WHAT'S ENTERTAINMENT

Superman Returns; Critics Reach For Kryptonite

As the latest incarnation of Superman flew into theaters, critics mostly offered the flick a dose of the superhero’s much feared nemesis.

Since Lois Lane is no longer much of a romantic interest, due partly to the fact that, as a thoroughly modern grownup woman, she now has a kid and a fiancé, there’s even critical speculation that the man of steel may be of an uncertain sexual orientation.

For instance, the reviewer of The New York Times noted, “It's no surprise that some have speculated that Superman is gay. The speculation speaks more to our social panic than anything in the film, which, much like the overwhelming majority of American action movies produced since the 1980's, mostly involves what academics call homosocial relations. In other words, when it comes to Hollywood, boys will be boys and play with their toys, whether they're sleeping with one another or not, leaving women to weep, worry and wait to be rescued.”

This take on the comic-book hero also seems to show the influence of the great Biblical historian Mel Gibson. In one scene Superman vies with his enemies in a way that has intimations of the betrayal in Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Just to present the allegorical adumbration with deft flat-footedness, our superhero gets to hang in the air in emulation of Christ on the cross.

But then we said a while back that given the size of the budgets it takes to make a major feature film today, you have to think big and, apparently, in Hollywood that means resorting to Biblical tales and iconography as often as temptation whispers, not the time-honored “That’s entertainment!” but the more cynical “That’s box office!”

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