinion of Cain as Superman.
I’m a big Smallville fan. Watched the entire series when it aired and now I’m rewatching it and listening to the Talkville Podcast. But Tom Welling never played Superman. He was only ever Clark Kent, until arguably the final episode. So I don’t count him in this list, but wanted to mention him because I kind of wish he had had a chance to play Superman.
I’ll skip Brandon Routh and Henry Cavill for a second…but we’ll get back to both of them…
I watched the first two seasons of Superman & Lois featuring Tyler Hoechlin as the titular hero and really enjoyed his portrayal. The show kept the stories small and relatable, for the most part, which I appreciated. It did delve a bit too much into a teen high school drama about his sons, which really worked for me with Smallville, but I guess at my age, I’m less interested in that aspect of the story now. I’ll probably go back and watch the rest of the series once it’s over.
Do I even mention this guy?
Probably best I don’t.
Let’s move on…
That leaves the last two Supermen and the reason for this blog entry…
Brandon Routh got to don the cape and tights in Superman Returns, which was a sequel to the original Christopher Reeve movies 20 years after they were released.
And of course, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you already know that Henry Cavill has been Superman in the last 3 movies (5…depending on if you count uncredited cameos and alternate cuts)
There is a LOT of love for Henry Cavill and I’ll admit, he fills the suit out nicely, but I wish we could have seen more Brandon Routh in that role. If I just compared Superman Returns with Man Of Steel, I’ll take the former any day of the week. I don’t completely blame Cavill for this. In fact, I’d probably put the blame squarely on Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan‘s need to make everything so damned dark and moody.
Man of Steel was so dark and humourless. I hated the liberties they took with Superman’s back-story. They could have just skipped it altogether, they didn’t need to retell it and change it. Plus, the whole Krypton sequence at the beginning was just dull and boring. For a story about the end of a world, I had a hard time caring about any of the characters.
Meanwhile, Superman Returns was such a breath of fresh air. It was a proper homage to Christopher Reeve’s version of Superman. Brandon physically looked like Reeve and was equally good as Superman and Clark Kent. There were times when Brandon was playing Clark Kent where he disappeared, and for a moment, I saw Christopher Reeve again. He had the same goofy mannerisms and charm. Forget the glasses! Clark’s goofiness and clumsiness are the only reason we can believe people don’t see Clark and Superman as the same person.
We don’t really see much of Cavill as Clark…at least not at the Daily Planet. When we do see him there he doesn’t do anything except look good in glasses.
Don’t get me wrong, Superman Returns isn’t a perfect movie, we have to look past the (cancelled) actor playing Lex Luther, and while Kate Bosworth is a fine enough actress, she lacked some of Lois Lane’s hard-boiled nature. At least the film had heart and humour. Man Of Steel had neither of those things…it had disaster porn.
The final battle between Superman and Zod in Man of Steel was…just…so…exhausting, and not in a good way. I love how during the final battle you’ll see Superman saving a handful of citizens from either falling from a tall building or from having a giant sign or Daily Planet globe crush them, meanwhile entire buildings are falling down around thousands of others and they’re throwing each other through multiple floors of multiple buildings.
It harkens me back to watching Godzilla vs. Kong, where we have these two titans battling each other with little, to no regard for the human beings scurrying around getting crushed like ants. I found that movie tedious as well. I guess this is just a genre that doesn’t appeal to me.
There is one hilarious scene in Man Of Steel (ok it wasn’t completely humourless, but I think this was unintentional) where Zod chases Superman up the side of a building by climbing it like a ladder, even though he can totally fly, destroying each floor of said building.
And the death toll! OMFG!!
The death toll should, by all accounts, be in the tens of thousands with innocent citizens falling over each other trying to dodge falling buildings.
Then…all Superman does to defeat Zod is…snap his neck.
WAIT! He could have done that all along?!
That was POSSIBLE?!
But all those THOUSANDS of people who died and all of those BILLIONS of dollars in damage to the city of Metropolis
I know suspension of disbelief is required for these films, but, again, it’s just so…tedious!
Then we’re treated to an epilogue where everyone is back at work at the Daily Planet in Metropolis after the “Zod Incident”. The building seems no worse for wear even though the Planet literally fell off the roof and the city was previously levelled. The office seems full of people, with no allusion to the unimaginable death count that must have existed. And Clark dons his glasses for the first time while Lois, who already knows who he is, pretends to not know. It’s just so…well…you get the picture.
Brendan Routh infused his Superman with humour, interesting quirk and character, while Cavill barely unclenches that chiselled jawline to crack a smile. So while they were both imperfect movies, give me a Brandon Routh type of Superman any day of the week over Henry Cavill PLEASE!
I wish David Corenswet luck!
My Reviews
Superman Returns was a return to form after the Superman III and Superman IV debacles. It captured the spirit and humour of the original Richard Donner films.
Even a very chiselled Henry Cavill can’t save Man Of Steel from being just disaster porn, lacking either humour or a good story. Too many liberties were taken with the iconic origin story.
What are you thinking?