Expecting an intellectual review of the movie? Hop to the next blog, please, as I’m not about to give you one. I might just rave about Brandon Routh in a very senseless way here. Well, if Lois Lane can get a Pulitzer Prize for writing a piece entitled “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman”, I can get away with writing anything Superman-related, for he IS, as The Daily Planet’s editor Perry White puts it, “the news” these days.
I entered the movie house thinking that this Superman had some pretty high standards to live up to. After all, the first Hollywood movie I saw on the big screen was “Superman II”, way back when. And I loved it, as I’ve always wished I could fly, and this guy Superman, I saw that he could take you places up, up and away. Kal-el/Clark Kent/Christopher Reeve also starred in “Somewhere in Time”, one of my favorite movies as a child.
The other Superman sequels didn’t quite make the same impact on me. I borrowed some of the DC comic books but soon grew tired of all the twists in the hero from Smallville’s storyline that the writers loved to concoct.
Still, it was high time for Superman to return. Christopher Reeve died leaving his fans sad and awakened to the fact that he was not a superhero, after all. He was a very good man and he and his wife touched many lives. But he left a hole for another hero in our lives.
Bryan Singer did so well in his X-Men films that I was looking forward to what he was going to do with the all-American hero. What he directed was a story that slowly unfolded, taking into account the vast Superman knowledge of his audience and sharing with them discoveries about the superhero's past, present and future. We wondered if a hospital could help him, and we were not surprised. We wondered if he loved Lois Lane, yet we knew all along.
I’m thankful that while they were touring the city one night, Lois didn’t break into song anymore. She didn’t ask if Superman could read her mind, because frankly that wasn’t one of his powers anyway, and the moment just was better without that cheesy love song playing in the background. I agree, sure, that anyone would like to be “the friend” that Superman “would fly to”, but wordless music captured it better.
Lois reminded me of Mr. Kenya. The latter is a character concocted by the members of Lingkod Los Baños, who referred to himself as a man “who belonged to a country that could never be mine”. Hindi iyo, hindi akin, Kenya. (“Not yours, not mine, his". Or hers. No direct translation for a joke!)
Going back to Ms. Lane, well I really pity the girl with the silken curls and the successful career (where did she get the time to get a pedicure amidst all that action being supermom, supergirlfriend, superjournalist? It's a fantasy movie, all right). She’s in love with a man who could never be hers. The real "greatest American hero" is not yours, Lois, not mine, but theirs (the world’s).
Lois needed Superman, that’s why she wrote passionately about why the world didn’t. She tried to convince herself. She got the award, but in tears, because she lied. And when Superman returned, she couldn’t take back the words that had already been said. Good thing that though the kryptonite-allergic guy in the blue-and-red suit could not read minds, he could read between the lines. Lois could write many more lines, but still the truth would come out.
It was reported that Superman was in Manila. Where was I at that time??? Whom did he rescue? Ok, I lied too. I don’t find it that cheesy. In fact, I know the song a bit well. So sing it with me. I know you like it too.
I end on this note, fading away now and will go to sleep dreaming of a superhero named… Brandon Routh. (Sisters who watched all agreed with me, he’s a cutie.)
Can You Read My Mind
Maureen McGovern
Lyrics - Music: Leslie Bricusse and John Williams
Can you read my mind?
Do you know what it is you do to me?
Don't know who you are
Just a friend from another star
Here I am like a kid at a school
Holding hands with a god, I'm a fool
Will you look at me quivering
Like a little girl shivering?
You can see right through me
Can you read my mind?
Can you picture the things I'm thinking of?
Wondering why you are
All the wonderful things you are
You can fly, you belong to the sky
You and I could belong to each other
If you need a friend,I'm the one to fly to
If you need to be loved, (to be loved)
Here I am, read my mind!
INSTRUMENTAL
BRIDGE
Will you look at me quivering
Like a little girl shivering?
You can see right through me
If you need a friend,I'm the one to fly to (big finish now..)
If you need to be loved,
Here I am, read my mind!
Read my mind!
Good night, folks. One has to be asleep in order to be able to wake up properly.
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