Superman Returns
Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) tortures Superman (Brandon Routh) in Superman Returns. It took me a couple times of watching, but I've come to love Superman Returns for what it is: Bryan Singer's view of the Superman world.
STORY: Flawed but worthy - Considering the film's 2 and 1/2 hours long, the time goes by fairly quickly, simply because the movie starts of without worrying about any introduction to characters; it assumes we already know what there is to know. What Singer didn't consider was the difference between the connection we have to characters and the connection we have with the people playing those characters (Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane is much different from Margot Kidder's from 1978). Along with that, there was alot in this movie that wasn't necessary for a great Superman movie; as someone put it to me yesterday, this could have been one hell of a two hour movie.
ACTING: Fair - Most of the actors did a wonderful job with their roles, which means that I forgot they were acting as I watched. Brandon Routh, however, had certain vocal intonations that made me think if maybe he didn't think about the line a little too much before saying it (particularly his repeated, "I'm always around.") But when things get hairy for Superman, Routh is fantastic, and even his Clark Kent seems just how you'd imagine him.
DIRECTION: Outstanding - It's Bryan Singer, who brought back X-Men and X2 and single handedly restarted the Superhero movie genre. For most of its scenes, this was one of the most emotionally directed and beautiful movies I've seen in a while, especially considering it's about a guy in tights.
VISUALS: Oscar-worthy - Enough can't be said about how this film looks, because it's Superman and you get to see things you could only see in a Superman movie, although I do think that directors nowadays rely back on CGI too much, even for simple shots that really didn't need it (such as Superman and Lois floating in front of the Daily Planet globe for several seconds).
OVERALL: In the end, this is a good film. But being a Superman fan myself and knowing what I know, there's no real excuse for this movie not completely rocking my socks off, because in the end, Superman is the most emotionally driven and visually fantastic characters of all time. And yet, somehow, Spider-Man 2 was a much better, even classic superhero movie, whereas Superman Returns, sad to say, didn't know when to quit. But for what it gets woefully wrong, Singer's Superman makes up for it by getting much more right, and for that it gets my recommendation.
Overman's Grade:
B
- Good -
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