“Superman Returns” had mixed reviews. I’ll admit, it wasn’t perfect. But it was a great movie. I, for one, enjoyed it a lot. That scene with the plane was amazing. You could just feel the power radiating from the Man of Steel. Another great scene was with the Kryptonite island. Try to honestly say that watching the world’s greatest hero(yeah, it’s not Batman) lift an entire continent of his only weakness wasn’t enough to make you scream for more and almost forget the movie’s many mistakes. Of course, the mistakes. Like any movie, it wasn’t without its flaws. Some of the worst scenes include the incredibly pathetic break-in of the Fortress. Being Superman, he should have had some sort of security there. And there were the obvious Reeve/Donner references. Luthor knowing the Fortress’s location and Superman having a son with Lois(they slept together) are from “Superman II“. Having Jonathan Kent be dead(or at least, missing or not there), Brando reprising his role via CGI and Spacey’s performance of Luthor mimicking Hackman’s were obviously from the first movie. But apart from that, I didn’t really find anything that was obviously from the Reeve movies that wasn’t in the comics.
People generally dislike Routh’s portrayal of Superman/Clark Kent for being an obvious rip-off of Reeve. Well, if anyone finds a good version(emphasis on GOOD) of Superman that at least doesn’t act a little like Reeve, let me know. Besides, Routh was pretty much playing the comic book Superman. He had the heroic, brave Superman almost perfectly. You could almost immediately tell that he was here to help. He just had this kind of aura. On the other side of Kal-El’s personality, we have Clark Kent. As much as I liked Reeve as Superman, his Clark was a little over-the-top. The whole point of having a secret identity is to not draw attention to yourself, so it stays secret. An overly clumsy, bumbling idiot, however, is not someone you’re likely to forget easily. On the other hand, a quiet, shy Clark, or even a strong and confident one, isn’t obviously saying: “ I’m pretending! I have a huge secret I’m trying to hide”. For this reason, I think Dean Cain was the best Clark. However, Routh’s Clark was, unlike Reeve’s, a shy, quiet, slightly clumsy person, the kind you normally wouldn’t pay much attention to and definitely wouldn’t suspect of being Superman. As I said before, Routh played the comic book Superman almost perfectly. The one thing I didn’t see in the movie is a strong, powerful leader, which is what Superman needs to be. However, later, when I was wondering, “What the heck happened to that Routh guy?” I happened to be watching Chuck when Routh shows up. Yes, I know Shaw turned out to be a villain but in the time he was shown as a hero, Routh was able to play a strong, effective leader and mentor to Chuck. Another problem in SR corrected in a different movie: In “Superman Returns”, most of us were disappointed to not see Superman throw a single punch in the entire movie. However, in he recently released “Dylan Dog” trailer, Routh’s fight scenes are amazing( but never trust a trailer to say a movie is going to be good. Transformers: ROTF was crap even though the movie was awesome).
Now to the second point of this article. Nolan has already said that he will keep the Superman and Batman universes separate. That means, along with Bale being out as Batman, that Cavill, as awesome as will be, will most likely not returns for a “World’s Finest“ or “Justice League” movie. With Marvel releasing movies leading up to the “Avengers“, DC will have to do better than just “Green Lantern” if they want to rival them. What better way than to bring the Avengers’ rival hero team, the JLA, to the big screen? Unfortunately, it is impossible to make a successful JLA movie without Superman [“Legends of the Superheroes”(1979), “Justice League of America”(1997)], but to do that, we need to have a successful franchise leading up to it, like Marvel. But without Cavill, we need someone else who has both the look and acting skills but can also bring in a large audience. With “Smallville” ending, that might free up Tom Welling, right? Wrong. Welling has already stated that after “Smallville”, he will never play any Superman character, especially not Superman, except for Lex Luthor, if given the opportunity. I’m not making this up, if you want to research it, go ahead. But anyways, back to the point. Routh was a favorite for the role. On the Internet, there are still some people who want to get rid of Cavill in favor of him to return. Besides, Routh is a good actor(as I explained earlier) and definitely has the look. How many other good actors besides Cavill have a square jaw, piercing(hopefully blue) eyes, chiseled features and a friendly smile? Didn’t think so. Routh also has the perfect height and build, standing tall at 6’3”(the perfect height for Superman) and is muscular, but not too big to hide in an average suit and definitely not bodybuilder size. Although there are other actors who fit the description and would be great in the role, like Matthew Fox, Tahmoh Penikett and Michael Trucco, they are way too old to start a franchise. Routh, however, is only 31, and by the time a “DCU” franchise ends, wouldn’t even be forty. However, unlike his appearance around the time “Superman Returns” came out, he doesn’t look too young. He’s matured quite a lot. And if Nolan does continue his DCU, at least Routh has a chance to returns as the Man of Steel on TV, with “Smallville” ending and the “Wonder Woman” show being obvious crap, and DC needing a new TV show to compete with Marvel’s movies.
For those of you that have already made up their minds about Routh, either:
A) You(like Superguy) disliked(or hated) the casting of Routh in the first place, so therefore, this article was a complete waste of time and I apologize for it.
or:
B) You(like grif) just dislike(or hate) just about everything and therefore, I have nothing to say to you.
