CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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Review of Superman Returns

Thursday, January 18, 2007

this entry brought to you by the new pornographers, "twin cinema"




As a comic book nerd I had a few heres and theres with Superman Returns. For one thing, I never quite believed that Brandon Routh was perfect as Superman. I thought his Clark Kent was terrific, and his Superman was good, but not perfect, which was a feeling I never got while watching Bryan Singer's X-Men movies. Still, I recognize the pressure for Routh with filling Christopher Reeves' definitive red boots, and Routh comes off surprisingly well compared to his revered predecessor, but the fact still remains that I never quite felt like no one else could've done the job but him. The same goes with Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane; I was glad Singer decided to go with a face that wasn't trendy and of-the-moment, but Bosworth's young face never gave me the impression of the jaded, ace reporter Lois is supposed to be. Kevin Spacey was perfect as Lex Luthor-- well, as a continuation of the Lex Luthor in the first two Superman movies, and I've always had a problem with the way Luthor was in the movies; much more of a medium-ring shyster as opposed to the megalomaniacal, ultra-powerful Luthor in the comic books.

With the quibbles aside, Singer delivers an incredibly satisfying vision of Superman that perfectly captures the magic of not only the effect Superman has had on popular culture, but also the way comic books ought to be portrayed on the big screen, without falling into the trap of hero-worship that both of Sam Raimi's otherwise fantastic Spider-Man films did. It is dazzling and mystical, deliriously well paced, with a plot of such a grand scale it finds the viewer legitimately wondering how in the heck Superman is going to save the day, and it does so without any of the bizarre plot conveniences the first two movies had. The special effects are as gorgeous as one would expect from a Singer-directed superhero film, but it's the little things that Singer was acutely aware of that make Superman feel real. As an airplane plummets to the earth, Superman zooms down and grabs a wing, managing to slow it a little, but the force of the plane causes it to spin around a bit and the wing breaks off in his hands. Elsewhere, Superman grabs a runaway car and sets it down, standing with one leg bent forward, the way a man would if he were carrying a one ton vehicle, super strong or not. Even the difference between that and the way Superman delicately holds Lois Lane as he gently takes off into flight was smile inducing. I delighted in seeing all these little touches, because they heightened the reality of the character, both in making the movie itself feel more real, but also updating the character that we saw in the first two movies for the 21st century-- Superman isn't just incredibly strong, he also knows what he's doing at all times, like a true hero.

The part about this being an update of the first movies, though-- that's the one thing that keeps Superman Returns from being quite as good as X-2, which is now the standard for superhero movies. I loved Superman Returns, but I couldn't help feeling that Singer was too concerned with delivering a sequel to the first two movies from nearly two decades ago, which Singer obviously holds in the highest regards. One gets the sensation that directing the film brought him back to his childhood, and as much as Routh must've had to come to terms with filling Reeves' shoes, Singer is obviously intimidated filling Richard Donner's. Having the background feel already established was great and allowed for minimal retread of stories the audience already knows. Having Brando digitally return as Jor-El, Superman's Kryptonian father, was an excellent touch. Hearing the original Superman theme play throughout the movie was downright fist-pumpingly awesome. But I couldn't help but feel that Singer was delivering what he felt would be Donner's update to the classic franchise, without it being entirely his own movie. Considering Singer's excellent pedigree, that honestly would've been perfectly fine. The immensely talented Christopher Nolan re-launched the Batman franchise entirely off of what he wanted to see and where he wanted to go, and it didn't bother audiences at all, and I couldn't help but wonder what Superman Returns would've been like if Singer hadn't tried to make his Superman be such a direct extension of the classic films. Still, it's alright that he didn't quite reach the bar that he himself established with X-2; settling at the level established by the not-quite-as-excellent-but-excellent-nonetheless levels of Spider-Man 2 is perfectly, thrillingly acceptable.
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with love from CRS @ 7:59 AM 

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