Saw "Superman Returns"

[Kam]

just to give the contrary viewpoint, i enjoyed it. sure its not the greatest of the superhero movies, but i think it stands up well on its own.
every other superhero is one, we, in some way, can relate to. inspite of their powers, the xmen are simply outcasts. spiderman with all his incredible gifts had let down a loved one and is forever carrying that guilt. batman had his loved ones stolen away before his very eyes and his vengeance fuels him. But superman.... sure, he's the orphan son who never really knew his parents, but its more than that. The superman mythology basically follows christian storylines. the father from a distant planet sends his only son off to earth where he hopes his son will be their savior. that son is filled with such a pure goodness it really goes beyond human to be something humans should strive for. he even sacrifices himself to save this planet over and over again.

and so with this movie, its told from a different perspective from every other superhero movie. batman, spiderman, and the xmen, are told from the main characters point of view. we know it is their story being told from their emotional stand point. but that's not the case here, because we dont know superman, he's an alien impersonating us with basically godlike powers. and the story of this movie is not told from his point of view. it is more of an omniscient, all seeing storytellers point of view, rather than directly from superman's emotional standpoint. the point shifts from luthor to lois lane to superman (a.... 'trinity' if you will) without keeping one viewpoint as it moves to the next.
i read and heard several people talk about there being homosexual overtones to the movie and i have no idea what movie they were watching. yes, there is very heavy christian iconography in the movie, but where they thought there was homosexuality, i have no clue.

the main critique i had was there was one entire action sequence (the bank robbery) could have been cut out entirely as it had nothing to do with anything other than to be an action sequence. i've heard (just rumors) that the studio didnt think the movie had enough action in it and so wanted that scene put in, which would make sense: it's flashy, has the cool cgi, makes for an excellent trailer clip, and has nothing to do with anything important. sounds like a studio decision to me.

and the odd thing isnt the ages of the people, as christopher reeves was the same age in superman as brandon routh is now, its just that reeves looked FAR more mature and brought his own gravitasse to the role as superman. i personally like routh as superman (i liked reeves more) but routh brought more of that prodigal, alien son feel to it than reeves did, which, for this movie, was the right look. reeves' clark kent was far more human than routh's, which again was more appropriate for donner's movie.
and my problem with lois wasnt her age either, but that a pulitzer prize winning journalist thinks there's an "F" in catastrophe. sure, you can have a nice dichotomy of a character who's a brilliant writer but a total scatterbrain, but that isn't what this is about!! why throw in a stupid moment like that with no other substance behind it other than a 'look how cutesy lois lane is awwwwww' moment with no foundation to it? that was irritating. Yes, i know it was a throwback to the comic and the original (the two "p"s in rapist line) but it didnt work here, margot kidder player lois like she was a scatterbrained journalist who still had her stuff together when needed, here lois is an 'empowered' woman with a pulitzer, so the "F" in catastrophe line came off as stupid. although i did like the superman 'you really shouldnt smoke' line throw back and the opening credits homage to the original as well.
overall, the first superman is the best of the bunch, but this one is still a good, fun, entertaining movie.

although as a caveat, i did see it on the imax 3d screen, which prolly helped me think it was good too. visually pretty phenomenal. it got to be a bit much in one scene (they had 4 scenes in 3D), but the other 3 scenes were pretty stunning.

overall, i liked it.

[Defshep]

I saw it again with the family in a packed theater on Sunday afternoon. I gotta say, I enjoyed it a little more this time. The audience was cheering and laughing at all the right moments. I still got chills during the opening score and credits sequence. I still didn't like the choice for Lois Lane or Perry White ( I heard Hugh Laurie was up for the part, that might've worked), and the movie is a little too long. It's still not the best superhero movie, but I'm not sure Superman Returns could have been made with more loving care and respect than it was.