Superman Returns

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Adam!
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Superman Returns

Post by Adam! »

I'm sad to say it, but it's not very good. Or more specifically, it looks fantastic, but there's not much going on under the surface. Two years ago I'd call it a great superhero movie, but after Batman Begins and The Incredibles it doesn't really deserve that accolade. I put it somewhere in the comic-book-movie Bermuda Triangle defined by Hulk, X3 and Spiderman 2.

I say Hulk because this movie is way too slow. Each scene lingers, even the visually sumptuous opening credits sequence, which lasts so long my awe turned to boredom and then to unintentional laughter. With previews (and car ads (gah)) this movie becomes three hours, and that's one hour too long for me.

I say X3 because the characters we know and love are given the paper-thin treatment: Luther is evil and that's all there is too him; Super-Clark (spoiler? heh) is good and that's all there is too him. Jimmy is eager and that's all there is too him. Lois... well, Lois seems to be in this movie mainly to be hit on the head by objects (Seriously, she hits her head like 5 times). There is very little character development, the exception being Parker Posey as Luther's ditzy accomplice. Posey's enjoyable blend of vamp and camp makes Spacey's maniacal scene-chomping seem reserved in comparison.

I say Spiderman 2 because this movie takes itself too seriously. Spiderman 2, although quite good, parted from the fun mood of the original to spend more time soberly examining the intricacies of relationships between hot girls and awkward, bespectacled, side-parted haired newspaper employees. This movie does the same.

I'd call this an average superhero movie, which effectively means it isn't very good. It looks fantastic. Supes spends a little too much time fighting shit that can't possibly hurt him, which makes it feel a little like Matrix 2 in places. There's some humor and some clever dialogue, but you've got to look close for it. But my biggest complaint is that at dangerously close to three hours, this movie is looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
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Post by Adam! »

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong.

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Post by stueym »

Agreed

Beautiful...No I mean really do try and see in DLP if you are into that super sharp/depth of color thing
Long....pacing was way off...at times turgid
Left me unfulfilled....character development was an issue...Like Clark's mom, where'd she go after the arrival...oh thats right lets jam her in for a 4 second pensive look with no dialogue near the end
Other comments are too spoilery so will refrain for a week or two

But do I regret having paid my money ....Hell no it's f'ing Superman for goodness sakes :-)
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Post by raisedbywolves »

Hmm. I liked it a lot. Rather than a rebooting of the franchise, a la Batman Begins, it's like Superman III, if Superman III (and IV) had thankfully never existed. It's much more old-fashioned than BB, which is fitting for a movie where a pair of glasses is a disguise. There's a lot to it and it's long, but I was never bored. I have some beefs with the casting (Kate Bosworth is pretty badly miscast and Brandon Routh is merely ok), but Singer clearly loves this stuff and isn't just hacksawing his way through the mythology Ratner-style. All in all, a solid Superman spectacle. A-
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Re: Superman Returns

Post by raisedbywolves »

Puce wrote: Lois... well, Lois seems to be in this movie mainly to be hit on the head by objects (Seriously, she hits her head like 5 times).
Ha ha ha! That's true.
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Post by mkilly »

I didn't notice Lois hitting her head, much, but there is a crapload of people saving each other and Superman lifting very heavy things. After the fourth time that happened I was just like, yeah, Superman can lift things, got it.

The analogy I used was it's like eating a box of Twinkies, Superman Returns: it's good, but you feel pretty unfulfilled at the end.
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Post by Bjam »

She gets bashed around in the plane, she gets bashed around in the piano/fancy room of the ship, she gets bashed around in the pantry. Then she goes diving deep into water to pull a 200lb guy. I'm surprised some of Superman's powers didn't slink into her at some point.

As for the movie, it was good. It was all kind of, "Oh yeah, this is pretty good", no bad parts, but no, "Ohholycrapthatwasawesome" parts. I'd say a B. Good, but not amazing, something was lacking.

(Also, Brandon Routh is a serious cutie.)
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Post by Edge of LA »

I really enjoyed the movie.

For one thing, the Clark Kent character was very much like (if not the exact same) as the Clark Kent portrayed by Christopher Reeve which gave me a sense of continuity from the old movies. I was 11 when I saw the first one in 1979. It was a character I had become familiar with and was happy to see (compared to the Dean Cain and Smallville cool guys).

Perhaps, also, since I thought X3 was disappointing, I had minimal expectations from SR. But in this movie, Superman does what Superman does, and I like how they took classic imagery and presented it in the film.

Now I'll shut up before I give anything away.
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Post by mkilly »

Bjam wrote:I'm surprised some of Superman's powers didn't slink into her at some point.
Didn't you catch the Superboy thing? Some of Superman's powers did slink into her about five years prior.
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Post by Reist »

I actually liked it. Not because it was a great movie, but because it was Superman. The preview for Spiderman 3 was better than the whole movie though. I'm looking forward to that one.
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Post by HeuristicsInc »

This was enjoyable... my wife Siena (who is a physicist) was cringing at the whole Space Shuttle business, because it was just impossible, and that was even before Superman came in.
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Post by ddd »

I can never get around how they're all such idiots. I mean, I'm no big Superman knowledgemaster, so he might use a secret instrument or something that I don't know of for this, but..

He's gone for FIVE YEARS (they really hammered that point home!).
This guy who's just him with glasses is also gone for FIVE YEARS!

Are they retarded? How can they not make the link. Lois?

Kent isn't very employable either, is he? He didn't write many articles in the movie.

And by the revelation about the Superkid was hardly twistworthy after all the hints. And it's disgusting to think the S-man ripped off his bulletproof outerwear to squidgee a quicky into Lois.

I'm being harsh. It was decent. But the central plot was real shit!
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Post by Denyer »

ddd wrote:Are they retarded? How can they not make the link. Lois?
I haven't seen the film so I don't know if it's still the case, but it has been more a personality thing. like Oh, that incompetent, nerdy Clark Kent couldn't possibly be Superman! Plus it may be assumed Superman is just Superman and doesn't have a secret identity. I haven't seen it though so I don't know.
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Post by HeuristicsInc »

ddd wrote: Are they retarded? How can they not make the link. Lois?
I really liked the bit where they made fun of this in Mystery Men.
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Post by JonPorobil »

They even touched on making fun of it in Superman Returns, worthy of a chuckle.

In the end, this film broke that boundary of suspeded disbelief a few too many times for me. For example (Peligroso: Spoilers), Superman can be shot at point blank range and not die. Fine, he's a superhero, I'll buy it. But his suit comes out equally unscathed. Perhaps his suit is made of some super mylar-coated somethingorother. But then why is it so easy for Lex, in the film's real emotional climax, to shove a shard of Kryptonite through his super-suit?

And by the way. That whole island he created! If I am to understand the logic of the movie correctly, that whole island was basically made of kryptonite. How did Supe not notice? How was he even able to fly over it?

I also saw many moments of wasted potential. For example, someone asks Lois, "So does he hear everything at once, or does he focus on one thing at a time?" And the same question is addressed later on, when Superman flies just above the atmosphere and listens to cries for help from all over the globe. Why does he need to fly so high to do that? Can't he hear them all just as well from the surface (where the air can actually vibrate with the sound :P)? And how, by the way, does he manage to do that without going completely insane?

There were more than a few compelling bits, as well. For example, when Superman and Lois finally get to have that conversation they've been waiting to have, on the roof of the building, she takes off her shoes to get on his feet. Like she's done this before, she knows the drill.

All in all, though Superman Returns was very easy on the eyes, it was way too long. And yet, for its length, it contains surprisingly little character development—just a lot of footage of characters shuffling their feet and not saying what they mean. For 150 minutes, that gets dull.
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Post by jb »

Generic wrote:In the end, this film broke that boundary of suspeded disbelief a few too many times for me. For example (Peligroso: Spoilers), Superman can be shot at point blank range and not die. Fine, he's a superhero, I'll buy it. But his suit comes out equally unscathed. Perhaps his suit is made of some super mylar-coated somethingorother. But then why is it so easy for Lex, in the film's real emotional climax, to shove a shard of Kryptonite through his super-suit?
Well, maybe the suit is from Krypton too? Wasn't it made of his swaddling clothes? Then wouldn't it be vulnerable to kryptonite?
And by the way. That whole island he created! If I am to understand the logic of the movie correctly, that whole island was basically made of kryptonite. How did Supe not notice? How was he even able to fly over it?
I'm pretty sure the idea was that the kryptonite was stretched through the island. When you looked down, you could see bits of it shining through, but the whole thing wasn't made of kryptonite.
I also saw many moments of wasted potential. For example, someone asks Lois, "So does he hear everything at once, or does he focus on one thing at a time?" And the same question is addressed later on, when Superman flies just above the atmosphere and listens to cries for help from all over the globe. Why does he need to fly so high to do that?
Because it was a cool image. Maybe because that's where he can concentrate. Why does there need to be a scientific reason for that?
Can't he hear them all just as well from the surface (where the air can actually vibrate with the sound
Obviously he can because he does several times. But then he's distracted by what's going on around him, perhaps.
And how, by the way, does he manage to do that without going completely insane?
Dude, he's fucking SUPERMAN for crying out loud.

I think too many of these points are like bitching about the Enterprise for not being spaceworthy.
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Post by Bjam »

jb wrote:
And by the way. That whole island he created! If I am to understand the logic of the movie correctly, that whole island was basically made of kryptonite. How did Supe not notice? How was he even able to fly over it?
I'm pretty sure the idea was that the kryptonite was stretched through the island. When you looked down, you could see bits of it shining through, but the whole thing wasn't made of kryptonite.
Yeah, I figured that it was kryptonite surrounded by the krypton-land-diamond-esque-things that Lex steals. So when the island is being made, it's primarily the diamond-things that make the island(since those are the ones that have the funky reaction to salt water or something), the kryptonite is just a sparkly add-on. Kind of like how you can make cookies, and if you add little bits of shredded coconut, upon first glance you would think they were fine. You could take a bite and get no cocunut. But then you could fall on the cookie and suddenly there's coconut everywhere. Bad analogy, but it kind of works. Kind of.
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