Superman Returns

Kate Bosworth and Brandon Routh in 'Superman Returns'.

Herald rating: * * * *

The real mystery of this year's Superman model isn't whether he's gay. Or whether he's still American (Daily Planet editor Perry White demands his staff find if the Man of Steel still stands for truth and justice but "the American way" goes by the wayside).

Nor is it: Why does tall handsome Clark Kent still work at a newspaper? Considering how photogenic he is and how much a print media day-job would get in the way of superduties, he'd be better off in television.

No, the puzzle in this often brilliant and unusually beautiful movie is why Superman in 2006 doesn't feel like an anachronism.

He should. After all, he's been around since 1938. He's still essentially the same guy. He might suffer from romantic self-doubts as far as Lois Lane goes, but he doesn't seem to have developed psychological tics about his true calling, unlike his fellow superheroes, whether they be Batman, Spider-Man or Mr Incredible.

While frequently showing just how much special effects have improved since the big S was last seen on the big screen, this movie harks back to a past in more ways than one. It takes off where 1978's Superman and 1981's Superman II - the first two of four Christopher Reeve flicks, the last two of which are best forgotten - left off, with Superman returning to Earth after a five-year absence. He's been searching for survivors from the destruction of his home planet of Krypton.

He's back in a world that both evokes mid-20th century style in its design. But it also has Superman hovering in the stratosphere picking up distress calls off satellites and - what canny timing - coming to the rescue during a space-shuttle launch which has him lowering a stricken airliner into the middle of a crowded baseball stadium. And there are more set-pieces of equal dazzle-factor.

But the great thing about Superman Returns is how it takes the legend and rather than deconstructing it - a fate suffered by poor Batman over the years - has elevated it back into something mythical. Or biblical - it's hard not to miss the religious imagery in some of the shots or in lines like: "You wrote that the world doesn't need a saviour, but every day I hear people crying for one"

That's Superman talking to Lois, who in his long absence penned a prizewinning column titled "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman".

Bosworth's bland Lane is one of the movie's weak links. Also weak is a plot involving Lex Luthor and his evil planet-transforming real-estate plan which isn't that much different to his evil planet-transforming real-estate plan of the first Superflick. But Spacey is great fun as the villain, even if Parker Posey as his sidekick Kitty Kowalski seems to belong more to one of those camp Batman movies.

Director Singer (who made fine work of the first two X-Men) takes his own good time to build to the grand finale, too.

But none of that really trips up Superman Returns.

First, because it does those big spectacular action things so well that you're instantly transformed back into the wide-eyed 12-year-old who thought Christopher Reeve flying in front of a blue screen was the coolest thing ever.

Second, because as the Man of Steel, Brandon Routh is terrific.

He may start out looking like someone has cloned Reeve, only blander.

But you soon see something going on in - and behind - those big blue eyes (whether they have Clark's glasses on or not) that makes him a Superman to believe in. And a modern myth to treasure once more.

Cast: Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Parker Posey
Director: Bryan Singer
Rating: M (low-level violence)
Running time: 158 mins
Screening: Village, Hoyts, Berkeley

Verdict: Superman is reborn in a film that, while predictable in storyline, gives the myth of the Man of Steel a polish that positively beams