*** Official SUPERMAN RETURNS Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Chris Atkins]

9/10

Tough review to write. Tough film to make (the pre-production hell is indication of that). In the end, while I feel this movie is good, I think the fact that the franchise is back--and the original films were honored--is great.

SR is great when the filmmakers are focusing on what makes Superman an iconic character. SR goes flat at times because of the plot structure of this particular film. I felt like some major scenes were missing in the first act of the film. I also felt like the last act was a bit bloated.

But Brandon Routh was superb...probably better than Reeve. I believed he was Superman. Bosworth was good too, but I wasn't expecting much from her performance (based on some reviews here). Spacey was pretty good as Luthor.

Singer and company had a tight rope to walk, and they did it with just a few wobbles. The franchise is well positioned to move forward, and I felt like the main characters were even moved forward quite well in this film.

 

[dpippel]

I caught Superman Returns at a DLP screening today (it looked MARVELOUS) with my two kids - LOVED IT! Sure the movie has flaws and was perhaps too reverential to the '78 Donner Superman, but it got my blood flowing like no other film in recent memory. The big money sequence with the space shuttle and jetliner rescue had me grinning like a kid! It was breathtakingly done. The most important thing is that Brandon Routh was absolutely excellent as Clark Kent/Superman. While he obviously used Reeve's performance from the original as a guidepost and inspiration, his work here is (dare I say it) nuanced and authentic. Singer's big gamble on this guy really paid off. I won't go into any more depth than this. Suffice it to say that this Superman film has a beating heart, and it kept me nailed to the screen during its entire runtime. The full house I watched it with applauded and cheered as the end credits began to roll. Highly recommended.

Three stars out of four.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I liked it. The main appeal of the Donner Superman was its emotional core, and I think Superman Returns shares a lot of that.

B+

 

[Haggai]

I liked it a lot, actually in sort of a different way from what I was expecting. The stuff between Supes and Lois was great, a surprisingly adult sort of relationship that's unlike anything I've seen in any other comic book adaptation. Bosworth is probably too young to be completely credible as a resentful mother with a 4 or 5 year old kid, but I thought she and Routh had nice chemistry together.

Some of the action sequences were great, definitely the airplane/shuttle scene, although I thought they could have trimmed some of that stuff here and there. I started thinking "OK, we get it, he's Superman" after a few of those. The old "everyone looks around nervously while objects all around them shake uncontrollably" build-up to some big explosion/land-mass-rising /catastrophic-energy-wave was used a little too often as well.

I like Spacey, although I don't think they quite found the right tone with him. He seemed to be shifting between scary, intense, and campy without settling on anything consistent. I do love Parker Posey, she was a lot of fun. They maybe should have given her a little more to do, maybe some more disguises or ruses to let her go over the top as part of Lex's plans.

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

I saw this Saturday night and I just haven't been able to shake my apathy towards the film. It was neither terrible nor great but mediocre - as if Singer, and Co., afraid to break anything, played it too close to the vest and thus robbed the film of any power.

None of the main characterizations worked for me: Kent and Superman both were dull and boring. Re-watching Superman I last night, I was struck by the mischievious humor in Reeve's portrayel of Kent. This Kent has none of that and seems less an opposite disguise for Superman than Superman in suit and glasses.

Lane too is bereft of the hard-nosed scrappiness that has defined earlier incarnations. Again, they made her a bland, by-the-numbers character.

While I appreciate Kevin Spacey, his Luthor trades in dark charm for thuggish brutality. This brutality, while rendered the best of any material in the film, feels out of place in the Superman universe.

Everything works and nothing does. Mechanically, I can't find anything really wrong with the picture but I can neither find a soul - some heart - in it. If I watched the action pieces and appreciated them, I did so clinically, without any attachment to the characters or to the situation.

I feel like Singer didn't want to be too this or too that - too campy, too comical, etc. - and so crafted, in the end, something wasn't enough of anything to distinguish it.

:star::star:1/2/:star::star::star::star::star:

 

[Adam_S]

:star::star::star:1/2 out of four

I can understand why a lot of people didn't like Superman Returns, but for me the movie really worked on almost all levels. throughout I was thinking: that's silly, that's not right, etc, but that was more along the lines of the silly lack of fail safes and manual controls in the space launch.

I actually bought Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, I don't think the sort of classic investigatory hardball Lois we're used to got much oppurtunity for screentime, but I saw it in her performance. She just looks to young and fabulous to be the mother of a child.

Brandon Routh was acceptable but the difference between his Clark Kent and Kal-El was pathetic, with Chris Reeve you completely understood how noone could spot the difference, he underwent a complete transformation between Clark and Kal-El.

Spacey was okay, but all the problems with Lex Luthor's story are problems in the weak writing by Dougherty Harris and Singer, Luthor is nowhere near as fascinating or interesting as on Smallville, and Rosenblum just walks all over Spacey's scenery chewing and I'm not a huge smallville fan.

the kid was used well, I think you could have cut everything relating to his parentage and not hurt the movie. I think the bedroom scene at the end was pleasant and effective but gratuitous and said too much.

So there are a whole bunch of reasons why the movie shouldn't work at all, but for me the whole was much much greater than the parts, and it was a fantastic and entertaining movie. I like this better than Cars because I didn't have to work to enjoy it, Cars I had to put effort into really loving it, both are excellent movies, but this one is smoother and more pleasing to the viewer, and I think it'll have pretty decent legs in spite of the Pirates juggernaut because it has a good broad appeal, batman begins had a good broad and dark appeal, this film is more uplifting and energetic, full of the sort of awe and cheers that we love about the Spiderman films, so I think despite a slow opening it'll do well if Warners supports it for the next two months.

 

[Dave Hackman]

I saw this at an IMAX theater where portions of the action sequences where rendered in 3D. It was neat watching this on the huge screen but the 3D portions made things a little blurry and smaller. I prefer the original Superman with Christopher Reeve mainly due to his better ability to transform between the two characters and a more satisfying storyline.

I had a slight problem with the threesome going on between Lois Lane, her boyfriend Richard White (Cyclops X-men) and Superman. For a person that is known to stand for moral integrity and truth, Superman sure seemed more like a selfish accomplice in an episode of Cheaters.

Lois where were you tonight? Oh, I was just smoking a cigarette and gazing into the stars on the roof. As her excuses begin to mount up, Richard contacts Cheaters for some help in determining where she is really spending all of her time.

The following night Richard is told the truth that she has been videotaped flying all over town with a man in a red cape. First, watch as they cuddle together around a cloud of smog, then watch as they fly as one, inches above water and finally witness her kissing him on the lips inside a local hospital with her son in tow. The woman has no shame.

Richard agrees to confront the two. He along with the Cheaters TV crew, board a helicopter and pull alongside Superman and Lois as they fly around the city. Cheaters investigators have their exact coordinates using the utmost in radar surveillance technology.

How could you do this to me? You said you where smoking and gazing into the stars and here you are flying around with this man of steel! I’m back at home preparing meals for you, your son, Jimmy and Clark and getting you easy assignments at work as you go out doing god knows what with this freak!

The cheaters investigator Joey Greco asks Superman how he feels sneaking around with Lois then returning to eat dinner with her soon to be husband? Umm, I’m just saving the world one person at a time and I can’t do that on an empty stomach.

Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luther had it too easy. Everything just fell in place without any real effort and there was no real passion to pay superman back for what he did to him. His plan to create a new continent with zero usable land was not exactly thrilling.

I didn’t care for Superman’s need to pose like a contestant in America’s Next Top model. Although I believe, Miss Jay Alexander would have made a worthy adversary. I cannot recall all the times he did this but it felt like a lot and I remember him in space absorbing the suns energy and posing for what seemed like an eternity, which looked stupid.

Clark Kent was in this movie by name only; no quirky nerdy behavior anymore and it appeared no effort was needed to keep his identity a secret. Gone was the need for a phone booth to change in and out of and in its place was an elevator shaft with access to the outside. Superman’s clothes flew off faster then those zapped folks in the War of the Worlds remake.

The action sequences were cool and seemed to make the next generation of movie lovers happy.

My favorite person in the movie is Lex Luther’s girlfriend Kitty Kowalski (Parker Posey). She played the sultry bitch in Blade: Trinity and does a fantastic job as a clueless tramp. She handled insults from Lex routinely without even a hint of demoralization. This was probably due to her inability to comprehend his statements but I chalk it down to her Ninja like self-esteem preservation skills. I think she provided the most laughs and actually made listening to Spacey bearable.

I don’t like the film’s story but the action scenes were entertaining and well worth the price of admission. I was impressed that this at least pleased the kids in the theater, which is more important then becoming another academy award nominee.

C+

 

[Carlo_M]

:star::star::star::star:/:star::star::star::star:

Girlfriend and I just got back from a nearly packed 7:15pm show at the Mann Village in Westwood Village where it was shown in DLP.

Let me get my DISLIKE out of the way right now, and it has nothing to do with Bryan Singer's film: DLP did not handle the thin borders of the letters of the opening credits well. When the opening credit names were small you could see it pixellizing, trying to resolve a solid, straight line, and by the time the letters were medium sized it mostly succeeded. But I know what the letters were supposed to look like on film, so I'm going to see a second show some time in the future that is showing a film version of it.

On to the film: I got exactly what I wanted. I'm sure over time its flaws will become more apparent to me, but this is a film that for me was a visceral experience. I never read much Superman comics, loved the original Donner film, liked II as a kid but it wore off as I got older, and really can't stand III and IV.

This film was an experience to me that was greater than the sum of its parts. It managed to remind me of what I loved about the original film while bringing its own strengths and merits to the table. While I loved the film as a whole, let me just say that Singer begins and ends this movie perfectly. That opening really set the tone for me, and when I saw the ending I said to my girlfriend, who really needed to go to the restroom "wait for the Chris Reeve shot..."

and we got it! Sweet ending.

I certainly won't try to invalidate or refute many of the criticisms of others. What worked for me certainly may not work for others. But as a 32 year old, let me just say that I absolutely loved this film and I cannot wait for the next one.

If the reaction of the theater was any indication (appropriate raucous applause in spots), then I'm not alone. to go along with the four stars.

If Singer directs two more of these with the same type of success, it will most likely go down along with the Spider-man trilogy (the trailers makes 3 look fantastic!) as potentially my favorite movie trilogies, supplanting (dare I say it?) the original Star Wars trilogy. Of course, that is a long way off for the Supes/Singer combo, but Spidey looks to cement it in a year.

Bottom line, in my eyes, Singer has restored the franchise!

 

[StevenFC]

I enjoyed it. Some cool visuals and a little humor here and there. Let's face it, there's only so much you can do with a character like Superman. But I thought everything was handled well. I look forward to the next installment.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

A very enjoyable restart of the franchise.

Off the top, Routh is the real deal.

Showing my age here, but for me George Reeve is the benchmark actor to measure other incarnations of the Superman/Clark Kent character. While Reeves and Routh may embody a better physical representation of the Man of Steel, it was always Reeve's portrayal of Clark Kent as mild mannered but not a doofus that I preferred. His Clark Kent acknowledged the audience with a knowing wink. With the Donner films, Reeves added a bumbling edge to Clark which I never liked. Routh plays Kent somewhere between the two and kept the bumbling to a minimum.

Routh really captured Superman well and his moment with his son was the best scene for him to display his acting chops. I thought he did that scene beautifully. He easily surpasses Reeves and brought added dignity to the role.

I am disappointed that Singer went with a script that cheats in respect with continuity and story telling logic. He wants to ignore certain parts of the previous films and retain others. Problem is the parts he chooses between the two do not mesh. It is this that keeps the film from being great.

One caveat. I am not a fashion freak by any stretch but those damn boots are the ugliest things I have ever laid eyes on.

Finally, it is probably a measure of how far movies have come but the flying sequences are amazing. The first movie proclaimed that we would believe a man could fly. Tonight I finally did. The plane sequence was awesome.

Good film.

 

[RobertR]

I came away disappointed. The film does have moments of great beauty, especially the flying sequences (I particularly liked the “observing things from above” perspectives). They’re the most convincing such scenes ever put on film. Routh is a fine Superman, and came across as heroic and sympathetic. I had problems with the Clark portrayal, though. It didn’t seem anywhere near as fleshed out and dimensional as the Reeve version. With that version, I always felt like Clark and Supes were two distinct people. With this one, I felt like Clark was nothing but a placeholder character while we waited for the real person to show up.

I didn’t like Bosworth’s Lois very much. She lacked chemistry with Routh (I never felt the love that I felt with the Reeve/Kidder scenes). Spacey’s Lex was annoying, and I felt like he was trying too hard to imitate Hackman (enough with the “ditzy bimbo sidekick”). The “big evil plot” was utterly LUDICROUS, and made no sense whatsoever. You’re going to create millions of square miles of barren rock, and…..do what??? Sell it? How the hell do you claim title to it? And why would the rest of the world want to buy it (since you’ve just destroyed the capital base that makes North America so valuable)?? A VERY poorly thought out rehash of the first "Luthor evil plot".

Singer’s devotion to the first film went overboard. Was it really necessary to duplicate exact lines and scenes (and redo the "evil plot")? Is Lex Luthor the ONLY villain in the Superman universe?

The “Superman Jr.” idea was mildly interesting, but not the way the kid was portrayed. There should have been something that showed the kid knew he was different, and was struggling with it.
Overall, maybe a C+.

(Admin note - spoilers added)

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Saw it a second time on the 4th and loved it even more than I already did.

Singer has brought Superman back in a huge way and I cannot wait for the sequels!

 

[Tim Glover]

Ok, I am editing my original review but since this is the IMAX version I will just do another post.

Have now seen Superman Returns in IMAX 2 times. Freaking UNREAL. If you have ever taken something I have written and applied it, (many here have ) then hear this: Superman Returns MUST be seen AND heard in an IMAX theater.

I am still stunned how pristine the image was and how fantastic the audio was too. Each time, the friends I was (HTF Josh.C) with just grinned from ear to ear many times during the movie. The crowds seemed to be a little more juiced too in that they got caught up in the moments too.

I originally gave SR a 10/10. That is pretty rare for me on a first viewing. I tend to need multiple viewings ...but after my IMAX experience I must alter my rating. "pray I don't alter it any further!"

Everything good about SR is now great on IMAX. Minor quibbles on my first viewing became virtually non existent.

I think I have a man crush on Brandon Routh. . Good Lord he is the perfect choice for Superman. Nails it out of the park. Routh's performance is understated enough to allow me to really connect and then bought into his moments/scenes that are heartfelt and deep. Everytime he's on screen it's captivating.

I also want to comment on the others. Kate Bosworth was also terrific. For me, her portrayal works and I loved her performance. I'm an "eye" man. I notice peoples eyes and how I am captured by them. This occured in Spider Man 2 with Kirsten Dunst. Her eyes exhibit that sad and yet sparkling feature that is hypnotic. Of course, Dunst has other features too. Bosworth's eyes speak loudly too and I bought it.

The score is also OUTSTANDING. One of my favorites of late and maybe even...maybe even better than the ROTS score. Tough call on that one. Regardless, it's genius how it brings in the nostalgia with new and fresh cues that gave me chills.

I've already written too much and will write more in the discussion thread but Superman Returns in IMAX has skyrocketed to my top 10 of all time. Didn't see that coming.

It's one of the best films I've seen in a long time.

10+/10

 

[Steve Christou]

Watched it tonight - my mini-review of -

Superman Rehashed.

First of all why do we have to endure endless ads, warnings and trailers before the film starts? I timed it, 23mins from the first ad to the film starting [bites fist]. Superman Returns. When John Williams famous Superman theme started playing over the credits I almost got teary, fantastic music, great start. I liked Brandon Routh in the part, even if he looks a bit too young as the worlds most famous superhero, but he played both parts well. The other actors were okay, Kevin Spacey's a great actor but his Lex Luthor is more Bond Villain than Super Villain.

The film peaked early with a spectacular sequence showing Supes saving Lois Lane from a burning plane. When I read a couple of reviews complaining that there wasn't much action in Superman Returns I refused to believe it, but I'm sad to report it's true, there can't have been more than 15-20 mins of superhero action in SR's 154mins. Add to that a weak villain.The less said about Luthor's lame scheme the better. We've had 5 Superman movies and Lex Luthor is in 4 of them, lets have a new supervillain for chrissakes! Galactus, Brainiac, bring back Zod! Gary Oldman as General Zod, whoa, I'm starting a petition.

Plot spoiler ahoy -

What's with the Lois Lane kid subplot? …Superboy? What were they thinking? Maybe, if we're lucky, they won't make a sequel. And that Christ allegory? A dying Superman, arms outstretched, plummets towards Earth. Nice scene though. And the predictable payoff - a nurse finds his hospital bed empty, I'm surprised she didn't tearfully look up at the camera and say "He has arisen!"

To sum up - A good decent production wasted on a dull groanworthy storyline, rehashed from the plot of the 1978 Superman, a lot of the same dialogue too. Ten years of trying to get this project off the ground and this is the best they can come up with? The film is currently struggling to pass $200m in the US, I would say poor word of mouth is to blame.

The film ultimately lacked that extra oomph that would have made it soar.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Superman Returns
8.5 of 10 (edit, 8.5 down from 9)
First to get the negative out of the way, the film does linger too much at the end. It's not that the final plot points aren't interesting Superman subplots, but the film is finished. Save those angles for a new film instead. This is a case of a writer/direction having an idea that is "just too good to leave out", but of course no such idea exists. Any idea or scene can be dropped if it doesn't fit within the timing of the story arc.

So that's where it missed for me, it forgot to leave me wanting more. Where it hit, just about every place else. Bosworth I agree is take it or leave it, but good enough. Brandon Routh is a perfect choice for the character and nerds it up nearly as well as Reeve could, enough to make you believe that its his ability to sell the nerd image that let's him pull off the secret identity.

Spacey is a terrific Luther, a really strong villain, and Posey plays that dumb sidekick lady angle to perfection. They help make it feel like it has a strong connection to the first 2 films.

The score is a wonderful blend of the original and new material, so that it feels like a continuation of the original work.

But for me the best aspect was the action and Singer's direction of it. As he did with X-Men 2, Singer wrenches you along with the action and puts you emotionally in it rather than showcasing it from afar. In doing this he has created one of the greatest movie action sequences of all-time. This is the cave troll from FOTRing or the shark jumping onto the boat in Jaws.

The jet crash and rescue will be an image played over and over again for years to come. It was briliantly spectacular and conveyed an amazing sense of real danger and physical power. I was stunned. Action-wise it probably even peaked at that point, but luckily the story and characters were ready to take over and carry it the rest of the way.

It wasn't perfect, but it does get put in line with Spidey, Batman, and X-Men as another modern comic classic done right.

 

[Todd H]

I finally caught this yesterday on DVD.

My impressions? I thought it was a poor remake of the first Donner film. Don't get me wrong. I really wanted to like this film. But it just lacked the heart of the first film. It also lacked originality as well, using some of the same situations and lines from the first film.

As for the cast, I thought Routh was passable as Clark Kent/Superman. Spacey seemed to be doing his best Gene Hackman. But Bosworth was not believable as Lois Lane. The rest of the cast wasn't memorable at all.

Perhaps my biggest complaint is the inclusion of a child between Superman and Lois Lane. What an absolutely poor idea. Does this mean the next movie will be the adventures of Superman and Superboy? Ugh.
I fear we are approaching Batman and Robin territory.

Being such a fan of the first film (I still have my Superman The Movie trading cards), I was interested in how Singer would tie the films together. Now I wish I hadn't. I'm just going to pretend the Superman series ended after the second one and forget this abortion of a film ever happened.

1 and a half stars out of five

 

[Brandon_T]

Well I saw this today for the first time as my fear of theaters kept me away this summer. I really liked the movie and very little bothered me. Some of the rehash lines felt a bit uncomfortable, but I thought the kid did a great job of not being Anakin Skywalker. I hope the next one turns out like X2 and really look forward to it.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Reminder: This is the REVIEW thread. Any posts other than a member review will be deleted.

All other matters (including responses to member reviews) belong in the Official Discussion Thread. Thanks!

M.