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Ubu Superman
Keeping an invulnerable hero from getting too boring
(Page 2 of 2)
Hollywood has been afraid to make a full-fledged Superman comedy. The closest it came was Superman III, more widely known as "the one with Richard Pryor in it," which also recycled the idea of splitting the hero into an evil Superman and a good Clark Kent. If I had the courage of my convictions, I would defend this as the best of the series, but as far as I can remember they forgot to include any good jokes.
If those are the four ways to make Superman interesting, the new picture hits all the bases. It doesn't retell the hero's entire origin, but it has flashbacks to his early days. Kevin Spacey has fun hamming it up as Lex Luthor. Superman literally goes back to Krypton, and an enormous slice of Krypton finds a home on Earth as well. And there's no shortage of self-referential jokes. All that's missing is the out-of-control absurdity, the imps and super-pets and Red Kryptonite. Instead we get action set pieces and a lot of Christ symbolism, some of it by way of Mel Gibson and some of it by way of Dan Brown.
It's an entertaining movie. It certainly isn't boring. But don't expect me to get excited until Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bizarro get their names on the marquee.
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