My Superman Returns review, all with the spoilers and such...

POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Monday, July 17, 2006 18:35
VIEWED: 4742
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CHRISISALL

Friday, July 7, 2006 9:41 PM

Seen it just an hour ago, and here it goes:

Okay, let me start by saying that when it comes out, I’m buying the DVD.

Now here it comes; seeing this movie makes me sure: Brian Singer is not a great director.
He’s good, and at times (X-Men) inspired, but not great. Not like Donner or Raimi.
I’m gonna focus on what I didn’t like, after I get some subjective stuff out of the way.

1) They changed the costume.
Not too radical, I just liked the old one better; it had a simple elegance to it. But this is subjective, some may like it fine, and either way, it has no effect on content.

2) Kate Bosworth.
Too young? I didn’t see it. She was fine, just different from Kidder or Hatcher…All right, she WAS too young, so what? Suspend your disbelief already!

Now, the objective negatives…

It was poorly paced.
It was too long.
It was under-written from a character point of view (Less is apparently more in the eyes of someone trying not to get it wrong).
The ‘Big Bad’ was weak, just another (albeit big) Kryptonite ploy.
The reason for Supes being away was more ambiguous than the ending to 2001.
Having Lois in a relationship with someone else was a waste of time; we KNOW she loves Superman.
Sending Supes to the hospital was a bad red-herring, we KNOW he won’t die.
Brandon Routh was not allowed to show what comedic range he seems to possess from the little we saw…

That said, I actually liked it.

The production was grand.
Art direction was excellent.
Kevin Spacey made a great Luthor.
FX were up to par.
Routh was genuinely likeable.

Back to subjective…

The film had a somber tone, one that was reflected in the music. The main theme aside, it was a curiously fanfare-free and somewhat joyless score. As epic and serious as Superman 2 got, it was filled with fun, and had many, many laughs. This is about dark as a Superman flick can get.

My beef with Singer is that he copies parts from other movies to make his films (The ‘Firestarter’ scene in X2 is the clearest example), but in this case, I liked it. It brought me back, however, movie-goers not familiar with Superman 1 and 2 might get a little lost, what with the ‘twist’ near to the end (And I even liked that).

Fans MUST see it. Fans of my caliber will have to own it.
After all, it IS better than Superman 3...

Any other takes on it?

Kal-Elisall

BSCPANTHERFAN

Friday, July 7, 2006 10:04 PM

I was also disappointed with the hospital scene. They KNOW that Superman derives his power from the Sun, so why didn't they have him in a big tanning bed-looking thing, or something to show that they were aware of that part of his physiology?

They covered a lot of background in a four-part prequel comic series, but if you didn't read them, it kind of dumped you in the middle of it. I read them after, so they wouldn't taint my viewing of the movie the first time.

Did anyone else totally hate the bimbo character that was LL's sidekick? Whatever happened to Mercy from the animated series? At least she was a believable character. This "Kitty" person belonged in a 1940's gangster movie!

So who is he?
He's my husband.
Well who in the damn galaxy ain't!

MONKSDAD

Friday, July 7, 2006 10:25 PM

My quick review:
good movie, to long, i would of liked some more character development, more talking to be quite honest. Movie would of worked better if it was smaller, movie just seemed to big and it didnt need to be. really threw me with the whole ending family situation and you know what i mean but i liked it.

I really liked the movie, i am glad it was more of a continuation than just scrapping all that was before. and Brandon Routh is the perfect superman, they could not of cast superman better

What is up with cyclops, every movie his woman is on the verge of going with the greater superhero.

"And I think calling him that is an insult to the psychotic lowlife community."

CHRISISALL

Friday, July 7, 2006 11:09 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by monksdad:
My quick review:
good movie, to long, i would of liked some more character development, more talking to be quite honest.

Joss does have me hooked on that aspect of the medium.
Except for Spacey, it was almost a silent movie, dialogue-wise.

Buster Chrisisall

CHRISISALL

Friday, July 7, 2006 11:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BSCPantherfan:
I was also disappointed with the hospital scene. They KNOW that Superman derives his power from the Sun, so why didn't they have him in a big tanning bed-looking thing, or something to show that they were aware of that part of his physiology?

To get brutally analytical, if the Supe-son was concieved when Supe was normal, why does he have powers at all? Why would Supe leave Earth with Lois pregnant, and/or how could he not know?

Best not to go there, I guess...

Otis Chrisisall

AERIN

Friday, July 7, 2006 11:56 PM

I don't know when Lois got preganant, but the more I think about it, the more it twists my mind. If the kid was conceived when Supes turned human, maybe there was something in the genes that got passed on even though the powers were repressed so Supes could be just Clark. But Lois has no memory of that time (she doesn't remember that she already figured out Clark=Superman). Imagine the shock if they only had sex while he was human. She seemed genuinely surprised, but not shocked, horrified, or pissed off, so they must have had sex at some other time and she remembers it. Hard to believe she still couldn't figure out he's Clark.

I agree about the hospital part. All I could think was OPEN THE BLINDS ALREADY!!! Even if the doctors didn't figure it out Lois should have. I thought the son would do it. That would have been a nice plot device.

Yeah, it was definitely long. I didn't mind the lack of dialog. I felt the acting said all that was needed, and the absence of conversation spoke to Superman's feelings of alienation and added to the overall serious tone of the movie. I'll buy the DVD and definitely worth another viewing! I'm hoping to go to the IMAX to see it in 3D.

Loved the "Kal-elisall"!

CHRISISALL

Saturday, July 8, 2006 12:36 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Aerin:
Imagine the shock if they only had sex while he was human. She seemed genuinely surprised, but not shocked, horrified, or pissed off, so they must have had sex at some other time and she remembers it.

Biggest hole in the new plot.
I can only imagine that he 'left' right after he replaced the White House dome...
And bringing him down to human still wouldn't change the genes he could pass on, just his everyday functional genetics...
Boy, I'm fanning this one....

2.5 years each way...he must have brought a lot of DVD's with him.

He was just a boy Chrisisall

OPPYH

Saturday, July 8, 2006 2:12 AM

Chrisisall,
I'm glad to see your review. When it comes to Supes I figure you would know all the angles. What works, what didn't, and I can seriously agree with most everything you pointed out. While I loved it, It seems you liked it fine, but the negatives may have brought you down a bit.

Here are some of my thoughts on your review:

Bryan Singer-He is definately not my favorite director, but he has my most sincere admiration for trying to retain the original storyline, score,(the vector graphic words at the beginning w/ original score had me happy) and characters. I am still counting my lucky stars we never got the Tim Burton Superman w/Nic Cage as the man of steel, and Chris Rock as jimmy Olson...yikes.

Kate Bosworth-Damn, your so right on this it's not even funny. I liked her ok, but I can think of at least 10 other actresses that would have been much better.

Brandon Routh-Very little dialouge to be sure, but I thought he was as perfect a Superman as there can be. Did you notice some of Reeves mannerisms in him? I did, and it wasn't creepy, it was cool.

The Big Bad-I thought it was a cool idea, but It was kind of a muddled half brain idea on Lex's side.

Overly long- I agree.

This movie is a trcky sort. Critcs mostly hated it, and I can't understand that. I thought it was much better than Batman begins(which critics loved to death). As far as the tone, yes it's dark but I think it needed that to show us a more somber, where did I go wrong Superman. At the end he pretty much gets back the human aspect of his character, and I seen much love in him, in fact he was practically glowing.

This movie seemed less Hollywood, and more comic book story arc, than most superhero movies. A huge positive.

Here's a question:
What's more difficult, Spinning around the world so fast you break the time barrier, or lifting 80 million tons of rock laced with Kryptonite? You make the call.

CHRISISALL

Saturday, July 8, 2006 1:59 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by OPPYH:

Here's a question:
What's more difficult, Spinning around the world so fast you break the time barrier, or lifting 80 million tons of rock laced with Kryptonite? You make the call.

Very good points OPPYH. You are obviously a serious fan, heh heh.

I'd say breaking the time barrier; it was done at a moment of high emotion, and probably couldn't even be done again.
The heavy lifting was done while not even at full-strength to begin with- that actually made it seem more impressive. At full strength, he could have tossed it quite easily.

Caped Chrisisall

CHRISISALL

Saturday, July 8, 2006 3:25 PM

OOoooo, PLUS:
The new DVD collection due out the end of the year will include a new cut of Superman 2 that will add back in the excised Donner footage! SHINY!
(I'll 'lose' the DVD with Superman 4 on it though...)

Never overcook a soufle Chrisisall

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