Lets get one thing straight: This is my movie. You have your Batman fans, your Spiderman fans and your Superman fans. Everyone has a preference and mine since I could be found running round my pre-school playground with my jacket hood over my head as a make-shift cape has been Superman.
I drove my mother to distraction with the original Superman movies, I must have seen them something like 70 times. And yes, I'm just a big kid, always have been. Now in my early twenties I have yet to grow out of my childhood love of Superman. I'm an uber-fan so this movie had to deliver on all cylinders.
Did it succeed? Yes it most certainly did. . . Sort of.
First of all we have to talk a bit about the Man of Steel himself as interpreted by Brandon Routh.
I've been saying this guy has the shakes for a long time now, I've fought his corner on this board and others more than once, way back when Superman Returns was still in production.
Routh is Superman. He knocks this one out of the ballpark. There are moments that just gutshot you right into Reeve's performances. The half cocked smile, the timbre of his voice, the Clark Kent mannerisms perfected by Reeve are echoed here in Routh's delivery as both an homage and as a great device to tie the past generation into this new ability to tell a story with all of the technology at hand.
Likewise with Superman (a trickier character to nail than most give credit for) he does good. Think how difficult a challenge Superman is to play. Routh has to act with the spirit of Reeve without mimicking his performance and bring something new to it for both Clark and Supes. He is a raving success in my book and I look forward to many more movies with Routh in the cape.
Before I go any further the suit needs mention since it's been such a hot-bed of discussion for so long. Does it work? Yes, it does. It does what you can see they tried to do with it; Remove the campiness (as much as you can of course). The material they used for the suit works well and the "S" shield was nowhere near the distraction that most thought it would be. The subdued colours took a bit of getting used to but this is accompanied with the feel of the film which I will delve into shortly. The one thing I didn't like about the suit was the high neck-line. The cape looked stuffed into his collar and I think they should of stuck with the method they had for Reeve in the originals. Also, I missed the "S" sheild on the back of the cape but that's a minor quibble.
Ok, Superman is back and this is the continuation of Superman I & II while it wisely sweeps III & IV under the proverbial rug. Who here remembers Nuclear Man? Ok, ok.. enough sniggering, let's get on with it... I didn't need an origin story again and I didn't need a reboot so I wasn't fussed by this. The movie starts out with a great credit sequence inspired by the originals and straight away I was ready for this movie. The story is fair if not spectacular. I guess you have to view it as the kick-start of the franchise again so it was very introductory in it's pacing and character development.
Lois is...Well... Kate Bosworth doesn't do anything that remarkable with the role at all really. I don't think she sucked but I found it hard to identify with her as Lois. I would have cast her part differently for sure. Maybe Rachel McAdams. All in all I think Lois could have been done better but it wasn't something that got on my nerves while watching but it was one of my more major gripes. Lois seems to take her five year old son on these life and death missions now and some of her choices when weighed against the fact that she is a mother are eyebrow raising to say the least, though this is more of an after thought.
I was put off by the fact that the kid
Is Supermans.
And now we get to Lex as played by the always fantastic Kevin Spacey:
Spacey is one of the my favorite actors. He has a talent about him that reminds me of the old masters and I have yet to see him screw up a role, and of course his rendition of Lex is no different. Callous, funny and angry would be the three traits I think he brought to the role and it works well.
The tone of the movie is probably one of the most major things to discuss and is going to be the make or break for a lot of people. Superman Returns is darker than previous incarnations by quite some way. It's shot dark, it's played dark and the tone is very subdued in both art direction and story. This movie is not a fun cheery romp as you would usually expect from Superman. It takes itself seriously and manages not to make a fool of itself by having a few good comedy moments that actually work and bring a smile to your face without camping it up. Parker Posy is definitely worth a mention as Kitty, her scenes really lift the dark atmosphere, I thought she was a great complementing role to Spacey.
I am one of about six people on the face of the planet that didn't think Batman Begins and Spiderman were that amazing. They were fair but I didn't really have any inclination to watch them again. I call Batman Begins the funny beard movie to the chagrin of many and I fucking hated Spiderman 2, it was a crock of shit. X-Men 2 has been the only big blockbuster comic book movie I can think of off the top of my head that has really gone down in my book as a great piece of cinema ever since the first X-Men movie kicked off the comic franchise again. Batman, X-Men and Spiderman (the first) are certainly the crowning jewels of the comic book movie revival while movies like Fantastic 4, Hulk and Catwoman are the crowning turds of the water drain. Superman Returns deserves it's place as a success and right alongside those other movies as a crowning jewel of great cmoic book movie. For me it's just better than all of them because it's Superman but I'm being impartial here, bear with me.
I've been blathering on for a while now but I'm pleased with the movie (thank god). It's not perfect and there are things that did annoy me slightly but this IS superman it IS breathtaking in parts and it makes me want to run around the house with the hood of my coat over my head again.
The first one is in the bag and I expect the sequel to shatter all expectations now. It's got the uneasy re-lighting of the franchise off to a not half decent start and for the next movie there is only one logical place to go: A superbaddie like Brainiac or Darkseid. I'm talking major fight scenes ripping Metropolis, Earth, Space the fricking Universe - you name it - to shreds. I want violence I want Superman the god-damn UFC champion.
Bring it on!
8.5/10
