I can now forgive Bryan Singer for ditching X-Men - possibly even he couldn’t have saved X-3, but what he did with Superman Returns puts him at the top of the heap of action film directors. Quite simply Superman Returns is just about perfect. It has nearly everything one could want in a 21st Century incarnation for the Man of Steel and the physical production is visually as eye-poppingly glorious as anyone could hope for. The flying scenes (especially the Superman in space scenes) have a breadth and beauty around them that almost stops one’s breath - absolutely stunning.
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As we’ve come to expect, there is great humor throughout with winks to the comic books and previous Superman flicks and director Singer doesn’t shrink from paying obvious homage to the Reeve flicks - a very nice touch, indeed. Singer doesn’t shrink, either, from going for broke in the second half of the film’s more emotional content and the balance between action, love story, and pseudo-religious, philosophical storyline is just about perfect.
For all the pre-opening hype criticisms centering around an unknown actor portraying comic’s most beloved hero, Brandon Routh proves the naysayers pretty much wrong. He’s got the look, the moves and the feel of the character down. If his Clark Kent doesn’t quite have the presence Reeve brought to the role - (this Clark isn’t quite as endearingly bumbling or nerdy) he makes Clark likeable and believable - and makes fully plausible why Lois finds him slightly forgettable. As The Man of Steel, however, Routh takes the challenge straight on and does not once disappoint his audience.
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The opening sequences setting up the story have a classic old movie feel, a bit of exposition for history, hilarious snips of Lex Luthor beginning his bid for world domination, Lois and the rest of the world moving on in the years since Superman (and Clark’s) leave of absence, all culminating in a breathtaking action sequence wherein our hero saves the lives of those aboard the space shuttle - and ties it all in with America’s favorite pastime - Baseball!
Kate Bosworth’s Lois is a bit bristley (Lois always was) but she always let’s the vulnerable quality of her character crack through the tough-as-nails exterior.
Kevin Spacey’s Lex starts off with a bang, but it isn’t until the sequence with Lois aboard his yacht - the turning point of the film - that he gets to fully charm us with his evil craziness. If up til then I thought Spacey hadn’t quite captured the role (as I envisioned anyway), from this point on he OWNED Lex.
Parker Posey is an entirely different creature than was Valerie Perrine. Where Perrine was all curves and opinions, Posey is all angles and dim. A different spin on the character, but a worthy one.
It was terrific to see Eva Marie Saint - now in her 60th year of films, in the small role of Martha Kent. Even washing dishes or driving her truck, Saint exudes movie star quality that proves the old adage “there are no small roles.”
The movie’s more than two and a half hours fly by and everyone - at least at the screening I attended - is left feeling like a kid again.
This is probably going to be the hit of the summer and well it should. It has just about everything one could want in a first “return” feature for this superhero and I’m already excited for 2009’s sequel! See it on a big screen. Now!
After nearly twenty years, Superman returns triumphantly to the screen to save the day of both the moviegoer and the theater owners looking for golden entertainment. It might not hurt the studio producers too, but let’s keep them out of this. Supes is back and there is popcorn to be made.
Director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men) takes a dusty, beat up franchise and literally sinks his teeth into it. This has class written all over it and much like the director’s previous work, this is really no surprise. It’s a blessing in disguise.
After last year’s schizophrenic Batman Begins and this year’s laughable at most X-Men 3: The Last Stand, Superman Returns fails to follow suit. This is a film that takes all that was great in comic book filmmaking and just stains the screen with it. This is a film that knows what it wants to do and simply does it.
More than anything, this is a film.
Brandon Routh deliciously portrays Clark Kent/Superman as he awkwardly returns to his second home, planet Earth. There he finds that the world is in turmoil yet `getting by’ without him. His greatest friends have long forgotten him while the love of his intergalactic life has moved on, now with a child and a husband to boot. Technically speaking, his return is without merit.
However, things seem to change for the worst when Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) also has his share in the homecoming. After evading a double life sentence, Luthor has plans for global domination–literally. He visits Superman’s fortress, steals the invaluable alien crystals, and discovers a magnificent hidden truth inside that is damaging to both Superman and the world.
So in the end, yeah, the world starts the Superman hype again.
Taking on the heroic role of revitalizing the series, director Singer picks up the franchise where Richard Donner and Richard Lester’s previous work respectively left off. This means ignoring the ill fortuned Superman III and IV, both films becoming too reliant on the gimmick rather than the story.
Everything here is back to the basics plus one.
Returns sports the same original theme conceived by John Williams, this time Singer’s favorite composer John Ottman takes the reigns. By the time the theme picks up pace and the blue retro-terrific titles fly past the screen, you might want to pinch your arm and remind yourself that this is still 2006 and not 1978.
Effects aside, the film retains the magic and aura of the original entry with newcomer Brandon Routh filling in and gracefully replacing the late Christopher Reeve’s tights and boots. He is enigmatic, spunky, and fortunately for the role of Clark Kent he is unbearably clumsy. Routh is Superman, delivering lines like “Good night, Lois” as if they’re straight from the audio files that have collected dust for over twenty years now.
Supporting Routh at his side are Kate Bosworth as the ill-tempered journalist Lois Lane and the energetic and screen stealing Kevin Spacey who looks to be having just the right amount of fun as the arch nemesis Luthor. For Bosworth, this role is a long stretch from the surfer hey-day she came from nearly four years ago but she nails it with the right expressions and a perfect pitch.
Even Margot Kidder should be proud…
Spacey, on the other hand, portrays Lex Luthor as he should be. This is of course the same role originally staged by Gene Hackman. Yet instead of the forcibly awkward casting of Hackman, Spacey takes the character and soars to heights that might rival that of the caped crusader.
Gene Hackman might bite his lip at this one.
The film clocks in at two and a half hours which might welcome or daunt the audiences for the next coming month. Considering modern epics of the likes of King Kong or The Lord of the Rings series sport running times of three to four hours, it might be safe to say that moviegoers should be more than happy.
A longer running time allows the film to stretch, to explore, and to expand the storyline that might otherwise be constricted in anything shorter. Singer even takes a cue from director Peter Jackson’s work by upping the characterization and organizing outlandish, superior action sequences over breathtaking settings.
It’s times when the almighty caped one struggles that the film really shines. Never once do the action sequences seem overly done or outwardly jutting from the storyline. The thing works and blends so smoothly that there’s no fruit to be left at the bottom.
The dialogue is snappy, the chemistry is modern science, and the effects succeed on a level of believability and boyhood wonder. This is a film for everyone that wants a film for themselves. For those looking for a hero that they’d rather look up to than relate to, Superman Returns delivers the package right on time.
It just might have taken twenty years and counting in the process.
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