Medium: Movie
Runtime: 2hrs, 34 Minutes
Genre: Superhero
Rating: R
Getting back to my stack of movies to review (which has quadrupled in size!), let's kick things back into gear with some superhero action!
The show opens on a brief explanation of who Superman is, where he came from, and why he left in the first place, followed by a really cool sequence in which we are whisked through the cosmos from Krypton to Earth as retro-style credits leap toward the screen while really cheesy CGI planets and asteroids whiz by. It seems that Lex Luthor is up to his old tricks again; sometime after the close of the last Superman flick, he seduced a rich old lady into getting him out of prison, married her for her fortune, and as she lay on her death bed convinced her to sign over everything to him in her will. Some time later, we see him on a boat voyaging to the Arctic Circle with plans to plunder Superman's Fortress of Solitude for Kryptonian technology while the big man is absent. He makes reference to the story of Prometheus, the titan who stole fire from the gods to give to man- but when he gets there, he discovers that Supes never put a password on his crystal computer, so anybody could waltz in and start learning all of his secrets. Luckily, Superman has just returned from his five-year voyage among the stars, and even if he doesn't know Luthor's out of the slammer yet, he's ready to get back to work saving the world.
Soooooooo... small confession: this is the first Superman movie (pre-continuity reboot, that is) that I've seen. As such: anything that came before Returns, I have no idea about.
It's funny, I went into this one expecting it to suck- I'd heard lots about how bad it was and how the plot made no sense, but you know what? I really enjoyed it. Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor feels every bit the scummy, greedy mastermind I know, but- much like his animated counterpart- he's played with such charm that you can't help but love the guy. Nearly everybody gets a good joke at some point, and I mean good- the humor, though sprinkled sparingly, is en pointe.
If I can accuse the movie of anything, really, it's that it's too safe. All of the usual suspects are here and do exactly as you would expect- Lois Lane gets herself in danger chasing a story, Jimmy Olsen fanboys over both Superman and Clark Kent, Lex steals some Kryptonite and cooks up a scheme to get rich and dispose of the big blue boy scout, and Superman- of course- zips in to save the day with feats of strength and daring. I know that there's only so many ways you can threaten a nigh-invulnerable character, but the best Superman stories (in my experience) don't have to push his limits to drive their tension- they challenge his moral character instead. Superman Returns, while a fun romp... doesn't.
And you know what, that's okay. After a long, long, long absence of Supes flicks, this movie is clearly about coming back home- finding comfort in the familiar, but having to adjust to the way things have changed in one's absence. It feels much like a love letter to the franchise as a whole, and even if I haven't seen the others in the series, and even if the fans don't seem to think this one hit the mark, I'm giving it a pass.
TL;DR: It doesn't suck guys, come on.
VIRTUES: Good humor, interesting ideas, refreshingly little grit.
SINS: A bit on the predictable side. Also, Kryptonite seems to be treated inconsistently?
GRADE: B
Final Verdict: Batsy was always more my superhero, but this was pretty good. I'll keep it.
Runtime: 2hrs, 34 Minutes
Genre: Superhero
Rating: R
Getting back to my stack of movies to review (which has quadrupled in size!), let's kick things back into gear with some superhero action!
 |
| Da, dada da da, da, da, da... Da, dada da da, da-dada! |
Soooooooo... small confession: this is the first Superman movie (pre-continuity reboot, that is) that I've seen. As such: anything that came before Returns, I have no idea about.
It's funny, I went into this one expecting it to suck- I'd heard lots about how bad it was and how the plot made no sense, but you know what? I really enjoyed it. Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor feels every bit the scummy, greedy mastermind I know, but- much like his animated counterpart- he's played with such charm that you can't help but love the guy. Nearly everybody gets a good joke at some point, and I mean good- the humor, though sprinkled sparingly, is en pointe.
If I can accuse the movie of anything, really, it's that it's too safe. All of the usual suspects are here and do exactly as you would expect- Lois Lane gets herself in danger chasing a story, Jimmy Olsen fanboys over both Superman and Clark Kent, Lex steals some Kryptonite and cooks up a scheme to get rich and dispose of the big blue boy scout, and Superman- of course- zips in to save the day with feats of strength and daring. I know that there's only so many ways you can threaten a nigh-invulnerable character, but the best Superman stories (in my experience) don't have to push his limits to drive their tension- they challenge his moral character instead. Superman Returns, while a fun romp... doesn't.
And you know what, that's okay. After a long, long, long absence of Supes flicks, this movie is clearly about coming back home- finding comfort in the familiar, but having to adjust to the way things have changed in one's absence. It feels much like a love letter to the franchise as a whole, and even if I haven't seen the others in the series, and even if the fans don't seem to think this one hit the mark, I'm giving it a pass.
TL;DR: It doesn't suck guys, come on.
VIRTUES: Good humor, interesting ideas, refreshingly little grit.
SINS: A bit on the predictable side. Also, Kryptonite seems to be treated inconsistently?
GRADE: B
Final Verdict: Batsy was always more my superhero, but this was pretty good. I'll keep it.
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