Lakeside, here is my review:
Superman Returns
Synopsis: The remaining son of Krypton has returned to Earth after a 5 year absence. Do we still need a Superman?
Director : Bryan Singer
Starring : Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden, Frank Langella and Marlon Brando
Sorry about the delay in this review but work got in the way of play!
Now onto the film, how best to describe it? Well after watching it at the IMAX, the words "disappointment", "underwhelming", "not all that" are a few I heard from my friends after leaving the IMAX cinema.
I could not disagree with any of them.
But the most apt discription another colleague gave me later was : "it had good bits"
Personally my expectations for the movie were fulfilled, I have come to expect certain things from Bryan Singer as a director and he confirmed them for me with Superman Returns.
He does not know how to pace an action movie.
No one can fault his Usual Suspects, that kind of movie is his forte and it remains one of my all time favourite films, but when you look at his X-Men movies especially the second one, you'll see certain patterns emerging in his action films.
Bryan Singer always seems to have the best action sequence in the beginning of the movie and the final climatic battle is always very underwhelming.
He basically shoots his load way too early!
In Superman Returns there are a couple of great sequences but there are lots of parts that did not hold together really well.
I liked the saving of the plane and his landing it in the staduim to rapturous applause, that was cool, I liked his saving of Metropolis from the shockwave and also the way Bryan Singer managed to recreate the iconic image from the first Superman comic (fellow geeks will know what I mean but for those who don't :
http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/news_images/1144_2826_2.jpgBut there was a lot that left me a bit cold.
I did receive a very big surprise, I must admit I was not expecting "the piano incident", I did not see that coming at all.
But that sequence then brings me to a major flaw for me, I have always accepted that in the world of Superman, a pair of glasses and a changed hairstyle is enough to make people not make the connection between Clark and Superman but how credible is it to believe that Lois Lane, investigative reporter actually had sex with Superman and still does not realise that he is Clark?
?
Plus Clark disappears for 5 years just like Superman and they also both come back on the same day?? Ridiculous and for the first time ever I was bothered by it.
Another puzzling thing for me is this, when Lois and family were nearly drowning why did they need Superman to rescue them? I was expecting a repeat of the piano incident. Why did "Superboy" not tear the door open?
Plus Superman seemed to be a too angst ridden for my liking, he was at times protrayed as a christ like figure and all that drama and seriousness is not my idea of Superman.
He should be a lot more lighter in mood. He is the all american hero after all, and what was up with his creepy stalking of Lois??
The biggest mistake for me however was how on earth did Superman pick up a whole land mass of Kryponite laced crystal and manage to fly it into space when just minutes earlier the same said land mass managed to weaken him to the point where he was beaten up by Lex and his goons??? This flew in the face of any reason or logic.
The ending was also very much a non event. So the boy is Superman's kid but did Lois's fiancee know that?
Surely he must have known the kid was not his but yet we see him questioning Lois if she had intimate relations with Superman?
And If he thought the kid was his then how quickly after Superman left did Lois get with him? Why did Superman leave without saying goodbye?
So now Superman is a father and his child is born out of wedlock, this really takes a bit of the shine of the whole iconic Superman image. He is the one hero who does everything right but now he is just another babyfather, does he pay child support?
One can only hope that in the following movies that they will build on this and take us forward.
About the other characters,
I loved Lex's girlfriend, I just enjoyed watching her onscreen especially when she is conflicted by Lex's actions.
Was not really that impressed with Spacey's Lex Luthor, it was ok but not great, I think the best Luthor has to be Micheal Rosenbaum on Smallville,
James Marsden's character, Richard White fiancee of Lois Lane seemed to a bit insecure but hey he is competing against supes, so I'll cut him some slack, At least he had more screen time than he did in the X -Men movies.
Brandon Routh did well as Superman but also excelled at imitating Reeve's bumbling Clark Kent.
Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane seemed a bit young to me but was that much of an issue for me.
Another problem I had was the depiction of some of Superman's powers, Iliked the flying, that was well done and the cape rustling was cool.
I hated the Heat Vision and the X-Ray vision, they both seemed to be barely registable and during one scene I had to work at figuring out that he was using his heat vision! Smallville has better heat vision than that!
This is a bit of a rambling review from me, I normally like to compose them much better but this film hit so many chords (good and bad) that a dischordant review is the inevitable result.
Overall I give it a not so super
6.5/10Disagree with this score? want to have a go at me? then rant on here
Shazam!
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