Superman Returns

[Enchantress]

I'm loving all the ads, trailers and teasers I've seen for Superman Returns so far.

I thought I'd start a thread so we could discuss after it opens next week.

[Local Hero]

I am also looking forward to it - Spacey as Luthor seems to be capturing the humour and intensity of Hackman from the first two movies (we will draw a discreet veil over 3 & 4 eh) Routh as Clark and Superman seems to be a good fit for Christopher Reeve who I am sure would approve of the direction Singer seems to have taken. Fingers Crossed it will all come good and we will see some good sequels ahead. :dcsp:

[DarkKnight430]

Definitely excited. I saw the first trailer yesterday I had seen that included the original John Williams score. It sent chills up my spine. I caught myself saying silently, "Alexander Salkind presents..." LOL

[Enchantress]

I think Brandon Routh looks great as Kal-El! And I absolutely love the casting of Keyser Soze...err..Kevin Spacey as Luthor. Of course, I think that's why Bryan Singer chose Kevin, they worked together on The Usual Suspects.

[Enchantress]

Well, we went to an 11pm showing last night. Had to find someone to watch the munchkin after she went to bed.

Anyway, if it hadn't been for these three a@^$&(% teenage boys sitting behind us, I probably would have enjoyed the movie more. They did nothing but laugh through the whole thing. Thor turned around at one point and told them to shut up, they got quiet, then towards the end they started up again and I finally spoke up.
They hightailed it out of the theater and were waiting for us in the parking lot, being little smartasses, until the Asgardian in me started after them. They left rather quickly after that.

The movie however, visually stunning. I absolutely loved the nod to the Donner films in the opening credits. And I understand now why my neice has changed her myspace to a Superman myspace. Brandon Routh OWNED Superman (In my opinion). He was great.
Spacey was a good mix between Michael Rosenbaum's Smallville Lex Luthor and Gene Hackman's in the original films.
My only beef, I couldn't get past Cyclops. Seriously stick with one comic book genere. I kept waiting the whole movie for him to screw up and yell "JEAN!" instead of Lois.

:dcsp:

[DarkKnight430]

I went with a friend to a 7 p.m. showing on Friday night, and let me say that I was pleasantly surprised with the film. Being a "purist" when it comes to the role of Superman in movies (read: Superman: The Movie, starring Christopher Reeve, is the only true Superman movie), I was skeptical that Brandon Routh could pull off the role. I was wrong. There were times when Brandon was delivering lines I could swear he was channeling Reeve. One thing did bug the hell out of me, though. That damn curl on his forehead! Too fake looking. Looked like they had to try too hard to get it to resemble anything close to a curl. Sorry. I know it's a trivial point, but it distracted me every time the Superman persona was on screen.

I definitely feel like Kevin Spacey absolutely nailed the Lex Luthor role. The perfect blend of madness and genius.

I thought the visual effects were nothing short of amazing. I did have some beefs with the plane scene though. I know it was a comic book movie. (1. Comic Book physics. 2. Movie physics.) And yet, this scene to me was not even the least bit believable. In at least some of the comic book-based movies I've seen lately (Batman Begins, for example), the true laws of physics were relatively adhered to. This scene threw most of the natural laws of physics out the window. I won't sour the milk of this movie by taking up the time and space to elaborate. I will say that even though I had issues with this scene, it wasn't enough to reduce my opinion of the movie itself. Overall, I thought it was awesome. Definitely glad I saw it.

Oh, and listen for the quick mention of Gotham..... :dcbat:

[AngelRogue]

I've posted my full review along with a theory as to why Jason White is so frail over HERE. :dcspwaw:

[The Mighty Thor]

I liked the movie for the most part. Although, after giving it a few days thought, I think there is room for big improvements in the inevitable sequel. Spoilers follow..............

Brandon Routh was dead on perfect in my book. He nailed it and could only get better if the story around him was built to allow it. Lets see Superman fighting something that really taxes him. I want to see the guy flex his muscles, and not just to lift an enormour crystal out of the ocean. Give him a villain to beat on that could actually go a few rounds. Mongul, Metallo, Bizarro, Parasite, Darkseid or even, god forbid, Doomsday. I for one am tired of the same old, same old Luthor/Kryptonite schtick.

Speaking of Luthor, Kevin Spacey was pretty darned good, but only so with as much as he was given to do. Luthor was not written all that well in my opinion. He didn't exude the evil genius that he should have. His master plan for example had a hole in it big enough to use as a hoop for the falling Planet logo. Ok, so he planned to destroy the US in order to make room for his new super continent? But if you give it some thought, if the USA was destroyed, the world economy would take so long to recover that Luthor wouldn't be around to reap any benefit that might actually come from it. I think that Luthor was really only included because it was expected. If Brian Singer could have left him out entirely, I bet he would have. The writers need to watch a few episodes of Justicve League Unlimited to find out just how to write Lex.

The supporting cast was above average. Kate Bosworth, who I hated the idea of playing Lois, even surprised me. Yes, she was still unforgivably too young for the part, but she did the best she could. Langela, Huntington and Marsden were very good in their roles. And even the little surprise revelation didn't bother this hard core geek too much. What bothered me most was the long drawn out ending. You see Superman recovering in a hospital bed, which I think was just plain odd. It seemed so out of place to me that the movie screached to a halt the minute I saw him on the gurney. And then we were given this slow crawl to the credits that I think seriously undermined the fast paced wow bang pace that the film had early on. I think Superman Returns was good, but it wasn't great. Although, I had the same feelings towards Singer's first X-Men film. And the sequel to it is still the benchmark to which I measure all other comic book movies, so who knows, maybe the next one will get it over the fence, instead of safely holding at third the way Superman Returns did.

[Enchantress]

If anyone was going to be critical of the movie, I knew it would have to be you, O' Mighty One. The years upon years of Big Blue's books that are crowding out my guestroom closet bear evidence to that.

However, I enjoyed it for what it was, a good movie. But like any good movie, there's always room for improvement.

[The Truth]

While I thoroughly enjoyed the movie as a whole, most of the cast left quite a bit to be desired in my opinion. Routh was....passable. I would have preferred someone with a tad more muscle mass but meh. I guess that's more visual than performance based, since he did do a rather nice job with both characters. Spacey had some truely outstanding moments IMO, but his over the top moments kinda soured the overall for me. Kumar barely did anything, but James Marsden (a supporting character no less) really showed his chops. Probably the most believeable character in the piece, he really shined through.

[SLVRSR4]

Overall: Loved it

Major nitpick: [spoiler]WHY THE HELL DOES SUPERMAN HAVE A KID, AND WHY SHOULD I CARE? THIS HAD ABOUT AS MUCH BEARING ON THE MOVIE AS KATIE HOLMES' CHARACTER DID IN BATMAN!!!!! I'M NOT THAT MUCH OF A SUPERMAN FAN TO BEGIN WITH, BUT FOR GOD'S SAKE! WHY WAS THIS NECESSARY?[/spoiler]

[Enchantress]

To answer your question SR4
[spoiler]Superman couldn't have a kid! He'd blow Lois's back out![/spoiler]

Had to, Clerks 2 comes out tomorrow!