Superman Returns Review

Spoilers be ahead so ye be warned.

Rating: 7.5 Superman Shields out of 10

I saw this yesterday and I liked it quite a bit. I almost gave it an 8/10, but we'll get to why it lost that extra 0.5 in a moment.

So a short plot outline to get you up to speed: Astronomers think they've observed remnants of Superman's home planet of Krypton and Superman leaves Earth for 5 years to investigate. He returns to find that the love of his life, Lois Lane, has moved on (not really) with a fiance and a child. Lex Luthor gets out of prison and steals some of the crystals from Superman's fortress of solitude in Anarctica with the plan to use the crystals to create new landmasses and sell the property (the crystals react with water and minerals around them to grow exponentially). Superman finds out about it and needs to stop him. I think that's all you need. Let's begin!

I hadn't seen the original in theatres but I think I can imagine what it must have been like after seeing this film. The opening credits scene was wonderful and I'm very happy that they chose to do it in a style similar to the original movies. My chest swelled when the John Williams score turned up. Excellent choice of using the same music.

Then we get into the movie proper. I'll get one thing out of the way first: the suit. I went on a bit of a rant about it when the initial photos were released because it was such a departure from what I was used to and I might have posted in shock/horror. I am officially changing my stance on the movie suit. It looks really good in the film and I think the darker palette grounds the movie a bit more than bright primary colours would.

Most people going to this movie likely expected Superman to be doing Superman-type things throughout the movie, with lots of punching and general super-heroics. There was some of that, but I knew going in that they wanted to focus more on character development rather than big slugfests. So depending on what you were expecting, this movie might fall flat for you. I think Bryan Singer, the director, took the right road for the "first" movie in this franchise. This has been stated before, but with Superman you need to show his human qualities so that the audience can relate to him a bit. If you don't he's just an alien strong guy who can fly around and do cool shit. This is very different from Batman who is just a regular guy who trains his body to near-perfection. That concept is easier for people to "get" than a baby put in a ship and sent into space before his planet blows up. The best example in the movie is that when Superman finds out that Lois has moved on, he wants to get his mind off it and just throws himself into his "work", saving people from harm.

Thus, while occasionally lagging, the character moments were quite good. The half point from an 8/10 is lost becuase Brandon Routh (who is playing Superman) gives a bit of flat dialogue at times. Not much, but enough to distract and knock a half point off. Despite this, I think he did a very good job of portraying that Clark Kent is very different from Superman. He's not as bungling as in the originals, but still gives the sense of awkwardness. The other 2 points are deducted for the movie being just a tad on the slow side. It could have used one more action sequence to better balance the character moments (which were good). Included in this deduction is the reveal of the S-shield when Clark tears open his shirt when responding to an emergency. This is a classic Superman moment and it wasn't as impressive as it should have been.

As Superman, Routh is really channelling Christopher Reeve and even sounds like him at times. There was much debate from fans wheter Routh was the right choice to play Superman because he's not the most muscular of lads. I think the tall, lean Superman works though and Routh delivers lines and expressions that suits the Man of Steel rather well.

Kate Bosworth does a much better job as Lois Lane than Katie Holmes did as Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins. Her interaction with Clark was as it should be - vague disinterest with a bit of professional friendship. She gives some bland lines too, but they aren't too noticable.

I was hesitant to see Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, but he does a marvelous job of portraying the brilliant yet crazy villain. You could hear a pin drop in the theatre when he berates Lois after she says "Superman will stop you". He exuded evil. Leaving him on a deserted island at the end of the movie was a bit goofy though.

Main actors done, how about scenes, special effects and sound? Glad you asked. The airplane/space shuttle save sequence was amazing as was the "bullet-proof eyeball" one. The scene when Superman gets the shit kicked out of him was hard to watch as it was pretty visceral. The special effects guys did a great job with the flying sequences though there were a couple that could have used a bit more polish. As for sound, you can NOT beat a John Williams soundtrack. Excellent stuff.

So that's my mishmash of thoughts on Superman Returns. Good movie with a few picky things. Definately worth seeing though.