Superman Returns

[johnone]

Saw it last night , just UTTER CRAP from start to finish , yeah the bit where the kid realises clark kent looks a lot like superman is brilliant but thats a minute in two and a half hours of utter Drek!!!!!! Singer has been going on for years what a fan of the original movie he is , unfortunately he obviously thinks the original is perfect (which it is far from)so he just decides to remake it...why? why remake a 30 year old film ...why claim it as the sequel , its been 30 years thats too long!!!! there is nothing there to connect the audience  to the previous film , and dear god the plot is the exact same right down to parker poseys character deciding that too many people will die if lexs plan succeeds oh and as for kevin Spacey , Iknow hes won an oscar but there pigs out there with less ham in them, for the life of me I don't know why they just didn't film JBS version instead, it led to the best superman adaptation ever, done by bbc radio 4 back in 1989
Fianl opinion of this film : AWFUL, AWFUL  AWFUL!!!!!!!

[JOE SOAP]

Get that man in the picture a cod piece.

[GeorgeBernardShaw]

all of the criticisms here have some point. Nobody mentioned the film's heroic efforts to suggest that there is a world beyond America. This was done in a tokenistic fashion by employing a montage of various non-American newsreaders, but it's always worth reminding Americans that they are not the entire world, however much of it they may control.
  However, I found the movie a delightful, if childish entertainment.
  As for super-sex, isn't it possible that Superman has super-powers of restraint? Perhaps his sperm are capable of taking their time and deciding in a civilised way which of them will be the one to fertilise the egg?

[Mike Carroll]

> As for super-sex, isn't it possible that Superman has super-powers of restraint? Perhaps his sperm are capable of taking their time and deciding in a civilised way which of them will be the one to fertilise the egg?

In Superman II, Supes loses (or gives up) his powers before he bonks Lois. Therefore, the Super-sperm shouldn't be a problem... Yes, it's a gross rationalisation, but then it's featured in a movie where his S-shield can be used as a weapon...

-- Mike C

[Woolly]

"In Superman II, Supes loses (or gives up) his powers before he bonks Lois."

But the kid's got superpowers, hence he is derived from super-spoink, hence Lois Lane must be quite a gal!

[JOE SOAP]

There's a small market for Kryptonian Kondoms.

[Adrian Bamforth]

Left me completely cold.





SPOILERS...



Superman returns, but I was kind of expecting them to tell us more about why he went to see Krypton again and how it affected him - they seemed to be using it to close the book on any Kryptonian mythology and backstory, which seems to me to be one of the most interesting things about the character and the source of future challenges. When he gets back it's as if he's just been on holiday. Aside from the obvious fact no-one noticed Clark came back at the same time, when Superman meets Lois again - and I don't know if this is intentional - Superman immediately loses our sympathies by telling her he wants to "show her something" before just flying her around as if to just dazzle her with his powers like before, knowing she's married to someone else. His life-saving spree seemed like he was just going through the motions since he never really got the chance to demonstrate himself as a moral force. Perhaps he needed someone to talk to - there's very little dialogue for such a long film. Furthermore, it didn't seem clear how the world sees him now, other than Lois' article which seemed more to do with her personal feelings (though of course we can't read the article ourselves). Why exactly would the world not need Superman?

It seemed to me that when Superman defeats Lex it was only through using his own superpowers and determination. In the first Superman film he wins by confronting his dilemma between loyalty to his father and to his new home planet - an identity crisis, in the second he uses his cunning and intelligence to defeat Zod without powers, while in the third he has a not-so-internal battle with his 'bad' side. There wasn't anything pivotal happening here except summoninmg up just enough super-strength to throw the island into space.

The biblical ending just made me groan - it seemed to me like they had just got to the end of the film and decided to throw in a profound reference because there wasn't anything else interesting happening. There didn't seem to be anything in particular that brought Superman back to life other than it being some kind of power he has - unless they are trying to tell us he is actually sent by God. Speilberg did it in a far wittier and less ham-fisted way with E.T, and, well, perhaps I'm missing the point here but...SUPERMAN ISN'T ANYTHING LIKE JESUS!

The whole thing felt like an opening episode, which is exactly what it is though I'm sure there's more character development in an episode of Smallville. As a film alone though it just didn't go anywhere - the boy's story has barely begun and none of the characters seemed to really be very different any the end as they were at the beginning, except that Lois had written a new article - though surely that's not a very satisfying way to show how someone has changed. Although wisely aiming for a darker take than the earlier films, the moodly style just emphasised the style over substance.

However, saw it a week and a half ago so I could be mis-remembering things.

ADE

[Floyd-the-k]

yes, you are mis-remembering things Ade, it was terrific

[Art]

The Bruce Timm cartoons piss all over it really.

[Adrian Bamforth]

Well perhaps I just wasn't in the mood that day, but I definitely stand by my claim that the biblical stuff was a terrible ending.

ADE

[Art]

The thing that rubs me up the wrong way about the biblical stuff is that it doesn;t actually *mean* anything, other than "Look, he's sort of like Jesus!". Mythic resonance is fine, but when it;s there just for it's own sake it's rather hollow and pointless.

Alos theres a complete lack of clever plotting for that portion of the movie: He saves the world, gets a bit knackered, then gets better - AND THAT'S IT. It'd work much better for me if someone had the the clever idea of putting him in the cunlight, or something, or if he saved the world AFTER falling down and getting up again.

It's a movie I really wantd to love, but teh more I think about it teh more utterly flawed I find it.

[Bico]

Seemed like an effort to distance the character in the film from any previous incarnations, rather than a continuation of them.  It was a good exercise in strip-mining the first two movies for imagery, but didn't have any ideas of it's own.  The kid was an odd inclusion, Lois was simpering and petulant where she was once ballsy, Superman seemed like someone doing a Christopher Reeve impression - ditto Clark Kent, and I stand by my assertion that people who can't think of a reason to include the words "and the American Way" at the end of the words "truth, justice" shouldn't be writing a Superman story.  Or working in the realm of fiction at all.
It was too long, too.
Nice plane bit, though, and opening credits.

Like X-Men, it was just a setup for the sequels/franchise to follow, and I'm appalled that quite a few people are willing to settle for that.  I pay to see a movie, not a trailer for the sequel.

[Dunk!]

'Nice plane bit, though, and opening credits'

Those were the two highlights for me.

The rest? Meh.

[Carlsborg Expert]

I enjoyed seeing it in 3D. It made it very comiccy. But on a big screen. With dolby sound at its best. And a light image that if it wanted, could be shown on the moon. Imagine. (The porn movies)

So what is good?

It's a comic character who has had many incarnations.
Its core concept.
An excuse to shoehorn a massive space travelling scene.
Flying men planes and baseball pitches.

Bad things;
The writers, the directors and paying to see it.

[JOE SOAP]

The whole return to Krypton scene was cut out, won't be released as a deleted scene on dvd either & actually cost $10 million to shoot.