SQUARE, GOOD, AND SIMPLE:

The Prodigal Sun: Back from space, superhero asks us to shine our better selves—not such a bad moral for summer movies, either (Brian Miller, 6/28/06, Seattle Weekly)

Just when you've been Hulk-ed and Catwoman-ed and Fantastic Four–ed into never wanting to see another comic-book movie, Superman Returns is a pleasant, welcome surprise, eliciting the same warm feelings the people of Metropolis have for their homecoming hero. "Where have you been for these last five years?" they ask. The world has gone to hell during Superman's absence; crime and catastrophe dominate the news. (Never mind Darfur or 9/11; the Daily Planet headlines are reassuringly unreal.) And we ask—"Where have you been all summer?" It's not that we've been pining for a new man in tights, or a new and vastly expensive studio franchise, as Superman is destined to start. All the knocks against the original old DC Comics hero—he's too square, too good, too simple—turn out to be a virtue.

Careful, those are all the things the same folks dislike about middle America.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 28, 2006 3:33 PM