Bobbie hooked me and Amy up with a sneek peek screening of Superman Returns on Friday at 2pm, a full 5 days early before it comes out on Wed. Can you say excited? Well here we go. After 15 years of trying to get this movie off the ground, it is finally here. I am a huge Superman fan as most of you know. My grandfather took me to see Superman: the Movie in 1978 at the Ridglea Theater on Camp Bowie. I still remember where I sat, what it smelled like, how I felt. All of that. It's all very vivid to me what Richard Donner's movie did for my generation a year after Star Wars came out. We believed a man could fly. It was after this movie and the sequel that I started watching Superfriends, then started reading Superman comics. My favorite was Batman and Superman teaming together. I was real hesitant about this movie, because Warners was intent to capitalize on the Death of Superman comics that had been so successful. I read Kevin Smith's draft and liked it as a story, but a s a movie it was too talkie in that Kevin Smith kind of way. Then Tim Burton was gonna do it with Nick Cage in a black and blue Superman suit. Istar. Then McG was gonna direct, then Brett Ratner. They were all gonna do a total remake of the character. In the back of your mind you were always fantazing about a "what if" they did a sequel to the originals. But you always thought that was so long ago, who would have the balls to do that? Well they found someone, named Bryan Singer. I thought his X2 was a perfect Superhero movie, and when they fired Brett Ratner and offered it to Singer I was so happy. Sad for the X-peeps though. So Singer decided to rock it out and do a sequel to Superman 1 and 2, but kind of ignore 3 and 4. Sounded great to me.
Superman Returns is not just another superhero action piece. It is a grand loving tribute to the first two films, and surprisingly touching character study of someone who has every power in the world, but not the one thing he wants, love. Yes it's a love story, but its also not a bad guy vs. good guy story so much as it is a story about Superman vs. his past and himself. He can stop a plane from crashing, a bullet, and all that stuff, but the moral of this movie is you can't stop life, so make the best of it, and don't take it for granted. Anyone can screw it up including Superman. I knew going in that this was a part of the story but I was really stunned at how well Singer was able to keep that theme throughout the 2 and ahalf hour running time. The film is beautiful to watch. The flying scenes don't come close to artist Alex Ross' comics but they are pretty damn good. The story is Superman has returned to Krypton to see if he is indeed the only person remaining from his planet. By the time he returns five years later, Lois has moved on with a kid and fiance. Supes/Clark has a hard time with this. Upon returning to Earth the only survivor of his kind he looks to find solace in Lois. But even that is gone, and that triggers one of the best scenes in the movie to me, where Superman bordering on stalker sees Lois with her new family at home professing to her fiance that she never loved Superman. Superman flies into space above the Earth holding back his tears and hovers over the Earth as the most powerful being, but emotionally the size of a flea.
The action in this film is big. Its not as crazy as you might think, but the Space Shuttle sequences are jaw dropping. Lex Luthor returns to muck up the proceedings as he returns to the Fortress of Solitude to figure out what makes Superman tick and how he can create a world in which Superman can never live. This part of the movie is maybe the weakest and the big surprise of the movie will either make you love it or hate it. I liked it, but Im scared of where it may lead to in the sequel. Parker Posey steals the movie from Kevin Spacey though. Her part is almost identical to Valerie Perines in the original, but with much more humor than sex appeal. Jimmy Olsen is OK, but not my fave. Brandon Routh is a great Superman but not so great as Clark Kent. Chris Reeve owns Clark Kent in my book. Lois by Kate Bosworth is serviceable but weak overall.
Overall this is a great Superhero movie told with character development over action. I am going to see it again in Imax 3-D this week, so I'll have some more time to digest this sucker in full. But at first glance it was a grand epic and another great chapter in what hopes to be more in a tradition of wonderful character over hero movies by Singer and co. Oh and the music is good when it's John Williams original theme, and lacking with Ottman's original score. I thought the Ottman parts were way too over the top in spots. But not even in the ballpark of John Williams greatness. More later....
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