Superman could be too old-fashioned for a remake, said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. Back in 1978, when Christopher Reeve first donned the cape, ads coaxed audiences with the tag line, 'œYou'll believe a man can fly.' More than a quarter-century later, 'œit's hard to find a man in the movies who doesn't fly.' Such comic-book superheroes as Batman and Spiderman have gone 21st century with eye-popping special effects, deep-seated issues, and winks and nudges at their jaded audiences. So as we re-enter Metropolis five years after Superman has left, Lois Lane's essay on 'œWhy the World Doesn't Need Superman' seems to say it all. Isn't the Superman we loved in the '70s just a little too simple for us now?
Director Bryan Singer 'œmakes a solid case for the buffed slice of white bread in blue tights,' said Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. Brilliantly, and perhaps surprisingly, Singer hasn't rejected the Richard Donner movies. He could have made Reeve's sincere Superman a joke by sneering at the old franchise. Instead, he honors it—newcomer Brandon Routh is the spitting image of Reeve in 1978, and he plays his dual roles of Superman and Clark Kent with many of Reeve's lovably goofy mannerisms.
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