Superman Returns is a continuation, plotwise, of the Reeve stories. Superman, when astronomers locate the empty space that used to be Krypton, leaves Metropolis for five years to go home and see his broken world for himself.
It’s an awkward story decision. Clark Kent and Superman, gone for the same amount of time, return and no one seriously connects the dots. A throwaway joke that Clark is too nerdy to be the cool Superman doesn’t work. It’s a bandaid for a plot wound.
Routh does a fine job, even imitating Reeve’s speech patterns. He isn’t playing a Nine, though, which is very interesting to me. He’s less of a stereotypical hero and more of a guy who lost his girl. He’s heartbroken. And he has the twinkle that Spacey’s Luthor is missing. This might be our Four.
I didn’t watch the entire movie, so I could have missed some Enneagram clues. Unlike Spacey, though, Routh conveys a lot of character in the first half. Superman tells Lois that he hears all the Earth’s cries for help. It seems to pain him that he, a being who suffers with each human individual, can’t rescue everyone. This movie makes obvious references to Superman as Christ, which is another weight dragging down the story. For all the beauty of the original Superman, it’s a fairly simple story. The choice to make this Superman a continuation rather than an origin story gives the film a lot of baggage it can’t handle.
It’s a shame, because I think Routh’s Four Superman has possibilities.