MiguelM

More than a decade ago, Bryan Singer gave us a brilliantly dark vision of crime and horror in The Usual Suspects. Since then he has done almost nothing but comic books. Granted, he does comic books better than anybody else, except maybe Sam Raimi, and Superman Returns is as good as his X-Men films and much better than Richard Donner and Richard Lester's movies from the seventies and eighties.

Singer gives us a Superman who returns after a five year absence to find that Lois Lane is engaged to Perry White's nephew, with whom she's raising a son. She may be on her way to collecting her Pulitzer Prize for her essay "Why the world doesn't need Superman," but she's still drawn to her man of steel. Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane is a reporter with a good instinct for finding the truth, who takes risks to find the heart of her story in spite of Editor Perry White's indifference. Bosworth has the good fortune to get a well-written Lois Lane (for a change), and she gives us the best Lois Lane we've ever seen. Kevin Spacey may be wasted in the campy role of Lex Luthor, whose comic-book megalomania couldn't ever be genuinely scary, but he's funny and menacing at the same time, and his dialog (unlike Gene Hackman's in the 1978 film) is written with genuine wit. As Superman, Brandon Routh has the biggest shoes to fill. While he's not quite as charismatic as Christopher Reeve, he makes the part his own.

Some of Singer's updating of the legend clashes with the source material. Superman hovers up above the city where his super hearing lets him pinpoint people in trouble. (I thought that was why he joined the Daily Planet!) But he has a good feel for how the story should flow, and he puts a refreshing twist on the cliché of the hero coming in to rescue the heroine. He also has a very good eye. From the sepia-toned interiors to the dark crystal waterfalls, his film has a satisfying comic-book grandeur. But Lex Luthor's diabolical scheme is just too silly to make a good story.

Still, I enjoyed this comic book enormously, but I'm still waiting for the return of the Bryan Singer that gave us The Usual Suspects. That film started out as a crime film, but as it took us deeper into its rich, disturbing underworld, it transformed into a horror film. Where is the man who gave us that masterpiece? He's been gone for twice as long as Superman, and, Lois Lane to the contrary, the world needs people like him.

Yes, there are some cheesy, hollywoodish moments in this movie, but the actors bring enough charisma and presence to hold the story together. Pierce Brosnan makes a convincing scientist, whose passion and desire to protect the townspeople plays off nicely with Mayor Linda Hamilton's similar concerns.

But what I most want to say is that the volcano itself was both believable and accurate. So I want to commend the filmmakers for having enough integrity to make an entertaining film within the boundaries of scientific accuracy. And face it, you don't go to a movie like Dante's Peak to see insightful drama, or peer deep into the human psyche. The people and the volcano play off each other very nicely. It's not often you get a film with both chemistry and physics.

As a big Cole Porter fan, I had high hopes for this movie, and I wasn't disappointed. It was great to see Kevin Kline get a role that he could really sink his teeth into, and gives the role all the gusto that Cole Porter deserves. We can genuinely see his love for Linda Porter slowly grow as their marriage continues. Kline plays it like a man who doesn't know if he's even capable of loving this woman, and tries (and fails), but slowly, his love for her creeps up on him when he doesn't expect it. It's easy to claim that a beautiful woman is an artist's muse, but it's much harder to show it believably. But the way Kline and Ashley Judd play off each other, (and with a fine script by Jay Cocks), I could easily believe the way she inspired him.

Cole Porter's songs are sung exceptionally well by all the singers, and I especially loved Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow (who I didn't expect to like), Alanis Morissette, Natalie Cole, and Robbie Williams. (Maybe that's why they're stars.)

Cole Porter's songs have always made me laugh, but I had no idea how much they could make me cry.

Having said all that, I don't understand why they didn't put in more dancing! Cole Porter's songs were made for dancing, and it seems a waste of an opportunity. (But I love to dance, so I'm biased.) But that's a quibble. The story worked very well, and the music was weaved beautifully into the story.