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Technically any good? FX ranged from "eh" to AMAZING. You will believe a man can not only fly by save lives in all sorts of fun ways. Script got an amazing number of things right and the tone of the first half of the film was great. Acting was spot on by Routh and Marsden is given more to do in this movie than the last three X-Men films put together. Sadly, Kate Bosworth was the Halle Berry of the film--pretty badly miscast. She's too young for the part in every sense of the word. Still this is a wonderful crowd pleaser and not a film that will fully disappoint anyone (aside me--but I'll get into that in a later post). Oh and the music was very nicely done--a wonderful mix of new stuff and the classic John Williams theme that we all know and love.
How did it leave me feeling? It left me disappointed, but odds are it'll leave you feeling like you finally spent ten bucks that was worth it. Go see this movie now!!!
Final Rating? GSN
Hey, look! There's us in the theater:
Click over to [http://thepete.com/superman-returns-2006/2/|page 2] to read a spoilerific explanation for why I didn't like this movie in the end. Don't click through unless you don't mind having the film ruined for you.
The reasons I didn't like the film:
1) Superman is a dad.
2) Superman is a dad.
3) There is no narrative reason for Superman to have a son, yet he has one.
3a) In nearly 70 years of Superman stories, they've never made Superman being a dad a permanent part of the mythos. Luckily, I'll just ignore this movie, like I did The Adventures of Lois and Clark and Smallville.
4) The second half of the film (which begins right as we find out Superman's a dad) was the bad kind of predictable. I stopped caring about anyone or anything. Everything stopped being clever or interesting or surprising. The first half was sharp, fun, entertaining and predictable in a good way. In the second half we discover that Lex's plan strands him on a giant, technolgy-free rock which makes you wonder what's so great about Kryptonian technology, anyway.
5) Did I mention Superman's a dad?
6) Did I mention he flies away at the end? Mentioning nothing about being a good dad to his son?
7) Did I mention that the reason for Superman leaving Earth only to return at the beginning of the film is never explored beyond a single line of dialogue?
8) Did I mention that Lex Luthor, while brilliantly played was horribly underwritten?
9) Did I mention that I am a HUGE fan of Superman and count him as one of my role models (even at my age)?
10) Did I mention that Superman, uses his powers to spy on Lois, and he drinks a beer.
Superman doesn't drink, doesn't smoke and never lies. Well, according to this movie that desperately wanted to be a sequel to the original 1978 Superman movie, he does drink and does lie, in that he does things with the intent to decieve--i.e., he should have just knocked on the door and asked to come in to Lois' house instead of using his X-Ray vision to peep on her and her family with the subtlety of Donald Rumsfeld and AT&T.
No, it's OK that Superman spies, we can trust him!
Oh yeah? The dude was so irresponsible, he gets this chick pregnant and takes off from the planet before she can tell him she's pregnant with his child. He's gone for five years and when he comes back and soon discovers he's a dad, does he pledge to the son and to the mother to be a good dad? NOPE. He just nods at Lois and flies off.
VERY RESPONSIBLE.
Where's Batman when you need him?
Yeah, like Lois Lane would carry a baby to term! Can you picture her pregnant trying to get the big scoop? I can't. She'd get an abortion. Of course, if it was Superman's baby, they might not have been able to give her an abortion--then again, wouldn't the baby kick inside Lois' womb like in that alternative future storyline they did in Superman comics back in the late 80s/early 90s? In that comic, the baby kicked and killed Lois. THAT was awesome storytelling.
Well, it was still better than Supermans 3 & 4 and pretty much on par with Superman 2, in my mind, if not just a pinch better because of the less-cheese-factor.
Still, it was painful for a hardcore Superman purist like me to sit through. Well, the second half, anyway.
"In that comic, the baby kicked and killed Lois. THAT was awesome storytelling."
ReplyDeleteARE YOU SERIOUS? That's fantastic.
Yeah, I'm not kidding--it made Superman feel even more alien on Earth and inspired him to leave the Earth again--this time, for good. He decided to find a woman whose biology could keep up with his. See, because in that comic, they actually talked about how he wanted to be a dad, unlike this film.
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