Superman Returns... meh
SUPERMAN RETURNS
Wow.
That's all I can say about this movie.
Wow, what a frickin letdown.
They HAD a budget this time and they STILL managed to screw up Superman.
I guess I should start at the beginning, huh? Ok.
Superman Returns is the first supes movie in almost 2 decades. That's right, we got a new STAR WARS movie before we got a new Superman movie. Why? Lots of reasons. The perceived death of super-hero movies in the 90's, which was a little odd given how comics BOOMED again at the same time but not if you realized it was causing EVERYONE to put out comic movies, to hell with quality. Sure we had numerous starts and stops to make a Superman movie (Tim Burton, J.J.Abrams or however he spells it, and later Brett Ratner and others but not until after the next sentence). But then comic movies started to do well again. Blade made money. Matrix did well. X-Men. Spider-Man. Fantastic Four, Daredevil and Hulk even did ok enough to warrant sequels and spin-offs. But until Batman Begins, DC comics was being left in the dust. None of the REALLY big super-heroes were getting movies. Most notably amongst these was Superman... THE super-hero!
But not for long.
The suits at Warner Brothers managed to woo Bryan Singer away from X3 and he jumped at the chance. Anyone who saw X2 knows his love for the original Superman the Movie (and for Star Trek 2 and Empire but that's another story).
He jumped in and brought his X writing team with him and they set out to make a sequel, of sorts, to the first two Superman movies, ignoring parts 3 and 4. I don't have a problem with that. Even at the TIME, people wanted to ignore those movies. Now there is nothing inherently wrong with this. Sure, you're making a sequel to movies the current generation hasn't really seen and replacing EVERYONE with actors who have a slightly different take on the roles AND trying to tell a story that flies in the face of ALL ESTABLISHED CHARACTERIZATION FOR SUPERMAN.
I'll get back to that last part later.
The different actor thing isn't a big deal and neither is their different takes. It's a bit unnerving when they basically lift dialogue STRAIGHT out of Superman 1. They also reference events from both films, especially 2, and supposedly use that to get the plot moving. Luthor doesn't need to really SEARCH for Superman's fortress of solitude since he found it in part 2. He knows what kryptonite looks like from part 1. Luthor knows Lois from part 2 and also knows she was at the fortress, too. And, of course, it's teh same Krypton shown and the same fortress and the same crystals and they even have Marlon Brando as Jor-El.. Nothing wrong with that. It's nice to comment on continuity in that way.
But it was TOO MUCH like the other two films. I think they used the John Williams theme more than the first movie!! They reuse direct lines of dialogue to the point where my friend, Jon, may be right in calling it a remake instead of a sequel. But THEY called it a sequel!!
The acting and direction was fine... the effects were decent (that means GREAT in some spots and crap in others)... the plot was weak. Nothing about it was as good as it should have been. Brandon Routh did a decent job as Superman and Clark Kent but the costume still sucks ass. Kate Bosworth did ok as the love interest but it wasn't LOIS LANE. KEvin Spacey seemed like he was just playing around as Luthor and didn't really care about the character much. I liked who they had as Perry White and Jimmy Olsen and was glad Singer finally realized that Marsden can ACT. He actually has more screen time in THI Smovie as Lois' new boyfriend/babydaddy than he did as Cyclops in TWO X films! But it's still not enough. It just leaves you looking at your watch hoping it ends soon. Like watching King Kong.
I would explain what plot points I had issues with but I don't want to do that and ruin the movie. Go see it... if you hae ANY interest in seeing it, see it on the big screen. If only so you can see how bad the digi-Supes is. Better than Matrix but still obvious.
It made me want to watch the first one again.
In fact, I think I'll do just that.
Wow.
That's all I can say about this movie.
Wow, what a frickin letdown.
They HAD a budget this time and they STILL managed to screw up Superman.
I guess I should start at the beginning, huh? Ok.
Superman Returns is the first supes movie in almost 2 decades. That's right, we got a new STAR WARS movie before we got a new Superman movie. Why? Lots of reasons. The perceived death of super-hero movies in the 90's, which was a little odd given how comics BOOMED again at the same time but not if you realized it was causing EVERYONE to put out comic movies, to hell with quality. Sure we had numerous starts and stops to make a Superman movie (Tim Burton, J.J.Abrams or however he spells it, and later Brett Ratner and others but not until after the next sentence). But then comic movies started to do well again. Blade made money. Matrix did well. X-Men. Spider-Man. Fantastic Four, Daredevil and Hulk even did ok enough to warrant sequels and spin-offs. But until Batman Begins, DC comics was being left in the dust. None of the REALLY big super-heroes were getting movies. Most notably amongst these was Superman... THE super-hero!
But not for long.
The suits at Warner Brothers managed to woo Bryan Singer away from X3 and he jumped at the chance. Anyone who saw X2 knows his love for the original Superman the Movie (and for Star Trek 2 and Empire but that's another story).
He jumped in and brought his X writing team with him and they set out to make a sequel, of sorts, to the first two Superman movies, ignoring parts 3 and 4. I don't have a problem with that. Even at the TIME, people wanted to ignore those movies. Now there is nothing inherently wrong with this. Sure, you're making a sequel to movies the current generation hasn't really seen and replacing EVERYONE with actors who have a slightly different take on the roles AND trying to tell a story that flies in the face of ALL ESTABLISHED CHARACTERIZATION FOR SUPERMAN.
I'll get back to that last part later.
The different actor thing isn't a big deal and neither is their different takes. It's a bit unnerving when they basically lift dialogue STRAIGHT out of Superman 1. They also reference events from both films, especially 2, and supposedly use that to get the plot moving. Luthor doesn't need to really SEARCH for Superman's fortress of solitude since he found it in part 2. He knows what kryptonite looks like from part 1. Luthor knows Lois from part 2 and also knows she was at the fortress, too. And, of course, it's teh same Krypton shown and the same fortress and the same crystals and they even have Marlon Brando as Jor-El.. Nothing wrong with that. It's nice to comment on continuity in that way.
But it was TOO MUCH like the other two films. I think they used the John Williams theme more than the first movie!! They reuse direct lines of dialogue to the point where my friend, Jon, may be right in calling it a remake instead of a sequel. But THEY called it a sequel!!
The acting and direction was fine... the effects were decent (that means GREAT in some spots and crap in others)... the plot was weak. Nothing about it was as good as it should have been. Brandon Routh did a decent job as Superman and Clark Kent but the costume still sucks ass. Kate Bosworth did ok as the love interest but it wasn't LOIS LANE. KEvin Spacey seemed like he was just playing around as Luthor and didn't really care about the character much. I liked who they had as Perry White and Jimmy Olsen and was glad Singer finally realized that Marsden can ACT. He actually has more screen time in THI Smovie as Lois' new boyfriend/babydaddy than he did as Cyclops in TWO X films! But it's still not enough. It just leaves you looking at your watch hoping it ends soon. Like watching King Kong.
I would explain what plot points I had issues with but I don't want to do that and ruin the movie. Go see it... if you hae ANY interest in seeing it, see it on the big screen. If only so you can see how bad the digi-Supes is. Better than Matrix but still obvious.
It made me want to watch the first one again.
In fact, I think I'll do just that.
posted by wmjwatson at 10:20 AM
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