Superman Returns [HD DVD] | Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth | The Man Of Steel Is Back...With A...

Superman Returns [HD DVD] | Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth | How many f's in catastrophe?

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Superman Returns [...

	Superman Returns [HD DVD] Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth Warner Home Video, 2007 average customer review:based on 753 reviews view larger image
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He's back. A hero for our millennium. And not a moment too soon because during the five years (much longer in movie-fan years!) Superman sought his home planet things changed on his adopted planet. Nations moved on without him. Lois Lane now has a son a fiance and a Pulitzer for "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." And Lex Luthor has a plan that will destroy millions - no billions - of lives. Filmmaker Bryan Singer (X-Men) gives the world the Superman it needs honoring the legend everyone loves while taking it in a powerful new direction. Brandon Routh proves a perfect choice to wear the hero's cape leading a top cast that includes Kate Bosworth as Lois and Kevin Spacey as Lex. And the thrills - from a sky-grapple with a tumbling jumbo jet to a continent-convulsing showdown - redefine Wow. "I'm always around" Superman tells Lois. You'll be glad he is.Running Time: 154 min.Format: DVD HD Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 085391181170

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The Man Of Steel Is Back...With A Vengeance.

After 20 years, The Man Of Steel is back...with a new face. From the director & writer of "The Usual Suspects" (an engrossing suspense thriller with a wicked twist of an ending) comes the "Sequel" to
"Superman II." Disregarding the abysmal "Superman III" & "Superman IV" (despite a terrific performance from Christopher Reeve; stupid script & horrible direction), this film is a sequel & homage to the films made in 1978 & 1980. Brandon Routh makes an interesting Clark Kent/Superman, but he fell flat when he said the lines spoken by Christopher Reeve in the original. I enjoyed the subplot with Lois Lane and her son. Really good. I'm looking forward to the sequel. Rated PG for action violence.

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How many f's in catastrophe?

No offense to Brian Singer because I really did enjoy the X-Men movies, but I still don't understand who decided that re-making Superman was a good idea. Even more obvious in my head then Micheal Keaton is Batman, Christopher Reeve *is* Superman. It took the phenomenal talent of Christian Bale to shift the idea of who The Batman could be and make me believe it. How could any less be expected of the next actor to fill Reeve's blue tights.

What Christopher Reeve did was to create two separate and individual characters who just happened to be played by the same actor, and although we occasionally see them merge together for a moment or two, brief reminders that Clark Kent is Superman in disguise, it's that dedication to playing them as total polar opposites that makes Reeve's Superman iconic.

Unfortunately, as hot as he is, all Brandon Routh did was to remind me that he isn't Christopher Reeve. He looked the part well enough and mimicked Reeve's performance close enough that I didn't throw popcorn at the screen, but there was nothing that made me think, oh, yes, he is Superman. I was entertained, but mostly I just thought of how much better Christopher Reeve was in the part.

Kate Bosworth never even came close to Margot Kidder's Lois Lane, but then I never expected her to and so there was no real disappointment. It looked like they tried to age Bosworth into the part, which only made her look like a teenager playing dress-up. I didn't believe her as a mother for one minute, but doesn't necessarily require age to make believable. Acting chops, however, would have helped.

The rest of the cast was mostly negligible. I didn't care for the attempt at externalizing the love triangle between Kent, Lois and Superman by introducing James Marsden as Lois's capable, hunky Superman-esque fiance. He was, I think, meant to represent a melding of the two characters and I found that extraneous. Because of the type of film it was, I wasn't expecting Lois to leave her fiancé for the Man of Steel and without at least the hint of that possibility, we loose a lot of narrative tension.

Gene Hackman continues to reign supreme as Lex Luthor. Kevin Spacey did nothing to convince me of otherwise. I did, however, adore Parker Posey as Luthor's Pomeranian carrying girlfriend, Kitty. I was initially reminded of Miss Tesmacher in the original Superman, but that didn't last for long. Parker's ditzy, emaciated brunette was just screwball enough to make me forget (or forgive) her similarities to Miss Tesmacher.

Overall, I was surprised that I didn't hate Superman Returns, that I was just entertained enough to watch it til the end and was even invested in him recovering, like we knew he would, from the Kryptonite poisoning (How he managed to lift that giant coral reef of Kryptonite and hurl it into space, I will never understand, especially considering how it was COVERED with Kryptonite AND he had Kryptonite fragments still in his body -- but oh well, handwave, as they say).

Maybe if there hadn't been so many successful re-inventions of the Superman mythology then I would have been more satisfied with the movie. I don't, for example, ever compare Smallville with the Superman movie franchise, or Tom Welling with Christopher Reeve. In my mind they are two different things. Same goes for differences between the films and the cartoons (Animated Series and Justice League). I can only lay blame at the feet of a movie that invoked a superior film without successfully reimagining it into something new and fresh.

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Too much posing and melancholy

When I originally saw the movie in the movie theathers back in 2006, I remember it had enough qualities to make it a good popcorn movie but ultimately it felt kind of empty.

My main issues with the movie are that it's bogged down by the melancholy that's portrayed by the alienation of Superman and I did not buy Brandon Routh on the screen as Superman.

How many times do we have to see Superman standing alone above the city in front of a setting sun appearing to be deep in-thought as a Christ-like figure?? Instead of sludging through the movie like it's some sort of melodrama, why don't you have the most powerful being on the planet take on a problem with a much wider scope, more powerful villians (e.g. Brainiac/Doomsday), and more action with the tempo picking up at the end of the movie instead of another plot with Lex Luthor coming across more Kryptonite to use against Superman.

As for Brandon Routh, the only time I found him to be believable in the movie was the first 15 minutes when he portrayed the Smallville/Kansas version of Clark Kent. When the movie progressed to Metroplis, I felt like he was trying to imitate Christopher Reeve's version of Superman. I believe he should have abandoned the nebbish/comical take that Reeve perfected in his movies and should have played Clark with more originality. Also, he never demonstrated the proper amount of authority (or maturity) and charisma when he was Superman. When he ran down the street, taking off his work clothes and showing the "S" on his costume, he looked like a nervous wet-behind-the-ears kid...instead of looking like the confident modern-day Hercules who's grown into being Superman.

I just hope for Man of Steel, they correct these issues and develop a movie that does Superman justice.

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