Superman Returns Editor Looks Back at Some of the Film’s Biggest Problems

Superman Returns definitely has its fans—including Quentin Tarantino—but it was a “one and done” DC movie for director Bryan Singer and his version of Clark Kent, Brandon Routh. Though there’s been much discussion over the years about both Singer and Routh’s co-star, Kevin Spacey, Superman Returns was released at a different time in a different cultural landscape, yet it still didn’t meet the studio’s expectations at the box office back in 2006.

Editor John Ottman, who worked on many of Singer’s films until he stopped making them midway through 2018’s award-winning Bohemian Rhapsody, has been looking back at the main issues with Superman Returns in conversation with Half the Picture and says that one of the movie’s problems was actually its deep respect for Richard Donner’s original movie.

“I think one of the problems with Superman Returns is that we were so trying to be so reverential to the ’78 version,” he mused. “It was crippled to go in a new direction. At the same time, I like the fact that it stayed true to the feeling that Superman should have. He should be a very positive, good force.”

Ottman went on to hint that Superman Returns’ “positive, good force” contrasted with Zack Snyder’s take on the character, which began in 2013. “When those dark ones came later, I was like, ‘What is this garbage?’ you know? So, not that ours was great; it’s like ours was very flawed as well. It was a beautiful film. I think it was beautifully done. I just think the plot by Lex Luthor was derivative of before.”

According to Ottman, other perceived problems in the movie were Parker Posey’s Kitty Kowalski, one of Lex Luthor’s henchwomen, who Ottman says “had nothing to do”, and Kate Bosworth’s Lois Lane, who was “fantastic” but “miscast”.

“Not that everyone has to be Margot Kidder [but] she needed to be more endearing,” Ottman explained. “We need to laugh with her at least once or something, and she was so ‘hard-hitting reporter with a Pulitzer’ at like, what, 12? You know, I just didn’t buy it.”

The editor, who also worked on this year’s box-office hit Michael, also discussed the irony of Bosworth’s miscasting after initial concerns focused on Routh’s performance as Superman.

“The funny thing is we were so concerned about [whether] Brandon pulled it off, [but] the whole time it was really her character that was the problem, I think,” Ottman told the podcast. “Not that she was bad, she was excellent in the film and she’s a really good actress, it’s just I felt she was miscast or she was miswritten or something. It wasn’t her fault. So all along it really wasn’t Brandon that shouldn’t have been the worry of ours, it was that role, I think. I think they would have had a more fun relationship, had she been a little more endearing in a way.”

Ottman also thinks Superman Returns’ long title sequence “bogged it down” and that the movie should have got its plot going faster.

Are you a Superman Returns defender? Is it better than Snyder’s movies? Do you think Routh should have continued on in the role? As always, let us know in the comments.

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