Superman Returns = The New World?

A reader known only as “wngl” has posted a very interesting comment about Superman Returns at Jeffrey Overstreet’s blog:

I was reminded of The New World, actually, and the tension Pocahontas experiences between her two love interests. Like that film, Lois has chosen the man devoted to her through everything. That was a nice character touch, in a film that is otherwise almost entirely devoid of character or character development.

So, if we follow this interpretation, Superman is the Colin Farrell character — he’s romantic, naive, irresponsible, and ultimately treacherous John Smith, leaving his smitten Pocahontas for a Kryptonian northwest passage that doesn’t exist! And Cyclops is Batman — er, I mean, the James Marsden character in Superman Returns is the Christian Bale character in The New World — he’s steadfast, loyal, understanding John Rolfe! And the whole “returns” bit is like the last 20 minutes of The New World, where Smith comes back into Pocahontas’s life. Interesting …