BEFORE: Something appropriate for Father's Day, hopefully... We invaded the Outback Steakhouse with 5 adults and 2 toddlers at 5:30 - thank God it wasn't a big dining-out holiday... Had about a 45-minute wait for a table, but once we got seated things went relatively smoothly.
THE PLOT: After a long visit to the lost remains of the planet Krypton, the Man of Steel returns to earth to become the peoples savior once again and reclaim the love of Lois Lane.
AFTER: Yes, appropriate for Father's Day, for reasons that may be obvious, but which are plot-related, so I won't address directly. Also appropriate since I watched this with my parents, and introduced my dad to the IMDB afterwards, with all of its continuity errors and trivia notes.
Plot-wise, this film progresses from the plot of "Superman II", while ignoring "Superman III" and "Superman IV" - that's OK, I think most people would rather forget those films. However, things don't really sync up with the plot of the 2nd film, since we're never sure what Lois Lane seems to know about Superman's secret identity. Essentially, she's a blank slate in this film, I'm not sure if that's an acting problem or a writing problem.
I should mention that one of the screenwriters, Michael Dougherty, is an ex-co-worker of mine, and hopefully still a friend after I post this review. I see him sometimes at San Diego Comic-Con. I'll try to be kind - but I do have some issues with the ending, which contains a large plothole of sorts. You can't explain the way that Superman's powers and Kryptonite weakness work, and then ignore those rules.
Also, the relationship/triangle between Superman, Lois, and Lois's other love interest, Richard White (James Marsden) - an ending should resemble a resolution, and nothing is really resolved here, it's left mostly ambiguous. But I suppose this is a Superman for the new century, the champion of blended families and absent fathers...
The Superman story has always been about the relationship between fathers and sons. Jor-El and Kal-El. Pa Kent and Clark Kent. And in the comic books, Superman and Christopher, the son of Zod who Lois and Clark semi-adopted for a while. Supes may be the son of an alien scientist, but he learned his solid Midwestern values and work ethic from Pa Kent.
The plan of Lex Luthor (who, according to the "Smallville" TV show has Daddy issues of his own) is a solid one, again progressing logically from the events of "Superman II". It's genius AND insane, which is the perfect balance for Lex. But bilking old ladies out of their money? I dunno, it seems sort of beneath him. I personally would love to see a movie based on the semi-recent storylines where Luthor was elected as U.S. president...
I've been a Superman reader since 1983, which is when John Byrne helped re-boot the character with the mini-series "The Man of Steel", at which time they were able to combine the best elements of previous Superman and Superboy stories to forge a new reality. That meant that Pa Kent was alive again, and remained part of the adult Superman story until...well, I think last year they finally got around to killing him off again, in dramatic fashion. So in a way that's ingrained into the Superman story.
Starring Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey (awesome as Lex Luthor), Frank Langella, Parker Posey, Kal Penn, with a cameo from Sir Richard Branson and a CGI Marlon Brando as Jor-El.
RATING: 6 out of 10 headlines
Sorry to say, while I REALLY went out of my way to see this movie in the theater,(had go thing one alone), I didn't care for it. It did everything right that Superman the Movie lacked, and did everything else wrong. That said, the special effects were spectacular. You could see Superman launch from the ground and flight off in the distance and disappear, unlike STM (Superman The Movie) where you merely saw Superman fly off camera, and then later was shown in the air. Also the plane rescue sequence was excellent in that it was much more realistic. Thinking about it, grabbing a single wing would put large amounts of stress on it, showing that a single "human" would have quite a bit of difficulty trying to handle a plane spiraling down towards earth. Also, this film also answered a question I had for quite a while, (an odd one) what would happen if Superman were shot in the eye.
ReplyDeleteThe shortcomings are the writing and acting. No implied , but I didn't feel the emotional response to this film that I did to STM, no memorable lines, no outstanding moments. It was just lacking that those respects.
Also, I am unsure why they elected to use a costume in the dirty colors of the evil superman from Superman 3. The smaller size of the red underwear is also questionable. It seems this costume was made for posing for those publicity stills, rather than representing Superman. I guess his long lanky look was made to appeal to Gen Xer's (how I hate that term)
Lex Luthor is decent in this film, better than the ridiculous 2 dimensional Lex Luthor portrayed by Gene Hackman (who refers to themselves as a criminal?). I think the scene of him bilking that old lady out of his money was added to show how he could get out of jail, and then suddenly have access to a large amount of funds that would be required to bankroll his devious plan.
Still, I never get the sense of greatness (or humbleness) from Superman or the grittiness of Lois Lane, and no feel of any emotions between the two.
(Spoiler)
One other thing is it's disheartening to see Superman kicked around by a group of thugs, and for him to be stabbed is further degrades Superman.
One last note, I was utterly confused by this film and the jarring way it didn't jibe with the other films, but someone on line told me that he film was meant to be a sequel to The Richard Donner Cut of Superman 2. If you haven't seen it yet, perhaps you could add it to your movie list. But there still is at least one blatant inconsistency.
Sorry to say, while I REALLY went out of my way to see this movie in the theater,(had go thing one alone), I didn't care for it. It did everything right that Superman the Movie lacked, and did everything else wrong. That said, the special effects were spectacular. You could see Superman launch from the ground and flight off in the distance and disappear, unlike STM (Superman The Movie) where you merely saw Superman fly off camera, and then later was shown in the air. Also the plane rescue sequence was excellent in that it was much more realistic. Thinking about it, grabbing a single wing would put large amounts of stress on it, showing that a single "human" would have quite a bit of difficulty trying to handle a plane spiraling down towards earth. Also, this film also answered a question I had for quite a while, (an odd one) what would happen if Superman were shot in the eye.
ReplyDeleteThe shortcomings are the writing and acting. No implied , but I didn't feel the emotional response to this film that I did to STM, no memorable lines, no outstanding moments. It was just lacking that those respects.
Also, I am unsure why they elected to use a costume in the dirty colors of the evil superman from Superman 3. The smaller size of the red underwear is also questionable. It seems this costume was made for posing for those publicity stills, rather than representing Superman. I guess his long lanky look was made to appeal to Gen Xer's (how I hate that term)
Lex Luthor is decent in this film, better than the ridiculous 2 dimensional Lex Luthor portrayed by Gene Hackman (who refers to themselves as a criminal?). I think the scene of him bilking that old lady out of his money was added to show how he could get out of jail, and then suddenly have access to a large amount of funds that would be required to bankroll his devious plan.
Still, I never get the sense of greatness (or humbleness) from Superman or the grittiness of Lois Lane, and no feel of any emotions between the two.
(Spoiler)
One other thing is it's disheartening to see Superman kicked around by a group of thugs, and for him to be stabbed is further degrades Superman.
One last note, I was utterly confused by this film and the jarring way it didn't jibe with the other films, but someone on line told me that he film was meant to be a sequel to The Richard Donner Cut of Superman 2. If you haven't seen it yet, perhaps you could add it to your movie list. But there still is at least one blatant inconsistency.