It's hard to say what the best thing about Superman Returns was. Was it the fact that it was so obviously shot largely in Sydney? Was it the theme music? Was it that Kevin Spacey plays an awesome bad guy?
Whatever it was about Superman Returns, the film is a winner.
Set five years after Superman II (thus ignoring the third and fourth Christopher Reeve films), Superman returns to Earth after searching for the remains of his home planet. In the meantime Lois Lane has had a child and is engaged to Richard, nephew of Perry White, the Daily Planet editor. She has also written an article called `Why The World Doesn't Need Superman'.
It was an inspired piece of casting with Brandon Routh as Superman/Clark Kent because, not only does he look like Christopher Reeve (which I think is the ultimate compliment to Reeve) he pulls off the goofy Clark Kent of the earlier films. In the early stages of the film Routh does look a shade plastic but as it goes on that's not so noticable. Perhaps it's just getting used to the new guy. Spacey is terrific as Lex Luthor. If I have a criticism it's similar to Mission Impossible 3's villan played by Philip Seymour Hoffman: he didn't get enough screen time, particularly in confrontation with Superman. But that's minor.
Clearly, what Bryan Singer brought to the movie was heart and a decent story, which is exactly what was missing from X-Men 3, from which he jumped ship to make Superman.
I'll comment briefly on an article I read during the week suggesting Superman was portrayed as gay. What a load of bollocks!
Early in it's development I was convinced Superman Returns couldn't be any good. Maybe I was blinded by the original movies. But it proved that, in the right hands, a superhero movie can be more than just special effects (though there were a lot naturally). I also thought at 154 minutes it would be too long but it didn't feel that way. And I got caught up in John Williams' original theme, it just makes you feel good.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and am happy to give an 8/10, or four stars for those who use that rating system.
4 comments:
Sounds like we agree for the most part.
And man, Richard was his nephew, not his son, wasn't he? I got that part wrong in my review I think.
Anyway, nice take on it. That score did set you back didn't it. Complete nostalgia there!
Just got back from seeing it with my ladz, and I enjoyed it as well. You can see the Brian Singer touch, and I very much wish he had done X3!
Kevin Spacey was terrific - he had big shoes to fill.
I was amazed at how much Christian symbolism there was in the movie. Heaps. Superman is definitely portrayed as a Christ figure. And then there is that exchange at the end "he son becomes the father. And the father, the son"
Rather trinitarian...
I'm not surprised you enjoyed it Craig after I liked it so much. And yes there will be a lot of talk about the Christian symbolism.
Nice review and article on Superman!!! Thanks for visiting my site.
Post a Comment