My review of Superman Returns is up (2.5 stars). I admit, I went in with somewhat diminished expectations. The trailers never really did it for me, and even the fairly glowing advance reviews didn't assuage those nagging doubts. So I allowed myself a brief moment of hope during the first part, which included the rather impressive space shuttle/airplane rescue. Maybe Bryan Singer could go three-for-three with superhero pics, I thought. Maybe the voices in my head are wrong this time.
As it turns out, it was something of a mixed bag. The Thing That Walks Like A Man, whose knowledge of DC Comics rivals that of even the esteemed Dr. Elmo, was less forgiving. I felt the first half mitigated some of what came after, and made up for Singer's (hopefully) unintentional portrayal of the Man of Steel as a bit of a creep. We both agreed, however, that one aspect of the film (which I don't describe in the review and which I won't spoil here) damages the end product almost irrevocably.
The review does go into some detail about Lex Luthor's unbelievably lame plan for world domination, so be forewarned.
I think kids will enjoy the movie, if that helps. And again, the action scenes are first-rate, but the whole thing ended up leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
On the plus side, The Wife and I saw The Devil Wears Prada last night, and we both agree it's one of the better movies released this year.
I saw the flick again in the spirit of goodwill (and to see it in IMAX 3-D, which was surprisingly nifty), and while I was able to mellow a bit and relax, I have to say that upon second viewing, Luthor's scheme was even more mind-bogglingly idiotic.
Unless he planned on shoving those crystals into the dog or a henchman to make his own meat, all anyone would have to do to stop him is starve him out. Hell, Lex didn't even have enough fuel to fly back to the mainland (where he'd be nicked, natch) for grub, supplies, or, hell, a method to issue his oh-so-awesome ransom demands.
I cannot forgive a moronic Lex Luthor.
Wasn't Lex's scheme a take on the idea of a big corporation kind of...moving in and destroying land in order to rebuild and line their pockets by the rebuilding of what they screwed up? Maybe I'm reading too much into it....but I think the movie has some pretty sweet allegory.
You're awfully charitable, Mr. Don.
Lex's master plan is to corner the real estate market by wiping out the North American landmass and replacing it with his own glassine continent where, apparently, everyone will want to relocate.
I'd think it rather hard to facilitate "rebuilding...what they screwed up" considering that the new territory a) isn't arable, and b) has no natural resources.
Even the brain trust behind, oh, say, the Iraq invasion could at least get some oil out of it. At best, all Lex can hope for is a bustling trade in cubic zirconia.
Here's another thing about the real estate development deal...
I live in California, near San Francisco and for a while, a big running joke was that San Francisco was going to put a huge mirror in the Bay so they could have a view of San Francisco, something the bastard stepchild town Oakland has. Even though the new Krypton looks shitty, you would have a nice view of Metropolis and hey, it's all island-front property.
Anyone else find that scene where Superman gets his ass kicked really hard to watch? I'm not even all that big of a Superman fan...and found it difficult.
I'm glad to hear that you guys liked The Devil Wears Prada. It was hard to tell from the previews if it was going to be good or just fluff. I like Anne Hathaway, and I liked the book so I'll check it out.
Well - I hadn't watched any of the first 4 movies in quite a while...and by comparison this one rates slightly better than a couple of those. I had some problems with the lackluster story...but then again it must keep within the *comix* plot type genre and evil-super-villain formula. (Though somewhat formulaic it WAS.)
But it does avoid much/most of the "Camp" of it predecessors.
;-D
Forget Beppo, I just want to see Ace the Bat-hound in the next Batman movie.