Review of Superman Returns (2006) by Parker J — 16 Jun 2013

Decent, but could've been soooooooo much better. Fuck Bryan Singer for making it one long homage to the older films instead of making a fresh, new movie based on the book "Superman: Birthright". [/geek].

I still really enjoy this while I watch it, but overall.... it's not a very good or well-thought-out Superman movie, let alone a movie on its own, and with the exception of Routh(Superman) and Huntington(Jimmy Olsen), the casting was appallingly bad. Spacey plays Luthor for laughs and cartoonishness... depressing, really, given that the man was somebody I ALWAYS wanted to see play a serious villain. Bosworth was quite distractingly young and seems suspiciously like she was cast because Kevin Spacey gets her into all his movies these days and he's friends with Bryan Singer. Frank Langella is another talented actor who goes completely to waste here. His soft-spoken performance comes of as completely bland and uncharismatic and is nothing but forgettable in the wake of great Perry Whites such as Lane Smith and Jackie Cooper, who knew how to be dynamic and loud and give a total sense of in-charge without going over the top. Richard White was compentenly played by Marsden but is ultimately an awkward and uninteresting character who never should have been brought in in the first place.

Superman acts out of character to a painful degree in this film and if I had to pick a single thing that ruins it, that would be it. And also the terrible, terrible, pathetically overused and very often unnecessary CGI that ruins much of the action including the plane sequence, which should've been a selling point, pulling the viewer right out of Superman's first movie appearance in years, and for no reason because IT WAS A SHOT OF A MAN STANDING THERE OR LYING DOWN THAT REQUIRED NO CGI AT ALL. The solution to the villainery is an utter cheat, and some of the crappiest storytelling I've seen in a big film in a long while.

And yet, I still find the film fairly enjoyable when I'm watching it and in-the-moment. In the long run... I'm just relieved they're officially not making a sequel. I want a real Superman movie for this generation and there's no reason it can't be as good as 'Batman Begins'. It should've been in 2006. Hopefully it will be in 20(10? 11? *sigh*).