Thursday, June 29, 2006

Superman!

Just got back from seeing Superman Returns, and I want to tie a red towel around my neck and run around the house making whooshing noises.

Yeah, I liked it. Actually, I like it better than Batman Begins, and a damn sight better than X-Men 3.

Good casting choices. Brandon Routh looks like Superman, dammit. Some critics seem inclined to dislike him because of his failure to be Christopher Reeve; me, I think he did just fine. Critics of his acting clout might do well to recall that even Mr. Reeve wasn't exactly a thespian powerhouse.

Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor gets the best lines, but don't the villains always? And his plan has that frisson of Evil Comic-Book Genius that makes it all worthwhile. The theme in the film of Kryptonian technology being crystal-based, and the exploitation of certain traits of crystal to make the Plan even more Evil, was actually pretty interesting to me.

Some minor points...(as anyone familiar with me mutters "Can't you just enjoy the damn movie?"). The beginning credits go on for too frigging long, though I did like the reprisal of John Williams' original theme. The pacing was off; the first part of the movie, where you're being force-fed information to get you up to speed, is just too crowded and doesn't flow well. The end is actually kind of anti-climactic when set next to all the cool stuff that came before.

Here's the kicker that kept bugging me throughout: the Superman-as-savior a la Christ is done to death (ahem). How many times did Bryan Singer watch The Passion of the Christ before making this film? Enough already. We get it. Get back to Superman doing super-stuff.

And he does. The guy could make FEMA obsolete. Well, three arthritic grannies with walkers could make FEMA obsolete, but Superman could do it well. Natural disasters don't stand a chance. And the all-too-rare occasion of him defeating criminals with embarrassing ease is just fun.

Couldn't help but think he should have said "Don't you know who I am? I'm Superman, bitch!"

Excuse me. Must go find a red towel.

3 Comments:

Blogger Barbara said...

"I want to tie a red towel around my neck and run around the house making whooshing noises."

First of all you'd scare the shit out of the dogs. Secondly, your parents would have you committed. (But we'd still come visit you.....)

8:33 AM  
Blogger Matt said...

No, George would chase me and try to attack the towel. Java would sleep through it. And all things considered, Mom and Dad would probably regard it as more normal than my usual behavior. :)

2:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have to say I agree with you on this one, Matt.

Superman kicked ass. The only things I didn't like about it was the overwhelming Christ imagery, and there were some rather large holes in Lex's evil plan...;)

I loved that it was very true to the other movies, and the casting was superb except for Lois... She just never looked like Lois to me. Oh well, still an excellent movie.

-Flynn

8:51 PM  

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