it has been five years since superman disappeared from the face of the earth just like that (snap!). the world has moved on with him, and so has lois lane, who is now with a child and a new man in her life. and just like that (snap!) the big blue boy scout returns and catches up on the things he missed. meanwhile, the evil lex luthor has another evil scheme up his evil sleeve: use the crystals he found in superman's fortress of solitude to make a new kryptonian continent right next to america. will he succeed or will our formidable flying friend foil the foul fiendish foe's felony? fee-fi-fo-fum!
first, i am angered that they did not show us the spider-man 3 teaser trailer. it was supposed to be included in all prints of superman returns, and i so expected to see it in the theater but alas! some morons decided not to release it just yet. what? they gonna show it in front of some stupid pinoy teen love team flick? curses! disappointed, i went to apple.com and watched the trailer there and thanks to the goosebumps, i am now okay.
so there i was with layla, lying on our lazy-boy seats, finishing our popcorn and drinks before the movie started. then the lights went out, spider-man was a no show, and then... superman returned. as kyrpton exploded and the credits rolled (or flashed, like the opening credits of superman 1, props to that!), i repeated in my head a pre-movie mantra i think every comic book geek knows: please, don't suck... please, don't suck... please, don't suck...
well, it didnt suck. it... sipped (i hope you get it).
as a kid, when i first saw superman the movie in betamax, i thought it was the most amazing thing i have ever seen in my entire life. holy hummingbirds, that man can fly! fast forward to the present, it is only understandable for a fanboy like me to expect as much. but i read a couple of not so good reviews, and i forced myself to lower my expectations. now those were met. the rest, misfired. i believe that it is bryan singer's fault, that he was given too much freedom with the material, and that he wanted to pay homage to the original too much that he made a movie that had personality issues. wait, folks. dont crucify me yet. i liked the movie. i feel i got my money's worth. but it needs improvement. it has more flaws than i thought it would have.
now before i delve into the details of what worked and what didnt in superman returns, i must warn you that i will be treading in spoilersville. actually, to me, this review is spoiler-free. i mean, what is there to spoil? it's superman versus lex, superman will obviously win and save the day. plus, there's the love story and we all know where that's going, so technically, no spoilers. but for goodness' sake, if you havent watched the movie, i would recommend that you stop reading this right now and just come back here when you've seen it. thanks.
passionately honoring the superman legend and choosing to follow the continuity of superman 2 was both a hit and miss for bryan singer and co. sure, he had to show his love for the superman mythos and do this as a tribute to those who went before him, but this only makes superman returns less original, seeming like more of a remake (of superman 1) than a sequel. some of it where cool though, like retaining the silly but iconic cowlick, and the one photograph of superman carrying a car above him which is exactly like the action comics #1 cover where superman first appeared. i did like the superman and lois flying scene a bit (which they already did in superman 1) because this one was done in a different context and how this used the same theme that played in the original. (layla questioned what the flying scene was for, to which i replied that in superman 2, superman erased lois lane's memory of her knowledge that clark kent is superman and who knows what else was deleted. and besides, if i was superman, id take her flying everyday!). and while im on the subject of flight, the flying effects were okay but having scene all of this in matrix reloaded and revolutions, it wasnt anytything new.
i didnt like the idea of superman just leaving like that without saying au revoir to search for kryptonian answers and then come home with nothing. they should have at least made him find something, no matter how insignificant, or or maybe something found him, so that at least his 5 year-absence was a total waste of time. it's also awkward how his return was just accepted like air by everyone, except lois, and as clark kent he just goes back to work like he just took a day off. the coincidence of superman and clark being gone at the same time and returning at the same time wasnt even touched. only one scene sniffs at this suspicious subject: lois lane and her husband-to-be compare superman's stats with clark's but they dismiss it with a nerdy wave from clark. a weak scene, would've have been better if clark clumnsily toppled a pen holder or a pile of papers instead. superman returns scores low on humor. not much in the drama department either, so leave your box of tissues at home (in superman 1 i fought tears from fallin when jonathan kent died and clark said that he couldnt even save him despite all his powers. classic). i guess bryan singer needs to work on his tearjerking.
what i do think bryano is quite good at is finding untapped talent. he gave us hugh jackman with wolverine, now he's got brandon routh. when i first saw this guy in a few online pics as clark kent, he had a slight resemblance to the late christopher reeve. in the movie, not only does he look a bit like chris, he sounds very much like him as well, especially in clark kent move. he was great as clark kent, but kinda lacked the simpleton-ness that chris conveyed. he also did good as superman (the resemblance ends with clark kent), but still needs to work on the level of respect that chris's superman demanded. and is it me, or doesnt the way he flies looks kinda awkward? (this is evident in the pre-end credits flight scene where brandon flies and smiles to the camera the same manner it was done by chris in the 4 superman films. im sure that if you played those scenes side by side, you'd notice the difference.) i also think he needs to practice "pain" acting more. tom welling seemed better at this. overall, mr routh was a good choice for this role. another good choice which really surprised me was kate bosworth. i initally thought she was a miscast, considering her previous roles (a babe in rules of attraction, a surfer chick in blue crush), and how she didnt look like the lois lane type. but lick my loins, what a great performance by miss bosworth. great as reporter lois, great as mommy lois, and great as you-left-and-i-moved-on lois. would have been better with a pinch of margot kidder's quirkiness, the role was kinda too serious, but that's just me. photo-junkie jimmy olsen was good, and so was perry white, although i wonder what it would have been like if hugh laurie (house) got the role. the inclusion of cyclops was okay too, a good guy instead of being "she's mine" psychotic. it was also nice to see that the kid didnt do any haley joel osment or dakota fanning all-out acting (watch out for the piano scene). also, the little screen time that martha kent had was effective, especially in her last scene, looking up at the hospital because she cant go in or else she blows superman's cover. which finally brings us to the role of lex luthor. hmm. ive always like kevin spacey as an actor, he was great in the usual suspects (also by b.s.), k-pax, american beauty, the life of david gale etc. here, he wasnt great. not even good, imho. i prefer the lex luthor portrayal of gene hackman, and im sure kevin spacey used that as inspiration and mixed it with his own, which led to a mad, unconvincing lex. gene hackman's lex was arrogant and rude and funny, repetitively proclaiming that he is the greatest criminal mind of the century, and casually dealing with three powerful kryptonian villains. kevin spacey's lex just comes off as a 2-dimensional power-hungry mastermind. i do however have sort of absorbed his "billions!" and "wroonnngg!!!" lines, so i guess he managed to squeeze in a good one. and then there's lex's neanderthal minions, one who looks like will ferrell and another who looks like adrien brody, who were pretty useless, and i couldnt see why they had to cast kumar from harold & kumar go to white castle, in an equally useless, yes-sir role. kitty was great though, enjoyed her car with no breaks scene, but she is no ms. teschmacher.
now about the costume... it was fine with me. they had to do some changes, okay. the s became smaller, okay. there's an s on the belt and no s on the cape, okay. keyword: acceptance. but i think the colors were kinda dull. when the s shield is displayed in the opening credits, it was shiny and vibrant. why then did they have a different color scheme with the costume? because... the shield would look dull if they used the costume colors. sheesh. and then there is superman's boots. or, more appropriately, his "combat" boots. looked like they were designed by skechers. very out of place with superman's sleek suit. and by the way, they really schould start tackling the science behind the costume. if bullets ricocheting off of it dont leave a scratch, how come a human doctor was able to rip it off so easily?
all in all, i think this was a good "reintroduction" movie. im sure some would get blown away by the airplane resuce sequence. it was good scene, but i thought it needed more oomph, as this movie needed more action than just superman carrying stuff. heat vision was used well here, i particularly liked the sheet that superman made to disintegrate the falling debris. after several paragraphs, i still havent said enough about this movie. there many other things to like and love, to hate and hiss at. maybe it was just that we expected too much after taking so long for the movie to arrive at the silvescreen. remember, it could have been worse: nicholas cage was once cast as superman and one producer wanted to make some "gay" changes. clearly, bryan singer wasnt able to perform the magic he did with xmen 1 & 2 but was able to put on a good show for fans and non-fans alike. and hey, it's superman, dude! that man can fly!
the good: homages, acting, and that one scene where superman bathes in the sun's rays!
the bad: lex, costume, having nothing new.
the ugly: the borrowed scenes from spider-man (run jump run) and james bond (you'll see... well, only if you saw goldeneye).
the verdict: 7 kryptonite shards.
superskizzy.
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