Movie Review : Superman Returns

I have finally managed to squeeze some time to watch Superman Returns. I entered the cinema not expecting much from the movie. Although I rarely read movie reviews before actually watching them myself, I've heard mixed opinions in the internet of this latest movie directed by Bryan Singer (of X-Men). Admittedly, I've also read O-K's spoiler free mini-review of the movie.

Superman (Brandon Routh) disappears for some soul-searching after astronomers discovers his planet Krypton and returns 5 years later. Much to his surprise and disappointment he discovers that Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has moved on and is engaged and has a son. At the same time Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is planning to utilise technology from Krypton, destroying America in the process.

Needless to say, the action sequences and the computer graphics are amazing. I've said this before, and I'm going to repeat it here: In all movies with CGI, I consciously try to differentiate between live elements and CGI ones. In this movie, the dichotomy is much less clear, in fact I could rarely tell when Superman is CGI. Kudos to the CG artists and animators.

I was enthralled watching the airplane sequence, to me, the most visceral action sequence in any Superman movie to date. I also loved the gattling gun sequence (and the “eye-shot” LOL), where Superman is literally demonstrated to be “faster than a speeding bullet”.

To be honest, I didn't mind both Brandon Routh as Superman or Kate Bosworth as Lois. There were parts where I thought Routh definitely does not have the same charisma as Christopher Reeve but he does play the boy-scout Superman and Clark Kent convincingly. The only thing I did not like about Routh was his make up. Anyone else think he looks like Michael Jackson? (i.e either the make up is too heavy, or his features too sharp/pristine).

The emotional ride in this movie is not bad, where there's a sense of loss, loneliness, yearning and fatherhood etc2.

Overall, I did enjoy this movie and I do recommended it to everyone. However, I probably wouldn't be buying the DVD.

Arbitrary Rating: 3.7/5 (i.e almost a “4” but not quite)

PS

• My favourite character in the movie is hands down, Cyclops. However, I wondered why he didn't use his optic blast in the movie? Hmm.
• They say Superman is a real “boyscout” and in this movie, that fact is both subtly and convincingly portrayed. In fact, Superman reminds me of some of my more “schema” friends (I'm looking at Exdua aka Uncle “30 miles-per-hour” De here).
• This article was wholly composed using OpenOffice.org Writer (the free and open-source alternative to Word).