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TRUTH, JUSTICE AND ALL THAT STUFF: After watching England get booted from the World Cup in a match up against Portugal, Malory and I raced up to the Regal 24 cinema in Chamblee for Superman Returns. Luckily, we had bought tickets early because the joint was packed.

The film is absolutely thrilling, but dark. While director Bryan Singer took nearly all of his visual cues from Superman and Superman II, the story was depressing. Superman has been away from Earth for five years, traveling back to Krypton to see if anything is left of his homeworld. He returns to Ma Kent (the still stunning Eva Marie Saint) and tells her he's the only one left. When he goes back to Metropolis to get his job back at the Daily Planet, he finds that Lois has a five year old son (hmmm...) and is engaged to editor Perry White's nephew. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor is out of prison and planning his next land-grab scheme. Brandon Routh is brilliant (and gorgeous) as Superman/Clark Kent, Kevin Spacey is funny (and evil, instead of camp) and Parker Posey is sarcastic as Lex's girlfriend.

As I feared, the only weak performance here is Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane. Since this film is a "continuation" of Superman II, it's hard to believe that the Lois from that film (definitively played by Margot Kidder) has become this rather plain, simpering woman with no edge. Margot played her bitchy and fearless, but was also able to find those emotional notes to show her vulnerable side when it came to her love for Superman. And while everyone in the cast is too young, Bosworth looks like a teenager. She has a couple of good scenes, but I kept waiting for more. Routh channels Christopher Reeve when he's dolled up as Clark Kent, but makes the character his own when he's Superman.

Some conservatives are already up in arms about Perry White's line in the film when he asks if Superman "still stands for truth, justice and all that stuff." The classic tag line usually ends with "the American way," but that was yesterday's Superman...and yesterday's America. The so-called "American way" holds no currency anymore, not with the current administration in office. The American "way" is a farce across the globe. That the director ofthe film is an openly gay man may or may not have any bearing on the subject, but if he feels like most other gay Americans, there's been very little truth or justice in the last six years. Singer makes this Superman human and fallible -- not necessarily the world's savior. In one scene, Superman hovers over the earth listening for those in distress (it reminded me of the angels from Wings of Desire), but has to choose who needs help. He's Superman, but he can't save everyone.

It makes you wonder if there really was a Superman, would he able to stop every horrible thing, save every damsel in distress? Would he have been able to save everyone on Sept. 11? Probably not. Superman is so conflicted about his place in the world and his love for Lois, that it makes him more human and vulnerable and not quite as, well, "super." There's a heartbreaking scene near the end of the film when Superman is near death in a hospital and Ma Kent is forced to wait outside with the throngs rather than be by her adopted son's side. The look on her face is so devastating, and you know Singer was making a commentary about all the gays and lesbians who have been blocked by family or the law when a loved one is in the hospital. Something that would change if gay marriages or civil partnerships were recognized.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Superman Returns feels like a subtle political statement...one that I embrace. The Superman that I idealized as a child has grown up. He's confused, uncertain, but still a good man. He's still a hero, but he's human at last. I was a bit melancholy after seeing the film...a combination of remembering what those 70s film meant to me and how far this country has drifted from "truth, justice and the American way."