Superman Returns

Originally Posted by Foshi

I don't what that means.

Anyway, Ebert gave Returns two stars. Said it's characters were badly miscast and the action scenes were lackluster. He also said there was a lack of logic in the characters actions.

Well, I will see for myself in a bit.

I wouldn't put too much sense on what either of them have to say, they gave Ocean's 12 two thumbs up. :lolsign:

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Well, it was a good movie. Not as great as Batman Begins, or Spider-Man 2 but as a comic book movie it is amoung the cream of the crop.

Cons
-Cheese; lots and lots of cheese, romantic fluff, bad dialogue, stupid plot and some lame characters
-Only one good action scene; the airplane scene is the only action scene that excited me
-No real point or purpose
- lame ending

Pros
-Excellent opening
-Excellent score
-Excellent visuals; no one has ever flown like this before
-One well done and exciting action scene

The problem with Superman is that he has no flaws. You never worry about him not completing his tasks. He does what he does and he is unstoppable. If they make another one, they really need some villian to kick his ass a little; maybe Bizarro.


I would have much preferred the kid not be Supermans. The story would have worked a bit better that way. Yeah, I'm nitpicking but I really hate romantic garbage in movies like this.

Overall, I agree with everything said in Ebert's review.

7.5 out of 10 (Very Good)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Foshi

The problem with Superman is that he has no flaws. You never worry about him not completing his tasks. He does what he does and he is unstoppable.[/SIZE]

That's also one of the appeals of the character too. Not that he can't be physically hurt but when the shit really hits the fan, he'll be there to save the day just like Batman in Batman Begins when he dives over to The Narrows to stop Ra's al Ghul and the monorail or Spider-Man and the cable car in the first film. Of course we know they'll succeed but we're not concerned with their personal safety but "What if they don't succeed and save them in time?" and hoping they do.

Cheers for the unmarked spoiler by the way.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Simo

Cheers for the unmarked spoiler by the way.

It's common knowledge that the kid was Supermans. Go read Ebert's review he spells it out quite clearly. I thought it would have worked better if he wasn't. A lot of cheese would have been taken out that way.

"What if they don't succeed and save them in time?" I was hoping that he actually would fail to save them. It would have been a better movie that way.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by sprouticus

Spoiler:

It seems like they threw out Lois's realization that Clark = Superman. My friend said that "she made herself forget," but that's something that wasn't shown clearly enough on screen if it is the explanation. Plus, who would forget something like that? I can understand if she moved on from Superman, but forgetting he's Clark? Come on now!

At the end of Superman II, I thought Superman does some sort of bizarre "brain drain" on her and she suddenly forgets everything that had happened (her sleeping with Superman, Superman = Clark, etc). It was a really lame cop-out at the end of that film, but it does "explain" why she wouldn't remember those things.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

The events of Superman II don't need spoiler tags. At the end of the movie he kisses her and it's so overwhelming for her or whatever, that she somehow forgets everything. Then shit Superman III comes out and Clark heads back to Smallville and sees Lana Lang.... but nevermind those other Superman movies, cause Superman Returns is the REAL Superman III. How silly.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Watching it in IMAX 3D made the movie even more worthwhile. Overall, it wasn't halfbad. It was surprisingly pretty decent.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I mostly agree with Sprouticus. The movie was good and even great at some points. The one thing that disappoints me some is that it is a great movie for a fan of Superman...

But for people that aren't a fan, it seems to me that it is just okay. I was hoping this movie would be incredible for fans and non-fans, and I don't think that is quite the case with Returns.

That said, I enjoyed the movie alot. I feel like the performances were good. I liked Routh. Bosworth wasn't bad, I like her on screen more than Kidder. The screenplay was good, but could have used more grit, more intense/memorable moments of dialog. For instance, you can tell by the acting what Lois and Supes are thinking, but for the most part they never vocalize it and that really hinders the character realization.

The Panavision camera was great. I didn't notice a lower quality of picture than film, it might even be a bit better. If anything, I feel like the digital shots combined with the CG better than any other movie. The green screen shots were some of the best green screen shots I've ever seen.

Overall, go check out the movie. And BTW, I think the stuff in this thread about "the kid" should be in spoiler tags. I had no idea of this and that added alot to the movie for a pay off at the end.

FELIPE NO

I ended up seeing this last night. I didn't have high or low, if any, expectations for the movie. I thought it was a fairly good movie, nothing groundbreaking, but nothing too incredibly shitty that would make me regret seeing it.

I didn't think the acting was spectacular, nor the dialogue, but there were some good scenes.

One little thing I enjoyed was the fact that Ottman used not only the original theme, but also cues from a couple of other of Williams' original score. I don't know, almost like an homage to the original legacy. I was half expecting a Bosworth voiceover reading "Can You Read My Mind?"

One bad thing about it was several points of horrible CG. Oh man, it got pretty bad on the Superman flying action scenes and on the close shots of him flying slowly past and the camera panning.

At any rate, I'd recommend going to see this. It's an entertaining summer flick. It's no Batman Begins, but it's good nonetheless. It certainly has its good and bad points, but then again, so does every film, I suppose.

How ya doing, buddy?

Pretty good movie. I enjoyed from beginning to end.

But I made the mistake of going at the 10pm show on Tuesday and boy was that a mistake. Nothing worse than a huundred of teenage punks laughing like idiots and a seepy moron who had to snore during the entire movie.

Now I am reminded why I love bittorent.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I thought it was a bit slow and a bit long, but I liked it. I like the themes in the film, and I spotted more than a couple metaphors that tickled me.

I couldn't watch that one scene without thinking "RIIIIIIDGE RACER!"

There's nowhere I can't reach.

What is the music that is playing at the end of the superman june trailer...?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5p-rB7htxs&search=Superman%20Returns%20new%20trailer


This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by gaming

What is the music that is playing at the end of the superman june trailer...?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5p-rB7htxs&search=Superman%20Returns%20new%20trailer

I just listened to the soundtrack again and I did not here that piece of music. There is a piece that I like a lot that was played throughout the teaser trailer and that is not on the soundtrack either.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Could somebody possible make it into an mp3 file...? From 1.22 or something...

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Foshi

I just listened to the soundtrack again and I did not here that piece of music. There is a piece that I like a lot that was played throughout the teaser trailer and that is not on the soundtrack either.

Well, the music in the first teaser trailer is from the original Superman soundtrack - "The Planet Krypton." I absolutely love that theme.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by SpaceOddity

Well, the music in the first teaser trailer is from the original Superman soundtrack - "The Planet Krypton." I absolutely love that theme.

Thanks a lot man. I was wondering where that was at.

(off to download)

FELIPE NO

I saw this movie this afternoon, and I have to say, it was terrible. My biggest problem is that it doesn't retain any of the kitsch that made the original movies entertaining. The acting was bad, the plot was laughable, and the dialogue was boring. There wasn't even anything interesting in the way of special effects.

Sometimes, these factors don't get in the way of me enjoying a movie, but this was at just the level of bad that it wasn't even interesting to watch at a masochistic level. A two and one half hour yawn.

Oh, what's going to happen next? He's going to lift something really big again? OK, that was neat to watch the first twenty times.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by knkwzrd

I saw this movie this afternoon, and I have to say, it was terrible. My biggest problem is that it doesn't retain any of the kitsch that made the original movies entertaining. The acting was bad, the plot was laughable, and the dialogue was boring. There wasn't even anything interesting in the way of special effects.

Sometimes, these factors don't get in the way of me enjoying a movie, but this was at just the level of bad that it wasn't even interesting to watch at a masochistic level. A two and one half hour yawn.

Oh, what's going to happen next? He's going to lift something really big again? OK, that was neat to watch the first twenty times.

I agree, this movie was a total dud.

Boring through and through. There was no story. NONE. With the biggest premise of the movie (Superman leaving for 5 years) glossed over completely, there was no steam to push anything forward. Lois asks him, "where did you go?" He says, "I went to find Krypton, but it was nothing but a graveyard." Hello??? Superman leaves without telling anyone (or caring about the fate of innocent victims that he saves daily), stays in a spaceship for 5 years, nothing to eat or do, looks for a bunch of space rocks, then comes back? VERY FLIMSY PREMISE.

Then we throw in an obligitory "super hero helps in some scenario" with the bank theft scene. Except that it's a generic jail heist, an excuse to show off some dated Matrix effects, and it doesn't have an ending (can we at least see Superman beat up these guys and hand them over to the cops?).

Oh, Lex Luthor as a villain again, great. You do know that Superman's history includes hundreds of villains to chose from, right? Yeah, and we're just picking this one, where he can't really fight the bad guy hand to hand, instead he just tries to foil an insane plot that makes no sense?

The second half of the movie was visually bland, full of greys and browns when dealing with the off-shore crystal island. Okay, we've seen enough of this boring rainy crystal land, can we please see something else?

Singer seems to have an obsession with showing Superman just flying up into the sky doing some artsy fly poses while pumping up the strings, to make it seem like a beautiful shot, instead of what it really is: SELF INDULGENT MASTURBATION. Ooooh, look, Superman can fly. Yeah, well, that's freaking boring. Spiderman moved around with more excitement, and at least he made fighting crime interesting.

4 out of 10

...and that's only for the high budget special effects used sometimes (and the airplane save was cool).

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I just saw the movie as well. I have to say that I liked the first 2/3 of it, but the last third of the movie completely sucked. I was waiting for a massive/heroic ending of sorts and it's almost like the film completely deflated towards the end... I was like, "Wait - what? That's it?" when the credits started rolling. I'm a little disappointed, I guess. The original premise (or idea) behind the movie was fantastic, and I just don't think the film lived up to that potential.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

There are too many jaded people in this forum. I don't get why all of you can't just sit down and just ENJOY the film without having to become psuedo-ebert and roepers.


I don't follow Superman, not his comics, not his films, not really anything of his. I am more of a Batman guy personally, however this film makes me realize why so many people love Superman and think he is the greatest Superhero. It's because he is THE superhero. He is the perfect hero for a world that needs him, and he can do just about anything, yet through all he can do...he doesn't ask for anything in return, and he has accepted the responsibility of being Earth's 'Savior' and is humble about it. A normal person would crack under something like that, but then again..he's not a normal person at all, heh.


I'm sure there are plot holes from the previous installments of the Superman movies, but hey...who cares? Honestly? Do you NEED it to be absolutely precise? The movie got the job done, it brought Superman back, hence the title of the freakin' movie. I mean, is anyone pissed that this movie doesn't take place circa 1980s, because that's when the films before it came out, and I doubt back then they had flat panel TVs and Boeing 777s. Just enjoy the film, and stop being so critical with it. Me personally, seeing the beginning and hearing the classic Superman theme and seeing him in action...it was sublime, and it was a total escape from the world around me.


Now that being said, I personally thought the acting was cool, The actor who was Superman did it well, and he definitely played the dorky Clark Kent we all do know. Superman the character wasn't bad at all, and definitely portrayed the humble but heroic and self-sacrificing Superman that is known throughout the world. Every other character, even Lex Luthor was decent and guys...it's a superhero film, not a generic dramatic academy award film...since when are superhero films supposed to be on that level? Thanks, didn't think so.


The scenery and music was just epic and IMO, incredible. I hate overdone CG too, but hey...it goes hand in hand with superhero films, so i've come to accept it. And besides, this CG was done beautifully:

Spoiler:

Seeing Superman floating and orbiting earth waiting for danger was just beautiful and so powerful to look at. It shows he is ready to save anyone who needs even the slightest bit of help from danger. He is responsible to save and keep this world from harm. That scene to me showed it. And also, the scene with him going up into the clouds after being saved by Lois, was just so....epic looking. Him floating there with his eyes closed gathering his energy for what he must do to save this planet. Amazing.

Overall, this was just a good, clean, fun film. IMO, much much better than X3. It's funny too....the marvel movies are dropping in quality, while the DC movies such as Batman and Superman are so much better in quality. Heh. If they make a sequel to this, i'd look foward to it.



[and what I said wasn't to stir up some e-drama, so spare me it, because i'm apathetic to an internet argument in this place. Don't like what I said, feel free to debate it with me, not argue.]

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

*puts 2 pennies in the box*

out of curiousty i went to see it last night.
i just find it actually a little 'too short' actually since it probably could've said more with its 2+ hour time. i am actually ok with the whole thing
especially that this is the first fairly good multi-tasking i've seen a super hero done in a while. after all, there isn't just one bad thing happening in the world (USA).

feel bad for the henchmen tho, did anyone of them actually have lines?

me thinks with all these comic-turned movie spawinging. this movie may just be the re-introduction of the characters, small talk/explainition/romance before they start making sequals. heck, why not bring back supergirl as well... hah!

Spoiler:

p.s just wondering... since superman and lois have... you know...is this part of the reason that lois is also somewhat immune to those bumps and bruises she's been receiving throughout the movie?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Karasu

There are too many jaded people in this forum. I don't get why all of you can't just sit down and just ENJOY the film without having to become psuedo-ebert and roepers.


I don't follow Superman, not his comics, not his films, not really anything of his. I am more of a Batman guy personally, however this film makes me realize why so many people love Superman and think he is the greatest Superhero. It's because he is THE superhero. He is the perfect hero for a world that needs him, and he can do just about anything, yet through all he can do...he doesn't ask for anything in return, and he has accepted the responsibility of being Earth's 'Savior' and is humble about it. A normal person would crack under something like that, but then again..he's not a normal person at all, heh.


I'm sure there are plot holes from the previous installments of the Superman movies, but hey...who cares? Honestly? Do you NEED it to be absolutely precise? The movie got the job done, it brought Superman back, hence the title of the freakin' movie. I mean, is anyone pissed that this movie doesn't take place circa 1980s, because that's when the films before it came out, and I doubt back then they had flat panel TVs and Boeing 777s. Just enjoy the film, and stop being so critical with it. Me personally, seeing the beginning and hearing the classic Superman theme and seeing him in action...it was sublime, and it was a total escape from the world around me.


Now that being said, I personally thought the acting was cool, The actor who was Superman did it well, and he definitely played the dorky Clark Kent we all do know. Superman the character wasn't bad at all, and definitely portrayed the humble but heroic and self-sacrificing Superman that is known throughout the world. Every other character, even Lex Luthor was decent and guys...it's a superhero film, not a generic dramatic academy award film...since when are superhero films supposed to be on that level? Thanks, didn't think so.


The scenery and music was just epic and IMO, incredible. I hate overdone CG too, but hey...it goes hand in hand with superhero films, so i've come to accept it. And besides, this CG was done beautifully:

Spoiler:

Seeing Superman floating and orbiting earth waiting for danger was just beautiful and so powerful to look at. It shows he is ready to save anyone who needs even the slightest bit of help from danger. He is responsible to save and keep this world from harm. That scene to me showed it. And also, the scene with him going up into the clouds after being saved by Lois, was just so....epic looking. Him floating there with his eyes closed gathering his energy for what he must do to save this planet. Amazing.

Overall, this was just a good, clean, fun film. IMO, much much better than X3. It's funny too....the marvel movies are dropping in quality, while the DC movies such as Batman and Superman are so much better in quality. Heh. If they make a sequel to this, i'd look foward to it.



[and what I said wasn't to stir up some e-drama, so spare me it, because i'm apathetic to an internet argument in this place. Don't like what I said, feel free to debate it with me, not argue.]

I did enjoy the film for what it was. When I saw it I had expectations. They weren't met by the film. To me Superman Returns is just the start of a new franchise that failed to live up to its potential. For that it is a lot like the the original Spider-Man and X-Men films. Where the sequels were infinitely better than the first. This is what I see happening with Superman.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Karasu

Scroll up and see what he said

I tried to enjoy this film. It was just very boring. And never mind plotholes tieing into older movies:

Spoiler:

What gave Lex the idea that anyone would want to buy a house ON A GIANT SHARD OF BARREN MAGICAL GREEN SPACE GLASS? It's not exactly prime real estate. Flimsiest evil ploy of all time.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by knkwzrd

I tried to enjoy this film. It was just very boring. And never mind plotholes tieing into older movies:

Spoiler:

What gave Lex the idea that anyone would want to but a house ON A GIANT SHARD OF BARREN MAGICAL GREEN SPACE GLASS? It's not exactly prime real estate. Flimsiest evil ploy of all time.

Spoiler:

The other goofy thing is the idea that somehow he'll own this land and be able to sell it. Um... what sort of super weapon does he have at his disposal to make people actually fear him? Once the land appears, any government can just come in and kill/capture Lex. They're not going to put up with any "I own this land" shit.

FELIPE NO

I really enjoyed this movie. Brandon Routh did an incredible job. I cannot wait for the sequel.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?