Jul 01, 2006 12:33 AM
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Bryan Singers Superman Returns is Peter Jackson’s King Kong in every essence of it. Technically it’s a great film with excellent visual effects and stunning cinematography. The score of the film is top notch. The production design of the film is highly stylized, and is a perfect blend of really world designs and comic/fantasy world ideas. The film also has just the right amount of nostalgic details that give it the look and feel of the original series. Like Peter Jackson it is obvious the Bryan Singer really loves Superman and making films. As he is successful in making a film that comic book fans will enjoy as well as film that will entertain the general movie going audience.
The cast is good, not great for me, but it’s a matter of preference and being a little picky about things. Brandon Routh gives a solid performance doing a good job as both Clark Kent and the Man of Steel. Though I didn’t think that he looked much like Christopher Reeves as most say he does, I did think he sounded a lot like Reeves. I would have liked to have seen Routh bring a little more clumsiness and bumbling banter to Kent as Christopher Reeves did. I won’t critique his performance as Superman simply because we all envision Superman differently. I like Kevin Spacey and think he is one of the most underrated actors working today.
He does a good job with the role, playing Lex Luthor just right. Kate Bosworth is probably the weakest of the 3, who plays her part very straight and doesn’t bring any special quality to her character to make her performance memorable. I often found myself thinking, how I am supposed to believe that Superman would love this woman? When I myself don’t see any sparkle that would make me love her. But, once again minor particulars. At times the film moves slow and because the script is very tongue and cheek, on the nose, and straight forward, these dialogue sequences didn’t have enough muscle to keep me locked in. The plot of this film is very ordinary and unfortunately for a film that is about such an extraordinary man, a film like this should have an extraordinary plot, something big, something worthy enough for Superman. The film still has enough of the elements to make it well rounded. It is fun, it is romantic,
it is cool, it is funny, and it has great action sequences. Some of the ideas do get repetitive as Superman lifts objects that get larger as the film moves on, but this is not necessary a bad thing or dull, but I think Bryan Singer could of fleshed out maybe a few other things that Superman could have done. So in conclusion just like Peter Jackson’s “Kong”, Superman also is a little slow, is a little long, it has all of the desire, the tools, the means as far as budget, and all the talent in cast and crew to be a great film, but still only ends up being good. Some people liked King Kong, some hated it. I liked it, it had its problems, so does this film, but the end result is a film that most will find enjoyable and entertaining. Go see this movie. Lastly, as far as seeing Superman in 3D,
it’s not really a must. 3D should add to a films experience but in this case I didn’t think the 3D really added anything.
