The only thing super about the special effects-weighted SUPERMAN RETURNS is the "reunion" of Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint. The two had co-starred in ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) in which the only special effect was the use of blinds to cover the rear window of the car they were “riding" in to conceal that they were actually sitting still on a sound stage for the eternally famous "I coulda been a contender" scene. Of course, with crisply drawn characters like Terry Malloy and Edie Doyle; acting giants like Brando, Saint, Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb; and writing and direction without equal by Budd Schulberg and Elia Kazan, respectively, who needs special effects! (Trivia notes about the new Supe movie: The old woman in one of the opening scenes is 86-year old Noel Neill, and the bartender serving Clark and Jimmy is 73-year old Jack Larson. They were Lois and Jimmy , respectively, in the '50s TV series, and for my generation, the only Lois and Jimmy.)
Brando and Saint (Kryptonian dad and Earth stepmom, respectively) never meet in this new movie - his brief cameo is but a hologram resurrected from film footage in SUPERMAN (1978). But just the idea of their appearing in the same film almost 50 years after their first is enough to get old-geezer movie lovers like me and my friend Joel Block to stand in the ticket line with a mob of cellphone-addicted teens who never heard of either wonderful actor.
