Superman Returns

[KingNor]

superman needed something to unload on violently. Like i was telling all my friends, i wanted to see him punch someones face off.

in the earthquake scene, while he was saving people it would have been great if he could hear/see the hundreds he coudlnt' save.

Superman is strong but not omnipotent, combine that with his hearing and sight, he knows he's not helping everyone.

this emotional weakness would fit him alot better than the kriptonite physical weakness. send him into a rage at his enemys that are too cowardly to fight him outright so they fight the helpless public

he'd be so angry we'd finally get to see superman punching some damn faces off!

In the end, Lex is not a super villan, he's a super mastermind, but he himself is nothing for supes to unload on. it would have been gratuitus but there needed to be some physical enemy for superman to beat down like a giant robot or another zod.

Superman can do some amazing things from what i read, and we didn't see much of it.

[eugimon]

it's sad that we've reached the point where we equate "amazing" with petulent expressions of frustrations against the weak.

i think a line from the comic Kingdom Come sums it up nicely:

Only the weak succumb to brutality.

[dr_vandermeer]

Just saw the movie and thought it was good. Some problems I had, but overall incredibly satisfying. My wife, who followed absolutely nothing about the film's development, or even anything regarding the comics, thought it was great too.

[Southpaw Samurai]

This movie made me beleive that a geeky World of Warcraft junkie (Routh claims it himself) can fly... and be Superman.

It's sort of funny. Everyone was worried if Routh could pull it off. He does... his Clark is very downplayed, but does come across as a sweet little nerd. His Superman has much of the same charisma and wholesomeness as Reeves'... to the point where even though he does have some creepy abuses of his power to verify the romantic situation, you almost can write it off. As for his build, I don't know why Superman needs to be a bulked out character anyway. He wasn't always and the concept is sort of silly. Tall, athletic, ripped... yeah, but bulkiness is created through controlled damaging of muscles. How exactly does Superman strain himself that much? I mean, the guy can bench press islands!

As for the rest:

Lois is currently a flatline for me. I'll need to rewatch it. Bosworth just really hit me in any direction. Lois is strong, but she's a little dull and common in this. Maybe she rehearsed all her lines with Orlando Bloom....

Jimmy is a good variation. Less 'golly-gee', but certainly still a bit goofy.

Perry is, like Jimmy, one of those tragic Superman characters that's often not much more than background noise, but so intrinsic to the Superman mythos you have to have him stand in the light for a line or two (speaking of which, he DOES get his trademark line in). Langella does good with what he gets and there does seem to be a lining of compassion under the gruffness.

Marsden has an interesting character... one that makes me want Singer and the writing crew to stay on just to see the development. He's almost a foil for Supes in that he's as honorable and heroic as Kal-el without all the superpowers.

Spacey plays Luthor with a relish. He's definitely continuing the Hackman Luthor, which is both good and bad. Bad because Spacey could've been told to recreate Luthor as really scarey. Good because Hackman's Luthor might piss off hardcore fans, but he's fun. I've never had a problem with Luthor being a little flippant and a tad mad... really smart folk are often a little odd. It's always been the hair brained schemes that are the problem....

....and SPOILERS that's where both this Luthor and the whole 'evil plan' portion of the plot loses me.

Luthor's plan in Superman Returns makes his Superman one seem completely well thought out. I get the logic of what he's doing. He has all the knowledge from Krypton at his finger tips and he still has his obsession with real estate. So he wants to create a new landmass... one that might, in theory, also spawn more crystals. All understood and fine.

So why do it in the Atlantic a few miles from the American East Coast? Despite the early, hopeful line where he claims he wants to help humanity and share the alien's info... for a profit, Luthor suddenly turns into a crazy homicidal maniac who deliberately WANTS to end millions (BILLIONS!) of lives with glee. Personally, that ruined the character for me. I wouldn't mind him saying, "Y'know, the Pacific really lacks a large landmass and the weather's pretty nice...let's drop it there." "But Lex, there's islands there with people already." "What's a few natives for the sake of progress?", but to have him suddenly want to destroy the USA without any real reason and commit mass murder suddenly makes him a very one-dimensional character.

It also isn't logical. Causing that much chaos works against his supposed financial goal and it would also cause other countries to take action. And while Lex might have 'advanced alien technology', it doesn't look like he's done anything with it ahead of time. What's left of the U.S. could have a sufficient military presence on that island in twenty four hours and the British and number of other countries could have forces there a day or three later. Luthor doesn't even have the capacity to follow through on blackmail threats of creating more islands given what he has at his apparent disposal.

END SPOILERS

That said, the movie was enjoyable, if a bit long with all the stuff that'll probably make your wife/girlfriend interested in seeing it with you.

And the 'I thought she had TWO Poms' scene has got to be one of the most subversively evil moments I've seen in a movie recently.

[reddsun1]

I believe the next movie will involve the villan, Brainiac.

Spoiler Warning.

Brainiac in some versions of Superman (particuarly the animation Superman) is a Kryptonian supercomputer gone bad. It decided that it needed to collected all knowledge of a planet and then destroy it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainiac_%28comics%29

So here's my theory as to why we'll probably see Brainiac. They never resolved what happened to the six crystals of Kryptonian technology that went into outer space. The crystal was a form of supercomputer for Superman. One of them was corrupted in a way by Luthor when it was surrounded with green kryptonite. The Kryptonite land mass was still growing in the air despite having no source of water. A lot of speculation, I know, but it could happen.

413120[/snapback]

Braniac, huh? Yeah, I can see where this is going.....

"Look, I just want some pants. A decent pair of pants!"

"Solomon Grundy want pants too!"

Edited July 3, 2006 by reddsun1

[reddsun1]

LOL, here it is! In all it's ugly truth! Recently uncovered lost footage from the "missing" period of the Man of Steele's past. The real reason Superman left, and had to make his comeback!

[chrono]

it's sad that we've reached the point where we equate "amazing" with petulent expressions of frustrations against the weak.

i think a line from the comic Kingdom Come sums it up nicely:

Only the weak succumb to brutality.

413200[/snapback]

Yeah, but that Superman had 30 extra years of wisdom too! And he stood for something also this one doesn't even stand for simple cortesy.

I think that having the "Kingdom Come" storyline come out this summer would've been one cool denoucement against super-hero movies. But then again I'm very happy that they didn't touch that story line, because they would've made a mess of it. Uwe Boll style no doubt!

But I'm with alot of people when it comes to giving him a 'challenge' of sometype. Using magic in SuperGirl made it fresh. But I think it should be a national war of some type that he gets mixed up in(morally and nationality-wise, "Supes for president!"), but they have left plenty of hints that their maybe other Kryptonians out there. Maybe it's time for a telepath. Time travel is always a good gimmick.

Maybe if it goes triology they'll give us Doomsday and the smack-down we want. Something to wash away the Matrix: Revolutions, Neo vs Anderson fight.

[justvinnie]

In my sophomore year of college, I took BIO201. We were on genetics and going over dominance and recessiveness of genes. And as an example my prof talked about eye color. Since blue eyes are recessive, you need to be homozygous to have blue eyes. This means that blue eyed parents can't have brown eyed kids, but brown eyed parents could have blue eyed kids if they were carriers of the recessive gene. Kid in class raised his hand, and said "That's not possible! Both my parents have blue eyes and I have brown eyes." I knew what everyone was thinking... "Seems the postman must have been making some friendly visits while Daddy is at work or something..." The prof is embarrassed cause he doesn't know how to respond and makes a lame comment on how he could have been a mutant. Yeah right like we all bought that. Anyways, the kid confronted his parents and finally discovered that he was actually adopted but they didn't want to tell him.

Point of this? Superman=blue eyes. Lois=blue eyes. Jason=brown eyes. Jason is not Superman's son...

vinnie

[Hikuro]

QUOTE(Hurin @ Jul 2 2006, 02:04 AM)

QUOTE(Mephistopheles @ Jul 1 2006, 08:51 PM)

One moment he can lift an entire continent made out of Kryptonite and hurl it into space and the next moment he is barely able to lift an airplane. What is going on here?

Well, not to take any of this too seriously, but the trick is to do it right, you can't stop a plane instantly, it would disintegrate and kill everyone aboard. Likewise, pushing that crystal continent too fast might have just made it break up.

Of course, that Boeing 777 would have disintegrated long before Superman even arrived, so let's not look into this too much!

I'm aware of that however he sure put some considerable effort into trying to stop it when it wouldn't have been that hard for him to slow it to a stop. Additionally, it took him a few seconds to get from the bar to where the plane was but once he got within a few hundred yards of it he could barely keep up with it. What happened? Did he run out of NOS?

What ever happened to the days when you could go see a movie, and not hear about people battying on things that just don't make sense....I mean....it's a movie...a popcorn flick, a time to kill, a make out session....god I miss those old days, damn you internet and you're ability to let people rant, damn you....

[Hurin]

superman needed something to unload on violently.  Like i was telling all my friends, i wanted to see him punch someones face off.  . .he'd be so angry we'd finally get to see superman punching some damn faces off!

413182[/snapback]

Uh, the problem with that is that then he wouldn't be Superman.

[chrono]

superman needed something to unload on violently.  Like i was telling all my friends, i wanted to see him punch someones face off.  . .he'd be so angry we'd finally get to see superman punching some damn faces off!

413182[/snapback]

Uh, the problem with that is that then he wouldn't be Superman.

413477[/snapback]

Oh I dunno... Him and Jimmy were putting down beers pretty casually in that bar.

Hikuro, ya know I kinda agree, but then again we would've had the same opinions anyways and we are in the ugly time period where remakes are getting made ALOT more then ever before so comparasions are pretty natural.

[Mr March]

Superman Returns (2006)

Genre: Live Action Film – Action Adventure

To say that one should approach Superman Returns with trepidation is an understatement, but a healthy dose of caution never hurt anyone. Director Bryan Singer, having left the X-Men film franchise, has been expected to create a great film post-Donner era that would re-invent the Superman mythos for a new generation. With aplomb he largely succeeds with Returns, but the film can’t quite achieve the success of the other recently resurrected superhero seen in Batman Begins from director Christopher Nolan. Perhaps the subject matter is to blame or the simple fact that Superman has never been as compelling for dramatic storytelling as the Dark Knight.

Created to take place roughly after Superman II (1980), we find Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman (Brandon Routh) has left Earth, gone to peruse the remains of his doomed homeworld after astronomers located the remains in space. Upon his return five years later, Superman discovers the world has got along without him, including Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) now a mother and author of a Pulitzer winning article debasing the man of steel. Before Superman’s return, arch-nemesis Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) has secured a fortune via dearly departed wealthy widow. Stealing advanced alien technology from Superman’s own Fortress of Solitude in the Antarctic, Lex Luthor plans to create a new continent at the expense of existing North America.

True to a genuine character driven story, Superman Returns invents a very dramatic story by focusing on Superman as a person rather than the spectacle of his nature as a near-indestructable superhero. This is not to say the Returns is deficient in grandiose special effects sequences; the opening 30 minutes showcases an edge-of-your-seat passenger plane crash that will make older film audiences praise the advancement in special effects over the years. However, it is fresh-faced Brandon Routh in his strong performance as Superman and a carefully written script by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris that delivers a new man of steel to audiences that is uniquely human in spite of his nature as super being. Routh’s Superman struggles with the heart and it is this focus on the personal dilemma’s of the character that makes the film succeed in re-defining this classic superhero.

To strengthen the picture even further, Superman Returns features a fully realized world filled with modern-meets-retro set designs and a strong supporting cast with Frank Langella as dogged Perry White, Kate Bosworth as modern Lois Lane, and Kevin Spacey’s deliciously ruthless and grounded Lex Luthor. This new Superman movie also features a refreshingly restrained use of special effects. Singer clearly put in the effort to craft his new film in such a way as to avoid the pitfalls of effects-laden big budget blockbusters and keep a sharp eye on the core of his drama-driven main character. When Superman is given lease to let loose, the result is polished, spectacular effects that keep the audience cheering for more. In between these character stories and crowd-pleasing effects, the film pays homage to previous Superman movies with a digitally created cameo of late Marlon Brando as Jor-El, Superman’s Father. A well-deserved dose of humor is also to be found, particularly thanks to excellent scene-stealing lines delivered from Parker Posey playing Luthor’s side-kick Kitty Kowalski.

With everything going for it, one would think Superman Returns was a perfect superhero film that serves everything an audience could want. Alas this new Superman may be super, but like his flawed character in the new movie he can’t do everything. Perhaps Superman is just a difficult character to write given his awesome might or the fact that the man of steel embodies classic comic book super heroes that may not be in current fashion. Singer has created a different Superman film that takes an introspective look at the character's human side, but the adventure scenes and eventual showdown with Luthor hardly come across as fresh or reinvented. There is a sense that, while somewhat intentional, we have seen much of this before in other movies. It may be that audiences have been spoiled by more socially-relevant heroes or that the savior-like aura projected by Superman doesn’t relate to a spiritually-broader modern society. In truth, the film is about a new as one could make such an old hero and while that’s all we can expect, one does leave the theatre expecting something more; especially from such a super character.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5. Superman is reborn in a modern film with a more human story that will please younger fans and maintains a strong respect for the older Donner film.

[bsu legato]

I absolutely love how some people are suddenly too "cool" for the Superman '78 version. Face the facts, kids; Superman has been around for nearly 70 years and there's lots of differing interpretations of the character in that span. Maybe you prefer some "Kingdom Gone-esque" take on the character, but that's only one possible version. It seems that the worst complaint some can come up with is how the characters are the same as the Donner films. "LOLOMGWTF" they say..."Superman is teh suxorz now." Isn't it supposed to be a fanboy peeve when characterizations change between installments? Yet here's a film that's true to it's predecessor, and that's still not good enough for MW.

[Dangard Ace]

http://pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=20060702

Remember kids: Superman does not kill.

[Noriko Takaya]

Well, being old enough to have seen the original 2 movies in the theatre as a kid, I can say that when I went to see the new one earlier tonight I had a bit of trepidation. After reading some of the remarks posted here regarding the new film, I went into the theatre fully expecting not to like this movie. However, I put myself back into the mindset of the 12 year old boy I was when the original came out and I was hooked. Letting myself feel like a kid again helped me to enjoy this movie and remember that I wished I could fly too. Great popcorn movie. Now when is that new version of Superman II with Donner's original footage coming out...

[David Hingtgen]

Just a quick comment on seeing it last night:

The 777 was done exceptionally well, far better than any airliner in a movie I've seen in a long time---amazingly, it's even better than the real actual 747 used in "Air Force One" in a few ways. Little things like spoiler deployment, etc. Very nicely done, rather than "lets just have all the flaps moving in ways they can't".

Also--the breakup sequence was exactly what'd happen, as a 767 once went into a flat spin, and broke up that way---I wonder if they used that as a reference, as it's one of the few known airliner flat-spin breakups, as well as being a similar aircraft.

[chrono]

Maybe you prefer some "Kingdom Gone-esque" take on the character, but that's only one possible version.

413517[/snapback]

You mean the one where we have an aged Supes still morning his wifes death, isolating himself from his humanity, later coming back denoucing the violence around him while re-discovering his humanity & his hypocrasy in the process. And in the end finally dealing with his dual persona and finding his place in the world? You mean that one? The one that's far more human then the one in the current movie? You know the one that's not any better then the single mother/father who have children but don't care enough to push the issue of parental responsiblity on more then a "I can fart-around, but I'll be around." scale? The one that clearly doesn't stand for any of his 'olde values' for even his 'son'?

Dangard Ace, I sooooooo wish that would've happened!

[dr_vandermeer]

Remember kids:  Superman does not kill.

413520[/snapback]

That's cool.

[capt.actionjackson]

Well, I saw it last night and while the action was good, overall it was kind of meh. Maybe my expectations were too high or maybe my vision of Superman has been tainted by the Timm-verse version, I'm not really sure.

Seeing Spacey playing a sadistic Hackman-type Luthor just seemed like a waste. It seems as though Singer just watched the Donner film obsessively and didn't even look outside the box to see if there was some other way to bring Superman back to the screen with a fresh take. Did anybody even consider playing or writing Luthor as a cool, collected megalomaniac businessman who didn't come up with obscene ways to get more land? Is Luthor just a one-trick pony to Singer?

Well, he threw in Jason, but it just doesn't fit into the overall mythos for me at all. To me, Jason is like putting Dick Grayson at the scene of the Wayne murder or making Alfred's niece Batgirl. It's almost like at the writers realized that all they were doing was emulating the Donner film, and just threw him in so they could put their own mark on the film franchise (and put the fanboys into convulsions).

Superman hasn't had a child in his 70 or so years (that I am aware of), so why fix it if it ain't broke? To evolve the character? To bring him beyond his one note Big Blue Boyscout? I can see that point of view, but you're just giving Superman a sidekick and a writer's crutch. What's happening next week? Oh, Superman's son is going to get kidnapped by Luthor/Metallo/Bizarro/Braniac and Supes has to save him. If I go back and change that to Robin and insert Batman's rouges gallery it's the same result. Writer's crutch. IMO, the Jason storyline isn't going to help the franchise in the future; it will just make it bland and predictable.

[Radd]

I personally loved it. Yes, it was very reminiscent of the first two films, but I liked the first two films. Superman hasn't had a decent silverscreen appearance since Superman II, and to me it seemed Superman Returns was a superb way to bring a direct continuation of that (ignoring Superman 3 and 4) to both the audience that remembers the old films, and a new audience altogether.

[eugimon]

saw it last night.

I thought it was very cool.. hearing William's music over the opening credits had my blood stirring and remembering watching the first two movies over and over again in my superman suit when I was a little kid.

I liked this movie a lot... didn't love it as some bits were kind of disapointing for me.. such as the introduction of the kid. Which I understand thematicaly why he was introduced... i just thought it didn't make much sense... at the end superman II, clark erases lois' memory of what happened... but lois seems to know that her kid is supermans... or figures it out and gets over the idea that she slept with superman and didn't know about it really really well. I dunno, I would find that to be kind of disturbing. And the kid KILLED a goon... KILLED... I dunno. i find that wrong.

I actually loved spacey's luthor... this new luthor as someone who is cool but evil, is interesting and all, but I also love the old school luthor.. one who is brilliant but absolutely warped in his all consuming egoism.

But all in all, I loved it.. this was a very human superman.. the way he soaked in the public admiration... the way he needs to put on the suit and cape to talk to lois, how he constantly weighs his own wants and desires over helping humanity.

I lliked this movie enough that I'm going to go see it in IMAX this weekend.

[Southpaw Samurai]

For what it's worth, while the IMAX version is nice for its pure size, the 3D is a mixed bag. It's twenty minutes in four various scenes. The 3D REALLY works in the slow, panoramic shots (such as the pan over the Kent farm)... definitely gives you a feel of you being there. In other scenes, it still unfortunately feels like the old school 'Viewmaster layer' 3D movies. And what suffers the most is the plane sequence. It's cool, but between all the random objects flying about and the herky-jerky camera, it is almost more distracting.

Still, if you enjoyed the movie the first time through, seeing it with the bonus of the 3D should be worth it. Still wish they let you keep the glasses, though... all the potential after-movie Clark Kent/glasses of disguise humor you could have with those big, honking spectacles....

[baronv]

If you take the Superman Returns movie for what it is, a summer blockbuster + comic book movie and not expecting The Godfather, the it's a really good movie. As they say it's ties into the first two Superman movies which I liked and it treats him as a SUPER hero, not a grim & girtty hero. He's an iconic character so there's not too many places you can update or change him too much without him being Superman anymore. It's not a slam-bam action fest, the tone is more in line with the first Superman movie. For those who say it's too much a homeage to the first two films, well it is a sequel in sorts to those films. I do hope they brign in a super-powered villain for the sequel, only so much you can do with Luthor. Maybe that's the set-up with the missing crystals at the end of the movie.

My only gripe is the SPOILER**Super-Kid?? Wonder if this will pay off with him replacing Brandon after a couple sequels. 4 outta 5 stars. Will definitely get this on DVD.

[mpchi]

Ha, good that seeing someone like the film finally. And yeah, really don't know what people are expecting from a superhero movie these days. The show isn't meant to be a really deep mind provoking masterpiece, but just a fun joyride with some very cool visuals and pay homeage to a very iconic superhero Superman, who haven't had an appearance on the silver screen for a long time. Think the film did pretty good achiving that.

[DARTHTODD]

Ha, good that seeing someone like the film finally. And yeah, really don't know what people are expecting from a superhero movie these days. The show isn't meant to be a really deep mind provoking masterpiece, but just a fun joyride with some very cool visuals and pay homeage to a very iconic superhero Superman, who haven't had an appearance on the silver screen for a long time. Think the film did pretty good achiving that.

413974[/snapback]

Hey, I liked it too. Certainly not perfect but it's a great film (IMO).

[Penguin]

For those who say it's too much a homeage to the first two films, well it is a sequel in sorts to those films.

413949[/snapback]

I think that's what many of us who didn't enjoy it as much are taking issue with, story-wise. I love the first two films, not only when I saw them in original release but also when I watch them now on DVD. However, I think this new film could have been better if it wasn't so close to the originals in story. Superman has changed in the last 20 years, as has his audience, but the film didn't keep up.

The show isn't meant to be a really deep mind provoking masterpiece, but just a fun joyride with some very cool visuals and pay homeage to a very iconic superhero Superman, who haven't had an appearance on the silver screen for a long time.

413974[/snapback]

I don't read where anyone here was expecting vast social relevance or riveting political commentary out of this film... it is just a comic book movie after all. If anything, we were sorta hoping for more somthing even lighter and more fun. That's where it really falls apart as an homage to the originals. The first two had lots of humour and wit in amongst the action... "Superman Returns" missed that, and it dragged down the atmosphere of the film. Even with the dated story elements and characterizations, I'd have enjoyed it a lot more if it just lightened up.