Superman Returns Review (there are spoilers - be warned!) It was good. Very good. Excellent special effects, riveting battle with a falling plane, a better Clark Kent, a better Lois Lane, a better Lex Luthor, a rousing revival of the original score by John Williams. But.... I just felt with all the Christological references (he's referred to as a "savior", hovering in the heavens and listening to our "cries" from earth, the powerful voice of his father calling him to lead us to light and show us the way, arms outstretched in the form of a cross after a showdown with some kryptonite) that the ending left a little DaVinci Code aftertaste. Superman has a kid. Lois is Mary Magdalene standing at the foot of the bed in the hospital. Any thoughts here? I figure if you are going to spend so much energy building the types that point to Christ, why not go all the way. That's what I loved about the original Spiderman. There was a higher calling, worthy of the sacrifice of one's personal life for the sake of all. Thoughts? Anyone? Bueller? OK. Leaving aside the slightly twisted types, there was much that was very moving about the Man of Steel's broken heart in Superman Returns. We really got the chance to feel that forlorn, I'm-not-from-around-here, last-of-my-breed angst through Brandon Routh's performance. It was very well done. Seems our superheroes are more and more human these days, all battling that perennial ache in the soul for union and communion with another. Well that makes sense; that's what we're made for. But in the real world, it's sin ultimately that has caused the Great Divide, causing a rupture in our original communion. Sin is a turning away from God's Love, a denial of the first gift of Love. This is why we yearn for a Savior! To restore us to Communion, to the Love lost in ages past. That's why we pine for love. We remember the echo of Eden unspoiled by the selfish grasping of sin. In all fairness, Superman can't stop sin. He can only stop crime, the varied incarnations of sin. Robberies, murders, and diabolical real estate plans are only the decayed flowers of the seed of sin. Only a God-Man can save us from sin. Only Jesus can dive right into the heart of darkness, literally becoming sin on the cross to defeat it. And he did. And now that imperishable seed of his love can be planted right into the garden of our hearts through grace. It can blossom into Life if we open up the soil of our hearts to grace.