kenada_woo
Posts: 1669
Joined: 30/9/2005
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Okay, bit more of a detailed review as I throw in my two pence.
Superman Returns taking place five years after Superman 2. He fucked off to Krypton, come back and found out that Lois Lane has a kid, and fiancé and that Luther is out of prison.
So….the opening 40 minutes are thoroughly entertaining and sometimes magical. Be it the excellent plane sequence, the shots of Superman in the sky, the credit sequence, and the meeting of Lois Lane and Superman - you do get the feeling that the film can only get better.
Then the middle section of the movie hits and where it loses the edge. The reason? The film never really expands on anything it introduces in place of progressing its rather tedious plot.
The idea of why Superman went back to Krypton was interesting. Did it go anywhere? No. Lois is engaged to someone else and has a child. Again interesting thing for Superman to deal with. Did it go anywhere or add to anything? Not really.
You’ve got an excellent opportunity for confrontation and emotional tension in this love triangle between Lois, Superman and White (Played well by James “Cyclops” Marsden). But its never dealt with properly or pushed to its limit. Marsden’s character is a thoroughly, bloody nice bloke. Superman cares but doesn’t really do anything about it. Then there’s Lois who to me doesn’t come across as someone torn between to lovers. There’s no real tension between any of it. Glances and asides when the characters are all together (the saving of Superman from the water sequence) don’t really do it for me - it needs to be played up more. This is what I think works excellently in the Spider-Man movies. Parker is torn between who what he is and also who he loves, the balance is always well handled and pushed to its potential adding to emotionally engaging film.
Also when Superman comes back, he’s embraced with open arms. The Pulitzer Prize article Lois writes about “Why the world doesn’t need Superman” again was something interesting to me. Also, what he says about hearing people crying out for a saviour was poignant and important to who Superman is – a selfless being. But was it ever put to good use? Again, no. Ideas like does the world want Superman or does Superman want to help the world after his love doesn’t want him, were there to be dealt with but never used. Does Superman get expanded anymore? A little bit but there’s never any threat against the Man of Steel himself. No moral out cry that he didn’t save someone in time, no sense that he was lonely (though the scene where he’s flying and he hears Jor-El saying “you’re not one of them” was great) or outcast from the people he was saving. Overall, there wasn’t enough on his plate with all the set-up and interesting ideas that are actually in the film.
Brandon Routh as Superman I cant really fault to be honest. Brilliantly cast but I felt that Kent character could’ve had more screen time cos for the last hour of the film or so, he aint in it (leading to believe why someone hadn’t put to and two together and wondered where Kent had gone when Superman was in the hospital. That and little niggles like why didn’t Lex just knife Superman to death on that Island, do pull up some of the scripts flaws).
But Kate Bosworth suffers from what a lot of new up-and-coming leading ladies suffer from – looking too young (another eg Natalie Portman). The girl looks about 20 years old and doesn’t have any weight behind her to confront Superman to make us believable she this strong reporter helplessly in love with him, something Margot Kidder excellently did in the previous movies. She does well but never anything special.
Spacey’s Lex Luther? Never blew away, and lacked Hackman’s subtlety, but still entertaining and really should’ve had more to do. Its not Spacey’s fault it’s the character of Luther himself – he’s boring and been done in two other movies. I always had my doubts about bringing back Luther to be the villain in the new movie and I still think it was a bad idea because it adds to the biggest flaw in the entire film – it’s more of the same.
Again I get the sense that Singer just cannot be bothered doing action scenes. I felt he did the same thing with his instalments of the XMen films. He had a variety of interesting and original characters during the action scenes and never utilised them to their full potential (minus Mystique) and what the third instalment did superbly IMO. The scenes in Superman (apart from the Plane sequence) are tired and dull, visually impressive but lifeless. The scene on the rooftop of the bank enforces this for me. What we get here is a tired and downright irritating “bullet-time” sequence that instead of inspiring awe, it delivers yawns. Christ, the fact Uwe Boll uses this technique religiously, you know its going out of style. And that summarises the action for me. The final 20 minutes which are very entertaining and recaptures a little bit of magic with its epic grandiose shots of Superman in the sky, the Island etc, is, when all send and done, yet another “Pick up something big and throw it away” sequence and was crying out for something…more.
Reading through this you’d think I hate the film. I don’t. It’s very good, wears it heart on its sleeve with sentimental over-tones wrapped up in a beautifully shot film. There are some iconic moments and inspiring shots of Superman reinforcing how legendary the character is – moments that recaptures Alex Ross’s beautiful artwork in Kingdom Come etc. The score too encapsulates and grabs you by throat – the opening credits had me giggling like a schoolgirl. Wouldn’t be surprised John Ottman getting a nod for best score at next years Oscars. The FX too are pretty flawless, can’t think of any bad CGI work in any area. But as a continuation of Superman 2 it is a very flawed film. While Superman 2 took the step-up from the original bringing in a threat that could actually destroy Superman, progressing the relationship with Lois by actually getting them together, and Superman questioning himself, wanting to be Clark Kent by getting rid of his powers only to discover HE IS SUPERMAN and he cant get away from that. Superman Returns rarely does any of this and only brings in the aspect that Lois’ child is in fact his (somewhat lazy when you think about it) and that Lois is engaged.
Overall, an entertaining film that has brief moments of greatness but is never truly great. A kick-start to a franchise it works and its brilliant seeing Superman on the big-screen. But as it continues from the previous films, its full of promise and potential but never goes that distance to fully expand on them and the characters. Superman doesn’t really soars…he glides.
****/*****
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