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NOW PLAYING IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE IT'S AN i CON Clark Kent, now there was a real gent. Folks said his family were all dead. The planet crumbled, but Superman forced himself to carry on, forget Krypton and keep going. Superman never made any money for saving the world from Solomon Grundy. And sometimes I despair the world will ever see another man like him. -- from 'Superman's Song,' by the Crash Test Dummies

"Superman Returns," in the nick of time for America

Date published: 6/30/2006

By MICHAEL ZITZ

When Christopher Reeve found himself paralyzed after being thrown from a horse in Culpeper in 1995, he was helpless and hopeless in a Charlottesville hospital bed, waiting--wanting--to die, he told me in a 2003 interview.

Reeve felt isolated and alienated. Most people would have focused on their own problems, and some would have given up.

But Reeve, famous for playing Superman in the Richard Donner films of the '70s and '80s, did something truly heroic. He fought for the rest of his days--literally up until the night he died in 2004--to help other spinal cord injury victims.

It was life imitating art in the best possible way, as Reeve exemplified the ideals of the character he played. They are a combination of both self-sacrifice and being true to oneself, of courage, dedication and determination.

And the revival of the appreciation of corny but vital American ideals are what's important about "Superman Returns."

In the film, released this week, Daily Planet editor Perry White (Frank Langella) tells Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth): "Three things sell newspapers--tragedy, sex, and Superman. People are fed up with tragedy. You can't write about sex That leaves Superman."

He's right. People are indeed fed up with tragedy, and with cynicism, too. This Independence Day weekend, America desperately needs a hero.

So "Superman Returns" at a very good time.

Newcomer Brandon Routh is up to the task of playing the Clark Kent/Superman role. He has the same likable, self-effacing modesty Reeve did--and honors him by adopting some of his mannerisms.

The story resumes with the Man of Steel returning from five years of fruitless search for his doomed home planet of Krypton. He'd hoped to find others like himself. When he crash-lands back at his adopted parents' farm in Kansas, he tells his foster mother, Martha Kent (Eva Marie Saint), he's completely alone in the universe.

To make matters worse, Lois, the love his life, has given birth to a son, is engaged to the boss' nephew and has turned her back on him.

She's won a Pulitzer for penning a piece titled "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." Ouch.

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Date published: 6/30/2006