Superman Returns Review SPOILER FREE (No Spoilers allowed)

[DaForce]

Once again, I've got a sneak preview ticket in hand, and I'll be seeing this in a little less than 11 hours from now.


This thread is for the review of Superman Returns WITHOUT SPOILERS!!


If you want spoilers, or want to discuss parts of the movie that will reveal or otherwise spoil the plot for others, I've created another thread in this forum just for you.










DO NOT POST SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD!!

[DaForce]

Okay, saw this one today and the first thing I can say...it was too long. Roughly 40 minutes too long. If there was a better plot, then yeah it would have made sense to have a nearly 3 hour long movie, but the plot was kind of lacking.

All the principles were good, but Bosworth knocked it out of the park as far as I was concerned. She is Lois Lane. Routh does a great job, plus he sounds and looks a hell of a lot like Reeves. The only thing Routh can't do is separate the roles of Kent and Supes the way that Reeves did so well.

A little too much CGI work for my tastes, especially in a few scenes where I think they really didn't need it. Also, Singer should have tried a lot more to make the movie his own rather than trying to invoke memories of the first movie. That more than anything killed this movie for me, especially since I had just watched the first movie last night.


Kids might be bored by the long stretches between action scenes, so prepare for some fidgeting. The group of guys that I saw this with liked it better than Batman Begins due to it havinga greater 'emotional appeal'. I, on the other hand, found it to be emotionally manipulative.



Rating: Bargain matinee, unless you live near an IMAX. Some of the visuals would definitely kick ass on an IMAX screen.




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[TrekSucksHard]

Dissappointment- big, big dissappoinment- came very close to boring.

[Stephen]

A really good film. But not terrific.

For its long length, it could have maybe some more heartpounding action scenes, and a touch up on the story.

But this is a really good start to bringing the series back to life.

You guys should be happy, this movie was originally going to be directed by Ratner. did any of you see who he wanted as superman? paul walker, ashton kutcher, josh hartnett, jerry occonnel, brandon fraser... etc.

And besides, Ratner ruined the xmen series would you prefer him to ruin the superman series instead?

Singer did a good job at CONTINUING the superman series, rather then drastically changing it. It seems thats what you guys wanted, and I'm sure you would have been more disappointed that way

[DaForce]

A really good film. But not terrific.

For its long length, it could have maybe some more heartpounding action scenes, and a touch up on the story.

But this is a really good start to bringing the series back to life.

You guys should be happy, this movie was originally going to be directed by Ratner. did any of you see who he wanted as superman? paul walker, ashton kutcher, josh hartnett, jerry occonnel, brandon fraser... etc.

And besides, Ratner ruined the xmen series would you prefer him to ruin the superman series instead?

Singer did a good job at CONTINUING the superman series, rather then drastically changing it. It seems thats what you guys wanted, and I'm sure you would have been more disappointed that way


Actually, I thought Ratner did an okay job with X3. It was better than Superman Returns (but not by much). Singer dropped this one simply due to trying to make it too much of a Christ analogy. It was boring. I almost, almost mind you, would have rather seen McG's version with Nic Cage and the giant spider rather than this pretty much forgetable flick.

[KingVoyeur]

I agree with you on it being too connected to the originals, but I also see it as a way of reintroducing the entire franchise to a new generation. I think a sequel will move off into its own territiry.

Oh, and on a side-note, something that always bugged me about Supes' costume. I'll buy him hiding his spandex underneath his everyday clothes, but where does he hide the cape and boots? If he doesn't have it on him, wouldn't he just go after the villain instead of running home to get them to make sure he looks good?

[Scorpiuscat]

Here is a copy of the review I posted at my website:

Superman Returns – The Review

I wanted to like this film; I went in totally expecting to come out loving this film. After all, the reviews were all great. Critics that otherwise hate this genre loved this film.

So I went in, excited and prepared to be awed and entertained. But I am very sad to report my friends that this film is flawed, it’s boring and it has major problems.

Sure there are some exciting parts, but they are few and far between.

Lets start from the beginning, since this is supposed to take place in-between the events of the Superman I and II (At least that’s my understanding), it does a very nice job of blending itself in with the other movies. The starting credits are very familiar to fans of the original films and the outstanding music of John Williams is there in a very slightly altered form, but it’s still that great Superman music.

The major twist, as far as I know, has never been done before. I kind of liked it as it’s going to have monumental repercussions to the Superman universe and I find myself looking forward to seeing how this twist plays out and in reality, the twist is the only reason to go see this film, otherwise its two and half hours of blah with a sprinkling of exciting parts that are to few and brief that its hard to believe I am at a Superman movie.

I should not be at Superman movie begging for action, but that’s just what I found my self doing…..”Please for the love of god, something happen!!”

In fact there was very little tension in the film. There were a couple of tense spots, but I didn’t care, the film did not make me care at all.

And another really painfully, annoying thing is that Hollywood has gone so far to the left and placed itself so far outside of the main stream that it could not bring itself to say “Truth, Justice and THE AMERICAN WAY!!!”

No, Hollywood had to say “Truth, Justice and that other stuff”….WHAT??? That’s only been Superman’s credo for like 40-50 years and Hollywood choked on the words. Shame on you Brian Singer.

This movie could have been and should have been less than two hours and not the 154 minute snore-a-thon that it was. Did Brian Singer hit his head and suddenly think he was Peter Jackson?

Brandon Routh may vaguely look like Christopher Reeves, but he did not sell me that he was Superman. He did a decent job as Kent, but I just could not bring myself to see him Superman.

Kate Bosworth was terrible as Lois Lane, in fact I don’t think she can really act and least she couldn’t be bothered to do so in this movie. All she could do was walk around with her mouth open in perpetual state of shock on her face. Good Grief.

Kevin Spacey was serviceable as Lex Luthor, but that’s about it. He was the only actor in the whole film that I could have believed that he was the character he was supposed to be acting. But just barely.

The special effects are lame to say the least. Sure there are a couple of good looking parts, but there were also some flying scenes that looked no better than the 1978 version of Superman. Yeah, seeing Superman break the sound barrier and heating up on reentry is neat, but other than the plane/shuttle scene, the effects are not even noteworthy. Superman’s laser beams could barely been seen, it’s like they ran out of money before that effect was put in the movie.

I think this film will make a lot of money and general audiences will probably like it, I am not sure what diehard Superman fans will think of it. But I can’t imagine that they will like it much.

You know its never a good sign when your leaving the theatre and your struggling to find things that you liked about the film. But that’s what I experienced.

I have to rate this film a 2.5 out of 5 possible boring plots that you just don’t care about.


And finally, Truth, Justice and The American Way…..say it with me Hollywood it wont hurt you. Come on you can do it…T..H..E…A...M..E..R..I..C..A..N…W..A..Y..

There! That wasn’t so bad was it?

[neglet]

Well, I loved it--thought it was a very romantic superhero movie with good work by the actors all around. I posted a more detailed review in the SPOILER thread.

[Alpha]

I loved the movie, though I'm not an extremist Superman fan. For every movie there will be people who like it and those who don't, though, I think, that this will probably be one of those movies where most people who see it will like it. Anyway, I forgive Bryan Singer for leaving the X-Men to make this film, because he made a great film in my opinion, one of the reasons being he actually paid attention to and gave importance to character development and story instead of just to action and special effects (unlike X-Men 3 for example). Yes it was a long film (2.5 hours, the previews/commercials was what made it close to 3), but I didn't find myself wishing it was over or feeling that it was too long. And I really liked that Singer didn't drastically change everything and try to "make it his own." I'm glad he did it that way instead of trying to "reinvent" him. I think reinvention can be good for some films (like Batman) but I really don't think Superman needs to be. And come on - was anyone else smiling like I was when the opening theme started to play? The excitement level just started to rise for me with that theme - kind of the way it does with the Star Wars theme. Big thumbs up for this movie from me.