Still Super

[fredericks]

Watched Superman Return again and it went down smoother this time 'round. The things that bugged me initially still bugged me, but at least I was able to tune 'em out a bit in anticipation of all that rocked.

What bugged:

• All the callbacks to the first Supes. Not the canon stuff but the dialogue delivery by Routh down to the st-st-stammering of Clark Kent, the title sequence (although, yeah, it was chizz) and particularly the revolving door scene. This may be the MSG in my system talking but I'm fairly certain that comes right out of I. It was irksome.
  
• The fact that I consistently confuse the themes of Superman and Star Wars. Damn it, John Williams!
  
• Martha Kent's last scene, the shot of her outside of the hospital near the end. Showing her face yet not showing her reunion with her (adopted alien) son, especially after Superman realizes he has a son of his own, struck me as a disservice.
  
• Half-assed bad guys. It happens in almost *all* works - the bad guys get the good guys on the rope and instead of finishing the deal quickly the bad guys decide to *talk* or *kill slowly* and leave before the task is done. Lex Luthor had a powerless Superman and instead of slitting his throat or gutting him like a fish or shooting him what does he do? He shanks 'em (and you just know Lex learnt that lovely move in prison) and pushes him over a cliff into water. Gah.
  
• "Moments of suspense". Richard's plane falling into the mist. Lex's chopper falling off the rock face. Superman's flatline. The Daily Planet's headline. Just not.necessary. Actually, that last one had me going the first time, it can stay. The others? Annoying. Let the the entire event be captured in full by the omnipresent camera crew or don't bother.
  
• Supes getting his ass handed to him. Talk about blatant sympathy-fishing, my God. I'm surprised tissues didn't drop from the ceiling at that point.
  

What/who rocked:

• The plane/rocket sequence. In 3D no less. FUCKIN' amazing. It's up there with the 100 Mile Dash sequence from The Incredibles as a bit of cinema that'll make me want to keep going back to see the movie in the theatre.
  
• Jason Lane. I thought that kid was so cute I just wanted to hug him to bits. I also wanted to see him totally let loose but that's my inner geek talking. He struck me as one of the more complex characters because of his reluctance to acknowledge his powers...although thinking about that brings up a mini-irk: he was obviously taught that using his powers was a bad idea by *someone* and I'm going to guess it was his mom by the way he apologized to her after the applause-worthy piano scene. So why have her play oblivious? The next movie (because I'm hoping the sequel is inevitable..."Superman Re-Returns"? "Superman: The Dude Just Can't Stay Away!"?) with Superman and his son will be geek-out worthy.
  
• Richard White. I didn't hate the guy, and I chalk it up to Marsden's performance. He knew he was a sucker and quite possibly was a second prize but he stuck to his guns, dang it.
  
• BABY MAMA DRAMA!!! Oh man, so Jerry Springer/Maury Povich territory, and so very snark-worthy. We kept turning to each other and whispering "You are NOT the father!" and laughing ourselves to sore stomachs. After that we'd hum snippets from "My Baby Daddy". Then we started on the child support cracks:
  Lois [in the movie]: Will we see you again?
  Lois [in our movie]:...because the court date is September 18th. Get yourself a real job! 17% of that check is ours.
  Lovin' it.
  
• Jimmy/Clark...? I hear the Word Processing programs starting up as I type.
  
• Lex. Damn you, Spacey, for not making me bitch about not having teh Rosenbaum staring down at me from the huge IMAX screen. Dude was good and evil. Aside from the whole "shank but not watch Supes die" bit, of course.
  
• Superman taking the chunk of rock into space. I'm not a fan of the Jean Gray fainting-after-exertion schtick, but watching the man slowly pass out and gracefully plummet down into Central Park (*snort*)...fine, I teared up a little. JUST a little.
  

And I'm serious about maybe wanting to see it again. IMAX, baby.

Comments

[xioley.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on most of that, as you know. Oh, and on the cool scenes: how about the bullet-flattening sequence on the roof? And I might've mentioned this before too, but Kate Bosworth looked a little young--but her acting was on. All of the actors were awesome (Parker Posey wasn't thoroughly amazing, but she was still good, imo). I'm thinking that little Jason didn't know his powers before the whole piano scene, and that he was saying 'I'm sorry', in part about that.

Oh, another thing that kind of confused me: the timeline. I might be remembering this wrong, but Jason was five, right? And Superman was gone for five years? Huh.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

The bullet scene was spoiled a bit for me because I'd seen in it a commercial prior to seeing the movie. Judging from the crowd reaction, though, not everone had and most people liked it. Yeah, it made the geek in me happy. :)

Bosworth looked too young to, what? Have a kid? Have a Pulitzer? I wasn't buying the amazing journalist angle but the single mom angle I could dig, didn't think she was too young-looking for that one.

I'm thinking that little Jason didn't know his powers before the whole piano scene, and that he was saying 'I'm sorry', in part about that.
I think he did know his powers, hence the whole "being sickly" act. I got the feeling that whenever he feels pressured instead of doing something superhuman he falls back on the asthma bit because it's safer. Perhaps it's mature thinking for a kid but remember he *is* part alien -timeline tie-in- it's possible Kryptonians age differently, or that being half-Kryptonian does wacky things to the aging process. He was a big 4/5 year old, although I do have a cousin who looked 7 or 8 when she was 4 so I can forgive the casting directors for sticking an older kid in the role. And...did they actually say his age? I just assumed he was like 4 years and 3 months or something.

[xioley.livejournal.com]

Bosworth looked too young to have worked as a reporter for some time, fallen in love, won a Pulitzer, and then had (roughly) five years go by. I mean, Lois was supposed to be about 30-35, maybe even older. She looked maybe 25, and that was pushing it. Kate Bosworth looks young for her age, which will be good for her later in life, but...well, she just looked young.

Well, I'll leave Jason as ambiguous. Perhaps some questions will be answered in sequels on that one.

[twoworldsin1.livejournal.com]

The other day when I was talking to my boss from work study she was saying how she saw Superman Returns and she didn't like Brandon Routh because "he's no Christopher Reeve" Why, what a brillant deduction! Would you have preferred it if they had dug up Christopher Reeve's corpse and had him dance around the screen like a marionette? You know, even if he hadn't been paralyzed eventually Christopher Reeve would've died. He can't be Superman forever. So sooner or later the world would have to get used to another Superman. And remember, Christopher Reeve wasn't the first actor to play Superman, not by a longshot. I mean, I'm not saying he was a bad Superman, whenever people in my generation picture Superman they'll always picture Reeve, but people need to learn to move on. Dead is dead (unless you're that bastard Quesada ;)

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

Ha. Quesadaaaaaaaaaaaa! ::shakes fist at the heavens::

I was speaking with a nurse in my hospital before I went to see it the first time and she loved the movie *because* she thought Routh did a great job invoking the image of Chris Reeve. You can't please all the people all the time - go figure. I was glad to see Routh's acting didn't suck, contrary to webgossip opinion, but his blue contacts kept distracting me. They should have just let him go with his natural eye color, if only to please me.