Superman Returns Movie Review...

Yes Superman Returns was a horrible film, Im just trying to put it out of my mind.
They should have just done a reboot rather than a continuation I think thats a big reason this movie sucked so bad.
Trying to be faithful to the Donner films rather than break new ground with some new original take on superman, that would require hard work dedication an talent.
The only reason to do a continuation is so Lois could have a child. You would think they were doing it so they could have Zod reappear. Take the child out of the movie an this could be a weak, limp-wristed reboot.
Make a sequel yes, but fire Singer immediately!
Kevin Spacey was totally under-used in this film, it makes me sick.
Routh as the man of steel I wasnt so sure about, but they CGI'ed him some more muscle in a few scenes which helped him pull it off. I think they should have taken a note from the spiderman costume an put some muscles into the suit to make him look more the part. The spidey costume does it just right. An they should have CGI'ed Routh with his veins popping in his arms an neck when he was pushing that island into space. So many things they did wrong, ugh.
Another thing that just didnt sit right with me is the kid.
I mean they are obviously trying to modernize the story by introducing the kid, but the characters Lois/Clark/Superman didnt follow suit they still acted virtually the exact same way towards each other as they did in the Donner films which makes no sense at all.
If you gonna introduce a child, in order to make us buy it you have to make Lois/Clark/Superman's relationship change to reflect that. At times it just felt like she addopted the kid.
Did anyone else think the part where supes was flying thru the flames, after the earthquake, was a rip-off/nod to Superman I when he picked up the continent underground?
I totally did not like that, to me it looked identical, I wanted to see NEW stuff. Of course the Superman I sequence looked better and was cooler. You know a conitnent weights more than that puny little island he threw into space.
I now offically hate this movie, I hope it does well so they can make a sequel that doesnt suck.

113!!You were right on the money!! i loved every minute of it.
It was perfectly done. Perfectly paced. Perfectly toned and perfectly produced. i never give anything a 10 but this was a 9.9999!! you cant compare it to spidey and batman because they're such different films in that spidey has more fist fights and batman is more of a crimefighter. Supes can perform more extraordinary feats and is clearly a saviour for all mankind and an undoubted inspiration to so many. I enjoyed it more than any other film I've seen. About time the character with the greatest powers got the SFX treatment. Gonna have to watch it in the IMAX next!!

i really disliked this movie, i think i fell asleep at one point. It was really boring. The only thing i liked was watching the guy who played uper man, brandon or brendon something.Anyways, overall *snooz

it was a action chick flick. i am a keen superman fan. ive seen all the moies, most of the adventgers, and all the smallville so far. so i was really hyped up for it. i liked it.but i was expecting more. i give it 8/10 being a bit genourous

omg it was amazing soooo good. Kevin spacey was perfect...and it was wierd seeing james marsden have more than 5 mins on the screen. brandon was fantastic...at some parts i know he didnt really need to but he did look like the late reeves. he was born to be superman!!!! the kid thing although obvious was a good twist i also thought the whole hospital thing was really great...although i expected lois to recognise clark in him when she visited him...it was so comic book like. the guy wit the chain gun, the bullet of the eye, the heat vision disintergrating the glass

wow lol i really liked it

9.5/10 i would like to have seen more of the lois clark relationship build back up...

oh i also loved it that she asked how to spell catastrophic like from the original films. i never read the comics so dunno if that was in them.

eek i also love the reference to gotham!!!

Pretty good movie. Defiantly getting it when it comes out..

This was one awkward movie.

Super stalker

Clark's dragging suitcases to work. Where does he live, at the daily planet?

Why's he wearing glasses as a child? Is he superman back then? What was the point of flashing back anyway?

I'm always around? NO

kevin's just doing a hackman impression. What a waste... and He and his goons seem completely retarded.

Superman's a daddy, but cyclops is the daddy first, and in the end cyclops is still the daddy?

I left the theater dissapointed. 6/10.

Originally posted by Wesyeed
This was one awkward movie.

Super stalker

Clark's dragging suitcases to work. Where does he live, at the daily planet?

Why's he wearing glasses as a child? Is he superman back then? What was the point of flashing back anyway?

I'm always around? NO

kevin's just doing a hackman impression. What a waste... and He and his goons seem completely retarded.

Superman's a daddy, but cyclops is the daddy first, and in the end cyclops is still the daddy?

I left the theater dissapointed. 6/10.

clark lives nowhere yet he asks some people in the daily planet if they no anywhere he can live.
ye he is the dad but nothing has become of that yet. it would have been rushed if marsden found out this film

the glasses thing i cant explain maybe they were his dads

spacey was AMAZING FANTSTIC ENTERTAINING

My review is begging for the sequel!

I love Superman Returns.
👆

So, I've never been a big fan of Superman as a character, but I came into the theater expecting something about as good as Spider-Man 2. Also, my friends had all given it high reviews, so, despite the lack of sleep I got last night, I was pumped. What I ended up seeing was a movie about a guy who lifts heavy objects and gets into awkward conversations with his ex-girlfriend. Kevin Spacey's great performance as Lex Luthor, plus the creepy piano/fax/thing scene, put it a notch above the Hulk. Special effects were great, I suppose; it looked like he was really lifting some pretty heavy objects. I mean, really heavy. For a while I thought that he wouldn't be able to pull off some of the lifting that he did, but he never failed to perform. And then there was the one scene where instead of lifting things, he walked forwards and got shot repeatedly, but didn't die. That might have been the highlight of the movie.

Given other reviews I've heard, I feel like I'm missing something. Feel free to fill me in by PMs or whatever, as I probably won't look here again. 5/10.

xmarksthespot critically reviews Superman Returns. And will probably be lambasted for it. Purely my opinion but here goes...

The Story
A sequel of sorts.
Except a sequel is supposed to move forward from where the previous films left off. Not just repeat them, from scenes, to lines, to basic plot. When it's been done once and done well, recycling the same idea is rarely a good idea; see Psycho.

"Grow a large uninhabitable piece of land, while in the process killing the people you want to profit off of with the land, all the while proclaiming your own genius." By god, that is genius. Oh wait no it's not, and no amount of opera music is going to convince me that it is.

"That was my plan, and I would have made it work."

But this isn't a remake Lois has a kid! And from the looks of it Superman now Superstalker should have been charged with statutory rape. But wait a minute, Superman erased her memory thus her immaculate conception of a Superbaby should spark a reporter's instincts. Alas no. This would be a major plothole if I wasn't so willing to believe that, yes, Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane really is that stupid. How many F's in catastrophic? Hand me your Pulitzer so I can beat you to death with it.

Other examples of lacklustre writing include but are not limited to flying off to Krypton, finding nothing, and somehow returning in a spaceship; Clark Kent and Superman returning to Metropolis at the exact same time, what a coinkidink; posing like it's Easter, tuning into Superhearing Easylistening and deciding of all the bad things happening in the world a bank robbery takes precedent; not to mention the annoyingly obtrusive Jesus allegory.

The idea of Superman Returning after a long absence to find the world no longer needs him, actually in itself sounds very interesting and could have made for a very compelling story. Unfortunately it hasn't offered anything exceedingly original. It leaves you thinking, "What was the point of this movie again?"

The Casting
Or more rather the miscasting.
Bosworth
Shit. That pretty much sums it up. I suppose I should elaborate. But it really can just be summed up in one word. Shit. I don't see her winning a prize at the special Olympics, let alone a Pulitzer.

Spacey
The hunter in Bambi is more menacing than Kevin Spacey in this film.
Barbara Walters is more menacing than Kevin Spacey in this film.
A grandma swindler with real estate ambitions is more.. oh wait... that is Kevin Spacey in this film.
Spacey wanders through the film as if he doesn't want to be there and the only thing keeping him on the set at all is a giant sack of cash with a big green dollar sign printed neatly on it. I'm not sure if it was just bad scripting or if he's simply lost the talent that brought him accolades in The Usual Suspects and American Beauty.

Routh
There isn't much to say about Routh - he isn't superb, he isn't terrible. He plays an adequate Superman, he certainly looks the part, he delivers lines stolen from the original film competently. He tries his best at imitating Reeve's Clark Kent, but comes up somewhat lacking. He's the acting equivalent of "I can't believe it's not butter." Except I can believe it. And it isn't nearly as good as the real thing.

The minor cast did a reasonable job, however given the role of background scenery, there is little they can do to help the film.

Parker Posey is my muse. Too bad she was given so little to work with playing the role of Lex Luthor's beard, she would have made an infinitely better Lois than Bosworth.

The Execution
With a 2.5 hour movie pacing has to be impeccable. And pacing is off in parts, leading to the movie dragging. The occasionally choppy editing didn't help either. The action sequences show you what special effects these days can do, but really have little more impact than that. You can't help but notice how morose the feel of the film is, washed-out and dim even down to the costume alterations. Singer is a competent director but he really doesn't know the meaning of fun, a lot of the times he strives for epic and only achieves grandiose.

Artistically competent however does not necessarily imply fiscally competent, because I really don't see where the (at least) $205 million dollar budget went.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I don't think Richard Donner's ever been more "flattered".

C+/B-

Very aptly and, may I say, amusingly, put.

I also liked the pictures. Illustrations are so helpful.

That said, brace yourself for the shitstorm. It's a coming, because you must be some kind of irrational, sociopathic hater of all that is good and holy if you found anything wrong with this movie. So goes the thinking on most of this board.

Make criticism you can back up, is all. I've seen a lot of points made by the dislikers, calmly and rationly explained away by the fans. Think before you speak.

Originally posted by roughrider
Make criticism you can back up, is all. I've seen a lot of points made by the dislikers, calmly and rationly explained away by the fans. Think before you speak.

Notice, I said "most", roughrider. You don't represent the norm on this board.

actually, I was under the impression there was a balanced number of dislikers and people who enjoyed the movie...maybe the ones who enjoyed it are more vocal?

I love Superman Returns 👆

I can do it.

but I won't

Originally posted by Slowhand
I was six years old when Superman the Movie hit theatres. Like the rest of the world, I was completely enthralled with Richard Donner's vision of the world's greatest superhero. With that said, I was expecting a lot from Bryan Singer. I was NOT disappointed.
I was the movie in IMAX 3D and, the not-quite-perfect 3D segments aside, after Supes' first heroic act I was hooked. I leaned over to my wife and said, "This is the coolest thing I have ever seen!"
Who is better than Superman? The answer is no one. I love how Singer captured the worldwide sense of awe and respect that humans show for Superman. I don't want to spoil it for anyone (*don't dead any further*).
The entire city looking up to see their savior falling from the sky; The utter silence following his impact with the ground; The police and fire departments rushing Superman's body to the hospital; Police standing guard outside his hospital room; The city at a standstill as a million people surrounded the hospital.
I don't mind admitting that it was hard for me to contain myself. My wife and daughter were not as successful in bottling their emotions and cried openly, as did much of the audience.

here here. i too was quite emotional.
I refute any claims that Superman Returns was a poor offering. It captured perfectly a world where the ultimate hero is carried on the respect of the entire world. It showed the ultimate sacrifice Superman would make to protect the people of earth and the lengths to which his nemesis would go to to kill him.
I loved it, plain and simple. The DVD will take a prominent place in my collection. My experience at the movie theatre was almost spiritual in nature and will never be forgotten.
Love live Superman!
~Slowhand.