Movie Notes: Superman Returns
= 2 stars
Starring Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey
Directed by Bryan Singer
Synopsis
Superman has abandoned humanity for five years, and returns to find resentment, Lois Lane married with a young son, and Lex Luthor with yet another plot at world domination.
The Good
- The special effects are grandly improved in every way, with a real sense of scale to certain moments like the air plane spinning toward earth, Superman hurtling through the atmosphere, or tossing a land mass into space. When Superman flies, it looks real, rather than a guy hanging from wires.
- There’s a certain amount of respect to the Superman mythos and the first two films. The music is back, and Richard Pryor or Nuclear Man are nowhere in sight. It’s trying to get back to the place of Superman I and Superman II which is admirable.
- The second half has some compelling moments, after Lex’s plot gets underway, and there’s a somewhat compelling set up for a sequel.
The Bad
- All the actors are wrong, especially when compared to the previous films. Kate Bosworth (Lois Lane) is downright awful, with no spark. Brandon Routh does slightly better, but overall plays Clark Kent as confused and Supes as boring. The scenes featuring both — supposedly in love — are sheer torture.
- The usually excellent Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey aren’t given the space or support do achieve anything. It’s really sad that I began rooting for the villains and for Supes to die.
- While the film does eventually find its footing, it takes nearly an hour and a twenty minutes to get there, and is grossly overlong at two hours plus.
- The film is overly enamored with its effects. Characters become lost in spectacles, standing still and saying nothing as the camera zooms around. Note one scene where a bad guy fires a gun at Superman’s eye and it breaks on his iris in slow motion, Matrix bullet time. It’s laughably awful.
Conclusion
I probably ruined this movie for myself by watching all the other Superman movies beforehand. I prefer the earlier method of less effects and more personable, fun characters. While the second half of Superman Returns feels true, on the whole it fails to capture the marvel of the first two movies, mostly due to bad casting.
IMDB: Superman Returns
Wikipedia: Superman Returns
Rotten Tomatoes: Superman Returns 77%
This was definitely a disappointing film. I think the bar for superhero flicks has been set extremely high by the Spiderman movies (3rd film excepted), Xmen movies (3rd film excepted) and Batman Begins. If your movie isn’t up to those 3 titles, then you’re pretty much the Fantastic Four movies or Superman
You’re spot on with the Kate Bosworth knock. She was lame and not hot. I don’t watch Smallville regularly, but I know the women on that show are hot. If you’re gonna give us Lois she better rock and have a little moxie to boot!
I think my big gripe in this film was that it amounted to Superman vs. Natural Disaster. Which sucks. You want to see Superman go mano e mano with some foe. I understand that Lex caused the weird kryptonite land mass to grow and all that jazz…but I never felt a real Lex vs. Superman vibe in this film. The rivalry/arch nemesis thing just kinda left me empty.
Bring back Nuclear Man! (just kidding…).
Oh the stuff with his kid…that was kinda interesting…
As much as I love Superman, I wasn’t crazy about Superman returns. Maybe I’ve just been spoiled by the surprisingly good character dynamics in Smallville (and excellent acting from Michael Rosenbaum), but it felt cold and a little hollow. Plus, I was disgusted at the fact that Superman might have an out of wedlock child that was being raised by another man. Superman shouldn’t be that slimy.
Heh amusing point about Superman not knowing he’s a father. As for Smallville, I wonder why Tom Welling wasn’t cast as Supes — he would have done a better job IMHO.
I saw this movie quite some time ago and didn’t really find it interesting. I hated the plot, some of the cast(kate bosworth is soooooo cute, she made me watch the full movie), and the overall movie itself. I would give it a 1 star.….
This movie was awful. I can’t believe we waited nearly 20 years for that. There were way to many mistakes in Superman Returns. Bryan Singer needs to go somewhere else and stay away from the Superman franchise. He ruined it. The suit was terrible, Superman should never have had a kid and there was no action. Singer ruined it for fans by making this movie more of a love story than an action movie. WHERE WAS THE ACTION!!! This is Superman we are talking about. The movie was over two hours long and it had maybe a combined 23 minutes of action. That is absolutely ridiculous. I hope they get another director for the next installment.
Yep I am certainly not looking forward to the sequel.
Way too serious. Lame screenplay. Near lifeless performances (except Spacey who overacted).
Good to very good effects (but that’s almost a given). Pseudo religious overtones misplaced.
Some scenes difficult to discern because of ridiculous obsession with nighttime sequences!
The Adventures of Superman (TV series with George Reeves 1951–1958) can’t be topped!
Christopher Reeves Superman movies also tops (even 3 and 4)
Smallville TV series (fair)
Lois and Clark series (mostly lame)
Superboy series from the 80’s (laughable and borderline awful)