The Doc’s one sentence review of Superman Returns:
bq.”The first hour and forty-five minutes were amazing; the last half-hour was kind of lame.”
Superman Returns was a huge nostalgia trip for me, having absolutely loved the first two Christopher Reeve films. There were points where I felt like I was a little kid again, and on that level, it succeeded completely.
I tried to look beyond the p.o.v. of a little kid, though, and that’s when the cracks start appearing. I thought Brandon Routh made an acceptable Superman and a great Clark Kent (made me wish there were more Clark moments in the movie), and Spacey was suitably megolamanaical as Luthor. However, even if you dress her up like Katherine Hepburn in Woman of the Year, Kate Beckinsdale just doesn’t have the maturity or acting chops for Lois Lane; she came off as a delicate girl as opposed to a hardened-yet-still-vulnerable woman. Special notice must be paid to Frank Langella’s Perry White, the highlight of the film.
The plot’s fairly superhero standard, and basically acceptable. Although my mother called me yesterday and mentioned that she was bothered by Superman’s use of his powers. When my mom has a problem with the limits of Superman’s powers, I can safely say that it’s not just fanboys that will be voicing complaints about this one. And this movie’s denoument was more like deeeeenooouuuumeeeennnnnt. Overall, though, I liked it well enough for what it was, and while it’s not a great movie, it’s a fun one.
