Superman Returns

Superman Returns (2006)

***
USA

Bryan Singer's attempt to do for the Superman franchise what Christopher Nolan did for the Batman one. It isn't as joyless as Nolan's picture - Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey camp it up with terrific zeal as Lex Luthor and his sidekick - but neither is it as compelling.

Brandon Routh brings a non-presence to the title role that works for Clark Kent (since it's unusually easy to believe that nobody would pick him for a superhero) but sucks the air out of the icon. Kate Bosworth brings a cheerleader's conviction and an odd dye-job to Lois Lane. She's meant to be a Pulitzer-prize-winner in this one.

SUPERMAN RETURNS (2006)

BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: He's back. A hero for our millenium. And not a moment too soon, because during the five years (much longer in movie-fan years!) Superman sought his home planet, things changed on his adopted planet. Nations moved on without him. Lois Lane now has a son, fiance and a Pulitzer for "Why the World doesn't need Superman". And Lex Luthor has a plan that will destroy millions - no, billions - of lives. Filmmaker Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2) gives the world the Superman it needs, honoring the legend everyone loves while taking it in a powerful new direction. Brandon Routh proves a perfect choice to wear the hero's cape, leading a top cost that includes Kate Bosworth as Lois and Kevin Spacey as Lex. And the thrills - from a sky-grapple with a tumbling jumbo jet to a continent-convulsing showdown - redefine Wow. "I'm always around," Superman tells Lois. You'll be glad he is.

FILM REVIEW: I grew up with the Christopher Reeve Superman films. Knowing we had an all new cast and filmmakers driving the ship this time around, I was a little anxious, but quietly optimistic that this film would deliver. On many levels it does, but on some it doesn't. It's an entertaining, well produced superhero film to be sure, but I came away feeling there should have been more to it. "Superman Returns" is really just that; a way to bring the character back to the screen that detaches itself from the Christopher Reeve years, while still doing honor to it, and simultaneously introducing the character to a new audience. Apart from that, the film doesn't really have a strong challenge for Superman to take on, apart from getting back in to the groove on Earth.
Don't let that description turn you off. Bryan Singer and his team have done quite a good job in bringing the character back to life after the abysmal "Superman IV: A Quest For Peace" all but destroyed the character on the silver screen. Brandon Routh comfortably steps in to Christopher Reeve's shoes; they're big shoes to be sure but he does it with confidence and style. The only criticism is that he doesn't speak as much as what Reeve did in the previous films. For some reason, Singer and his editor decided to keep cutting away from Routh whenever he has something to say. The net effect is a Superman who just seems to glare and look tough. That's a shame because those few moments he does have are quite strong; why they chose to edit the film this way is beyond me but hopefully they'll get it right the next time around.
Kate Bosworth as Lois doesn't really make much of an impact, not in the same that Margot Kidder did in the original films. She doesn't really have the same chemistry with Superman, but the way the film was made, it didn't really matter too much. The introduction of their son is an interesting angle and you have to wonder how that will play out in future films. Given also that Lois is now in another relationship, this conveniently keeps them apart again. Most good superhero tales never allow the hero to get it on with his love interest for too long. After all, his first priority is being the hero!
Kevin Spacey does well as Lex, bringing more vicious and ruthless elements to the character than what Gene Hackman did. He must have studied Hackman's performance as there are a number of gestures and references to the previous performance of Lex Luthor carried out in his performance. Lex's master plan in this film is grandiose but not altogether interesting; you wished it had a bit more guts to it. But there's one scene where he gets to stab Superman with a jagged piece of kyrptonite which is quite powerful and nasty. You know it's a different take on the character when you see this, and in many ways, it's welcome. The bad guys have to be bad.
Singer has smartly retained John Williams' signature music for the film; you can't imagine a Superman film without it quite frankly. John Ottman does the adapting of the music (and scoring of new music) and he does a very good job, better than the previous Superman sequels (but not the original of course). It was exciting to hear it again for a new film.
And it's great to see Superman finally doing some really 'super' things this time around. With the advances of digital and filming technology, you can pretty much film anything and this time we get some stunning results. The stand out scene is where Superman saves a plane full of people (with Lois on board) from crashing in to a baseball stadium full of people, literally catching it out of the air and guiding it safely to the ground. It's a big, noisy, thrilling scene that just wasn't possible when the original Superman films were made.
Overall, this film is very entertaining, but it's storyline is a little weak. Let's hope they do better with the inevitable sequel.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The film has been given an excellent transfer, but given the film was shot digitally, you would have expected a perfect transfer but sadly this isn't the case. The picture looks fabulous, but is a little soft, and in some cases has some artefact but I'm really just nit-picking. It looks great but probably should've been better. The audio will give your surround sound system a workout; just crank it up on the "Superman catches the plane out of the sky" scene and you'll know what I'm talking. Overall, an extremely well produced DVD.

EXTRAS REVIEW: We are treated to a multi-part, 3 hour documentary on the making of the film that pretty much covers everything. Well done. The doco is very informative and chronicles the rocky journey Superman had to take to get back on to the silver screen. There are also some deleted scenes, an interesting featurette on how Marlon Brando was re-integrated in to the film, as well as numerous subtitles in various languages. A perfect complement to the film which will please the fans of Superman.

BOTTOM LINE: Worth having in the collection.

FILM RATING: 7.5/10 -- EXTRAS RATING: 8.5/10 -- OVERALL DVD RATING: 7.5/10 

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Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

Superman Returns

The Gist

This movie is actually a continuance from Superman IV. After five years of disappearance from Earth, Superman returns from his home planet Krypton. Things have changed a bit in that period when he’s gone. For starters, people have started using cell phones and there’s this thing called the Internet. Not bad for five years. Sorry, what really significantly changed was that his love of his life, Lois Lane has moved on. This movie sees the first inter-comic crossover where (spoilers ahead for another movie!) Cyclops from X-Men 3 was killed off by Jean Grey and he comes over to Metropolis to snatch away Superman’s earthly darling. What the? Yeah, now he doesn’t need that Oakley specs to see anymore and Jean Grey has expressed preference over Wolverine. So he goes to another comic company and does the unthinkable with their anchor hero. Oh and there’s this baldy called Lex Luthor who again tries to dominate the entire universe and still hate Superman. Will he succeed? Will Superman save the world? Does Lois Lane prefer Cyclops? Is the S on Superman bigger or smaller in this movie? You will have to watch to find out. Or you can send me an e-mail and I’ll tell you everything.



“Why The World Doesn’t Need Another Superman Movie”
by Joseph K.


Back in the 70’s, Superman was THE comic book hero. Thus a movie about him was something that would be something to justify an unnecessary long queue at the theatres. It’s all about the timing. Fast forward to 2006. Is Superman THAT important anymore? It’s a subjective matter, I agree. In my humble opinion his comeback is as important as Paul McCartney coming out to sing “Yesterday” live, with an electric guitar, on stage. Will you buy tickets to go see him?


After going through like, 261 directors, Bryan Singer was eventually selected for a job. He ditched the earlier scripts and rewrote his own story to continue where Superman IV left off. He even brought his writing team and Cyclops from X-Men 3 to make this film. Everybody thought that since this guy could make a brilliant movie out of X-Men, he should be acing in this Superman outing. I guess that’s one of the main problems that made me dislike this movie quite a bit – I had quite high expectations.


Singer is good with multi-characters focused movie. Think The Usual Suspects and X-Men 1 and 2. Notice the difference in Superman Returns: it features a single character. There is no onscreen team coordination to work around with, which turns down the brilliance level in direction. I felt it wasn’t entirely necessary to preserve continuity from the previous Superman movie. Like Batman Begins, Singer could have done a brand new retelling of the classic hero’s story. After all, it has been 19 years since we last saw the guy in red cape on screen.


Singer admitted that he was more of a Superman fan than an X-Men fan. That doesn’t mean that he should bring so much of the retro elements onto this film! What am I talking about? Take the opening credits, they appear fading onto the screen like some earlier Star Wars movies. Brandon Routh has this very uncanny resemblance to Christopher Reeve. John William’s original Superman theme was used again. Marlon Brando’s footage was used as Jor-El, Superman’s father. Before I saw the movie, that concept sounded like somewhat a genius idea. The execution, however, proved to me that it was sort of a letdown. The last time I checked, it was 2006. Get on with the times! Want to make it a classic? Make everything your own! Yes, the generation who watched and loved the earlier Superman movies would be able to connect with those elements. The target area is much broader now. Seems to me that Singer was a fanboy making a fanboy movie for all the other fanboys out there.


Story wise, it had a very good pacing that kept me from dozing off. The content is too general and formulaic. Bad guy wants to destroy the world. Good guy saves the world. Bad guy finds a way to get rid of the good guy. Good guy appears defeated for a while but later finds a way to defeat the bad guy. I feel that the studio execs were pushing hard for a summer sure feel good blockbuster and that’s why Singer couldn’t do his own thing and thus this end product was delivered. Almost everything was ‘safely’ done in this movie. There was a pleasant surprise that is revealed by Lois Lane’s family towards the end of the movie. Good one there. Still, I wished that it could have been developed further.


The trailers for this movie really spoiled the eye candy fun for me. If you haven’t seen Superman Returns and would like to watch it, I urge you not to go anywhere near the trailers.


Brandon Routh was cast because he looks like Christopher Reeve. He does deliver as Superman and Clark Kent, as much as Daniel Radcliffe does it for Harry Potter. Til today, Reeve IS the definitely Clark Kent/Superman. Whether or not Kevin Spacey did it correctly, I did not enjoy a single bit of his presence as Lex Luthor. Orlando Bloom’s girlfriend, Kate Bosworth was perfectly miscast for the part of Supes’s love interest. Bring on Margot Kidder (from the earlier Superman movies) anytime! Anyone could do Jimmy Olsen here but what’s Cyclops doing here??


With a contrast from Da Vinci Code, this movie got rave reviews from Christians all over due to the similarities of Superman coming back to Earth, compared with the likeness of the second coming of Jesus Christ. Complete with the words of Jor-El, Superman’s father, “I have sent you, my only son.”


Rating:
4/10. Watching the trailer beforehand and having high expectations killed the fun easily.

Last updated: 2009-08-11 21:41:31 by joekhor

Superman Returns

I’m not the biggest fan of Superman, but I do know a pretty fair amount about him and the original movies starring Christopher Reeve. In comparison, this film stacks up between the second and third films. It’s not the greatest, but its far from the worst.
Brandon Routh was an unknown when he took this role (and for the most part still is), but he does a fairly good job, and bears a resemblance to Christopher Reeve, which can be argued as to how he got the part. However, I did not like that in an early 3 hr film, you can all bu count his lines as both Clark and Superman on your hands.
Kevin Spacey steals the show as a Lex Luthor. He even adds a nod to Gene Hackman’s portrayal of the iconic villain. On top of this, he adds his own twist in there.
Kate Bosworth’s portrayal of Lois Lane, I thought was a bit too emotional. She seems to spend the whole film pissed off that Superman just up and left her as if they were an exclusive couple. Now, it has been a while since I’ve seen the original films, but if I’m not mistaken, the only place Lois and Superman actually make it official is in the comics.
The rest of the cast is solid, but no one really sticks out, except James Marsden as Richard. There were times when I thought he could have been Superman, but then he’s already been one superhero (Cyclops). No need to confuse people by making him another one, especially under the same director.
Speaking of the director, Bryan Singer did an ok job with this, but I expected better. He left the X-Menfranchise for this, and it just doesn’t seem like it was worth it. I’m not saying there should have been a reboot, but the flow of this film seems to be similar to the first X-Men.
MY biggest issue with the movie, that I haven’t already mentioned, is that there is a lack of action for 3/4 of the film, minus a few scenes here and there. I went into this expecting to see more action, and the whole paternity issue just didn’t really seem to fit, especially since they shoved it in near the end, and Richard didn’t even seem to react to it, at least not on-screen.
I did like the homages and nods to the previous films and comics. For instance, there is a scene where Superman saves car from crashing into the ground that is straight from a cover of Action Comics. Also, when Superman boards the plane after saving it, he says the same lines Christopher Reeve said to Margot Kidder after saving the helicopter in the original Superman.
This is not as bad as I, or the critics make it seem, but it could use some refinement. It’s sad that they have chosen to reboot the franchise and make Superman dark rather than go with the original plan of giving this film a sequel. So, I recommend you see this one, before you waste your time on a dark Superman, because we all know Superman is not known for being dark. That’s what Batman is for.

http://thankyounetflix.wordpress.com

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