Superman Returns
So I was planning on renting the first four Superman movies and watching them before seeing the new one, but I never got around to it. I just don't have the funds and/or motivation/time at this point. I have however heard that the first two are fantastic, and the second two are equally terrible, so I look forward to it. But enough about what will be, more about what was.
We've all come to expect quite a lot from Bryan Singer and comic movies, and he once again did a very good job. But I didn't think it was quite as great as some people are making it out to be. But a good portion of that could be my distaste for Superman as a hero. How can you really get behind and root for the hero that has every power conceivable and almost no weakness? I mean if the man flew around in a lead suit all the time he'd be invincible. Now Batman, there's a hero. A man with no real powers who scares the hell out of people and kicks ass.
But personal superhero tastes aside, Brandon Routh did a fine job playing the tool who is Superman (although if you're going to have James Marsden in the movie why not have him play the tool? I mean he did it so well in X-men and X2). He looked eriely like Reeves a lot of the time too. And I did love Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. He can play those insane roles so well. And a fantastic job by Sam Huntington as Jimmy. It's like he was born to play the part. All around a good job with casting I'd say.
Story-wise it was respectable, as a comic book movie. I didn't feel like I had missed too much from not seeing the earlier films, although I'm sure there are some things that would have been better understood if I had. But thankfully it did stand on it's own. And while I appreciate not over doing the Lois/Clark/Superman love triangle, making Lois married (sort of) and with a kid just didn't seem right to me. It was almost like the Bond movie where Bond gets married. Bond's not supposed to be married! Neither is Lois. At least not to someone else.
Which now brings me to my nit-picking. There isn't too much I found here. The biggest was the bank robbery that Superman foils. The crooks plan to escape on the rooftop via helecopter. Nice plan. So why do you need the massive mini-gun? Do you really need to shoot up all the police cars in order for an arieal escape? Isn't it just a little cumbersome to have brought it in the first place? Also, with the building surrounded by real cops, who tries to stop the crooks? Well two elderly security gaurds of course! What? Are you serious? There is a massive heist and two rent-a-cops are gonna stop the people with the mini-gun? That was a little far fetched, even for a comic book action movie. And in Superman fashion, he arrives to save the day. And after taking hundreds of rounds of ammo at point blank range (without a scratch), the crook decides to try shooting him with his pistol. Yeah, that's gonna work genius.
Anyway, the movie was solid. The story was clever enough that it wasn't completely obvious. The acting and casting were fantastic. It just seemed to miss a little something that I can't put my finger on. It just didn't have that little umph that I get from watching Batman, Spiderman, or the X-men (well the first two films of them). But you do have to give the movie props for having Kumar kick Superman's ass.
RATING: Worth a matinee (Full price if you really love Superman), Worth a rental/netflix