Superman Returns will be hitting screens this Friday, both in normal cinemas and on the bfi London IMAX, which will be showing the film at Imax size and with revolutionary sections of 3-D. While there's still time to book tickets, here's the Empire verdict on this giant leap for film watching…
While many of the big releases in the last few years have been blown up to Imax size, Superman Returns is the first live-action feature film to undergo IMAX 3-Dification, and the revolutionary processes involved are impressive but not entirely successful.
The IMAX-size throughout the film allows you to drink in Singer’s gorgeous visuals and really revel in Supes’ world, and in particular the credit sequence – jaw-dropping and eye-popping even on a normal-sized screen but absolutely mind-blowing here – will leave you gasping, although why on Earth they weren’t given the 3-D treatment is a mystery.
The 3-D sections amount to about 20 minutes in four sections through the film, with icons that appear to warn you to don the nerdy-looking glasses. And the good news is that they’re largely very impressive. A flashback sequence on the Kent farm is a gentle introduction to 3-D, before the much more spectacular plane sequence tests the limits of the technology. Without wishing to give away any spoilers, another major action sequence is covered, and then there’s two minutes or so of 3-D flying shots towards the end.
When 3-D works, it will absolutely change your world – but there are still teething problems. The film clearly wasn’t shot with 3-D in mind, and the way that shots are framed means that its full potential isn’t used – things flying across the screen are obviously less 3-D friendly than things flying straight to camera. What’s more, Singer has used shaky handheld camera for many of the action scenes, and that doesn’t suit 3-D at all – steadycam and static shots are where this technology lives, at least at this stage.
There is also the occasional ghost around the edge of the images which can be distracting, but overall this is an impressive spectacle that gives you a real taste of things to come. With Spielberg, Cameron and Lucas lining up to bring 3-D to feature films old and new, Superman Returns is the start of an era, and on this evidence it’s going to be a good one.
Pick up Issue 206 of Empire magazine for the full Superman Returns review.