[RnB180]

Ive just come back from a special midnight screening of the film. Im a big fan of Superman and IMO the film delivers.

first things first. This is a hollywood film. Some things in comics do NOT translate well into film, so please expect artistic liberties taken and prepare yourselves for alterations in the Superman mythology.

Since changes in the Superman story has been pretty common now with so many renditions, I dont think this will be too large of an issue if you go in expecting to watch a hollywood blockbuster and have an open mind. Because frankly, as a film, Superman Returns is a masterpiece of pop culture brought to the big screen.

Aside from what I thought were a few miscasts. The film delivers great fun in spades.

the story starts off not from the beginning, but upon Kal El second return to planet earth after a 5 year departure to find his home planets remains.

some nice touches is that it seems some older film has been recycled of marlon brando from the original superman movie. Pretty cool.

The movie starts off pretty steady for the first 20 minutes than sky rockets and takes you for a roller coaster ride non stop for the next 90 minutes and eventually draws slow in the very end.

Brian Singer (director of x1 and x2) directed this film, quitting x3 to take on the superman project. This time however he takes superman on a totally opposite direction from the x movies. The film is bright and has a sepia type filter throughout the movie, its also loaded with the same witty humor found in the xmen movies, but much much more of it.

The guy who plays superman... Dont know his name, I felt was a miscast along with lois lane.

Lois lane does not look like lois lane for one thing, something else I was unhappy with was her acting, which also was not lois lane, and IMO unconvincing.

Superman seems to nail the acting aspect dead on without a hitch. Only reason why I felt he was unfit for the role was because of 1. his age, far too young looking and baby faced 2. No superman actor has yet to surpass christopher reeves. The new superman also IMO does not look like supermans face we normally see across the covers of a dan jurgens drawing. So one of my biggest nitpicks was that he just doesnt look like superman to me.

Kevin spacey NAILED lex luther with a spectacular role and portrayed his character very connvincingly. He was on a whole other level of acting and IMO the best character and actor in the film bar none.

from a movie standpoint, the films one of the most fun movie I have seen in a long time.

 

[909]

I really want to see this flick....

I saw the actress that plays Lois Lane on the Tonight show last night and the scene clip she brought did not demonstrate that she could really act very well. I've always thought since day one that the guy they picked didn't visually look like Superman.

All I can say is that my expectations are high...

Movies like Spiderman(s) and Batman Returns have set the level very high...

I really think the X-men (first one was the best) and the Hulk were below par...

I would really like to see another Spawn, but this time done right similar to the HBO series and Batman Returns.

Up, Up, and away…

 

[909]

Forgot to mention, it figures Spacey would be the best actor in the film because Kevin really knows how to act whereas so many others are faking it.

 

[lan]

I'm holding off till some friends want to see this. I want to checkout the IMAX version. That should be cool.

 

[Patrick82]

When does this come on HD-DVD or Blu-Ray?

I want to see a movie called "Valhalla Returns - The Story of a Cable". I can be star of movie, it becomes more authentic.

 

[james__bean]

I saw a showing tonight at 10:30. I have to agree with RnB that the film delivers, but its not without its flaws. I think the biggest flaw would have to be that the film borrows too much from the first and second Superman films. There's a fine line between a sequal to the original films, and a sequal from the original films. This film uses entirely too many lines, scenes, characters, and plot devices from the first two movies that it certainly brings the originality of the work into question. (When I mention characters, there is a particular female that was in the first film who directly mirrors a character in this film.)

As far as the casting goes, the characters were cast young to leave open the possibilities of future movies. Casting a Lois Lane 5 years after Superman II would probably make the characters a little too old. I do agree that Kate Bosworth wasn't the right person to play Lois. You could tell in the film that they were trying to stick to the original film canon as much as possible. They had Kate's Lois constantly ignoring Clark like the original film. They had her funny inability to spell and various other nuances of the character. However, while in the original film, Lois seemed to ignore Clark more because she was always detached and thinking about something else, the current Lois just seems to ignore him out of general disregard and cruelty. Her sense of detachment just didn't come off as genuine, which makes her character seem all the more snobby. I honestly asked myself at one point in the film why "Superman" would even care so much for her when she treated "Clark" so horribly.

While I thought Bosworth wasn't a great Lois, I think Brandon Routh actually did a pretty good job, much better than the current Smallville adaptation. I think the Superman character is actually much harder to portray than a character like Lois or Lex Luthor. Lex Luthor is eccentric and psychotic. I honestly think there are a number of actors that could pull that off. Although credit goes to Kevin Spacey because his version is the best I've ever seen.

Back to Routh though, I think portraying someone with an almost Jesus like level of compassion and sympathy for humanity in an age of sarcasm and conflicted heros is a lot harder than people want to recognize. I honestly thought Routh's Superman was great. His Clark Kent on the other hand wasn't very good. It was like watching someone act like Christopher Reeves acting like Clark Kent. In fairness though, I doubt there are many actors that would be able to pull that off convincingly anyways.

There's another part of the story that I think many will take issue with. Its a departure from from the comics and will probably be the source of most of the controversy, but its definitely a spoiler so I won't say what it is. Let me just say that personally, I don't have a problem with them straying from the comics because the film adaptations have always sort of had their own canon. This particular plot point actually fits in with some of the events in Superman II and I think it helped create an interesting plot point that brought the original films and this movie together as well as provide an interesting future plot line.

The last flaw is something that almost every Superman adaptation is guilty of, and thats the varying effects of Kryptonite. I think the way that it affects Superman in this movie isn't even really consistant throughout the film, but its also not consistant with the original films that this film was so heavily based on. In the original film, as soon as Superman even comes within a few feet of Kryptonite it has noticeable effects. In this film I thought they took too many liberties with it.

Even with these flaws, I still thought the film was good. I would easily put it ahead of X-men 3. The story did an excellent job of developing the characters and how their lives have changed since Superman II. The film had a great narrative mixed with well paced action. The pace of the action and the development of the narrative was actually very similar to the original Superman, which I prefer to some of the other comic based movies that tend to either drag the film down with extended dialogue and narrative or oversaturate the film with an overabundance of action. This film managed to have bursts of both throughout the film and they all managed to fit well into the larger story.

 

[ken36]

Can't wait. I must see this film.

 

[JahJahBinks]

I did not bother to read. Is it a spoiler or not?

 

[RnB180]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JahJahBinks I did not bother to read. Is it a spoiler or not?

no spoilers, most of the comments in the thread pertains to the thoughts about acting. I made sure not to post anything more than the premise of the films beginning.

 

[JeffS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JahJahBinks I did not bother to read. Is it a spoiler or not?

No spoilers so far...

 

[JahJahBinks]

Did superman have makeups done around his eyes?

 

[robzy]

I didnt dare actually read the thread - but a spoiler-warning/no-spoiler would be great

Im heading down to the cinemas tomorow night to see it - I cant wait!

Rob.

 

[jpelg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan I'm holding off till some friends want to see this. I want to checkout the IMAX version. That should be cool.

I watched "V for Vendetta" in IMAX and regretted it. Regular films should be viewed only in standard widescreen format only. I'll definitely see "Superman" on a standard screen sometime this weekend.

 

[wakeride74]

Thanks for the great info guys! I'm really looking forward to this one and will try to see it after the holiday weekend. I agree about the youth of Roth although I don't think anyone could fill Chris Reeves shoes for this role so there are bound to be complaints regardless. I've heard some others comment on the miscast of Lois but I still can't imagine anyone being a worse fit than that dumpy booz hag Kidder! Looks like it will be a battle for title to the summer blockbuster between this Cars, and Pirates!

 

[esco]

I watched it last night and was really impressed. The movie started off a little slow, but literally took off about half-way through (so don't be discouraged). I really liked the performances of Brandon Routh and Kevin Spacey, not so much Kate Bosworth's. A little sad they didn't develop Clark Kent's character more, but who doesn't like seeing Superman flying around and saving the world?