Superman!

Better wipe some dust off this blog because I'VE JUST SEEN SUPERMAN RETURNS.

So it's time for my SPOILER-FREE REVIEW! Fan bias rating: extreme.

For those of you who haven't noticed, I've been getting quite extremely "into" Superman over the past month (I like to time my obsessions to coincide with major Hollywood movie releases). So here's a fan's opinion.

WOW!
This movie is totally amazing, visually and emotionally.

Well, for starters, IT'S SUPERMAN UP THERE. Come on, that has to count for something - just watching the Man of Steel up on the big screen for the first time in 19 years is something legendary.

But onto the film itself... Brandon Routh is an incredible Superman, and a great Clark Kent. There was one moment near the beginning of the film (with Routh as Clark) where I could swear it was Christopher Reeve up there. Spine-tingly! But no, Routh was afraid of being passed off as a Reeve-impersonator, and he wasn't. He made a new Superman which was reminiscent of the original.

In fact this whole film was a new Superman which was reminiscent of the original. Perhaps a little too reminiscent - I couldn't tell if it was an homage or a remake! I'd say the relationship between Superman Returns and Superman: The Movie was similar to that of the movie Hook and the classic Peter Pan - both a sequel and a retelling rolled up into one. A lot of lines were repeated from the first one as well - mostly this worked as intended, a charming nostalgic reference for the fans.

All the classic characters were there - Clark/Superman, Lois, Perry White and Jimmy, and the baddies, Lex Luthor and his good-girl-gone-bad, Kitty "Miss Teschmacher" Kowalski. All the actors played the roles superbly, each capturing the original performance and taking it further. I must specially commend little Tristan Leabu who played Lois's son Jason. Let's be frank: Having little kids in movies can really suck. *cough*Phantom Menace*cough*. But Jason was perfect and had a pretty big role too.

Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane was interesting - one the one hand, she played the role right - brooding and deep, but on the other hand, she didn't have the "spark" of Margot Kidder. But what annoyed me was this - and I didn't notice from any of the trailers or posters, but it annoyed me in the film - she has one brown eye and one blue eye. Uh... it seems a bit cruel to say so but it was quite distracting. Couldn't she have worn contacts or something?

The story was great, and very emotional. Some parts were... very emotional... for a Superman fan but hopefully anyone will get the full impact of the story. Unfortunately it was just a little bit holey, as in, felt like it was missing some scenes. I know for a fact about half an hour was made, then cut from the start of the film, and you could kinda tell it was missing something there. That'll be on the DVD though, I hope. And hey, Superman fans can't complain about plot holes, right? Superman I and II had their share of them, and Superman III and IV were not so much plots with holes, rather big gaping spaces with bits of plot in them. But I digress. Early on it felt like it was a bit slow, but of course, leading into the epic climax, it got really good.

Music - well I heard a lot of people say the music was like they had "butchered John Williams", that "John Ottman shouldn't have done editing and scoring" or that they "should have got John Williams back". In short, they were saying "good film, lousy score". Wha...? I don't know what film those guys saw - the score was one of the best parts. So awesome - and yes, I'm a film score enthusiast. Ottman captured Williams' original score and used it just right - exactly original where it was needed, and modified where it was needed. He did things like taking the original theme and changing the chords to emphasise different tension, or add backing vocals, just in the right places. Or made the Lois Lane theme just a bit grander. All that was awesome. Now he hasn't written a lot of new themes, but there were one or two prominent new pieces that came up a bit, and they were wonderful too. So the score was perfect in my books.

Visually, the film was brilliant, of course, from the new Superman suit, to the mind-blowing special effects. I won't say much about them because we all know what special effects are like these days. I will mention the opening credits sequence, which was mind-blowing. (There, it's mentioned). Now, the negative. I heard that the guys spent ages deciding on a camera to go with, and ended up choosing this brand new spunky Genesis digital camera which "simply looked stunning". What I saw through a lot of the film was grain. Grain grain grain and it was distracting (especially in dark scenes). So maybe it was this new camera's fault, maybe something else. I'm just hoping the DVD will be at a low enough resolution so I can't notice (down with HD!)

Anyway, let's not wallow in the grain... the film was a masterpiece. I simply must see it again - who wants to come?

Kitty: You're not a god, Lex.
Lex: Gods are selfish beings who fly around in little red capes, and don't share their power with mankind.