Superman Returns Official Rate and Review Superman Returns thread!!!

[Pickle-El]

Seattle Post Intelligencer - Positive

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/275399_superman27q.html

 

[GreenKToo]

well,you got to go with your heart.If you dont feel it,you dont feel it.I really hope you do though.

Not yet, Fatboy.

I'll actually hold off until I finish my IMAX 3D screening tomorrow to see what I feel that experience adds to the film.

I'm giving this film every possible chance to win me over, and anyone who says otherwise is just plain wrong.

 

[J.Howlett]

Drew,

All I want to know is this; Superman Returns, Batman Begins, Spider-Man 2, or X2...which one is tops for you?

 

[TPS1000]

USA Today review (*** out of ****)

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2006-06-26-superman_x.htm

 

[SolidSnakeMGS]

Yes, understood Drew, but we all know us fanboys don't want a mixed review.

I assumed that if the review was overwhelmingly positive to even just positive, it would have already been posted. Therefore, using the same logic, I assumed it will eventually be for the most part negative when finally posted.

I'm probably wrong though, so....

 

[Cmill216]

USA Today review (*** out of ****)

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2006-06-26-superman_x.htm

So far, 3/4 seems to be a general consensus, IMO. It's a good flick, but not quite BB or SM2.

 

[GreenKToo]

kool.thanx.

USA Today review (*** out of ****)

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2006-06-26-superman_x.htm

 

[Nivek]

So far, 3/4 seems to be a general consensus, IMO. It's a good flick, but not quite BB or SM2.

Batman Begins was a 3/4 star flick critic wise.

 

[Fatboy Roberts]

Again, it seems the reviews on this seem to be lining up along the same critical consensus that Revenge of the Sith got last year.

 

[Pickle-El]

Contra Costa Times (California)- Positive A-

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/14906958.htm

MOVIE REVIEW
A 'Super' return
By Randy Myers
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Brandon Routh as Superman in "Superman Returns."
Brandon Routh as Superman in "Superman Returns."

* Top 10 comic-book heroes in film
* The big screen lacks serious girl power
* Poll: Who's the best movie superhero?
* Movie Q&A with critic Randy Myers
* More Movies and Entertainment

IT MOVES faster than a speeding bullet, even at more than 21/2 hours.

It's more powerful than any recent blockbuster, from "King Kong" to "X-Men: The Last Stand."

It ably leaps into the same superhero movie stratosphere as "Spider-man" and "Batman Begins."

"Superman Returns" is everything you want in an E-ticket Hollywood ride, superpowered with dazzling action, nail-biting suspense, a complicated romance, clever humor and a hot hunk in tights.

Director Bryan Singer ("X-Men") and a superior cast -- newcomer Brandon Routh as Superman, Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor and Parker Posey as Luthor's cheeky girlfriend Kitty -- pay homage to the revered past and point the icon to a bold new future. The result is a "Superman" that is not only brainy and brawny, but reflective.

After a nearly 30-year absence, Superman is back, better than ever, and on a soul search of epic proportions.

The Man of Steel's return to the center of our pop culture landscape couldn't have happened at a better time. Director Singer and screenwriting duo Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris ("X2: X-Men United") address the need for his services briefly but effectively, with a TV screen flashing images of global strife.

It's such a joyous sight to behold Superman swooshing through the sky as he champions for truth and justice while warding off loonies like Luthor. He's even doing it with a sassier sense of style -- just check out that deep-red rubber cape and those killer boots. Fabulous.

But it's not all about saving the world and an ooh-la-la wardrobe; he's also hoping to woo back Lois, who's peeved at him because he abandoned her without even a see ya later. (Singer picks up where "Superman II" left off.) Bitterness towards the Big S benefits the aggressive journalist's career, snagging her a Pulitzer for an opinion piece, "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." Ouch, that's gotta hurt like Kryptonite.

For five years, Superman went on an intergalactic spiritual quest, and wound up touring his home planet Krypton, now reduced to rubble. This discovery dredges up depressed feelings that he'll always be an "outsider" -- a theme Singer plumbs often. Kal-El, as Superman was known on his home planet, hurdles back to Earth in a meteor, tearing up the corn fields at the Kent family farm.

After reuniting with his foster mom (Eva Marie Saint, given far too little screen time), he reassumes the identity of timid reporter Clark Kent and heads back to Metropolis and the Daily Planet. In true journalistic fashion, editor Perry White (a no-nonsense Frank Langella) gruffly hires him. Enthusiastic shutterbug Jimmy Olsen (Sam Huntington) happily welcomes him back.

Quickly, Clark and his alter-ego try to reconnect with Lois. But she's a stressed-out mother and career woman engaged to a co-worker named Richard (James Marsden, also of "X-2"). The sympathetic Richard is a cutie and knows how to fly, but only when he's in the cockpit of a plane. After you've been romanced in the sky by Superman, no pilot could ever compare.

Meanwhile, Luthor is up to no good, weaseling the inheritance out of a wealthy dying widow, played, in a clever twist, by Noel Neill, the first Lois Lane to grace the screen in the 1940s. Spacey deliciously plays the bald-headed heavy, switching back and forth from comical to creepy.

With his air-headed girlfriend Kitty (Posey finally landing a part that capitalizes on her weirdness) at his side, Luthor unleashes a diabolical scheme to become a land baron by literally growing his own real estate. He steals insider info on how to do that from Superman's dad, eerily played by a digitally resurrected Marlon Brando.

The plot provides Singer a chance to choreograph some breathtaking action sequences, from Superman rescuing a plane and shuttle as they plunge toward a baseball field, to the spectacle of rocky land formations jutting up out of the sea, imperiling Lois and her family.

These are grand slams. But just as satisfying is the film's dramatic arc, which makes the relationship between Lois and Superman more complex. It certainly helps that both are so easy on the eyes. Bosworth ("Blue Crush") and newcomer Routh, with one jet-black lock of hair curlicued on his forehead, have chemistry reminiscent of the Christopher Reeve-Margot Kidder connection in the 1978 Richard Donner film.

Singer pays homage to that classic, replicating the opening title sequence and expanding on the romantic and stirring score. (The film is dedicated to the late Christopher and Dana Reeves.) It's not easy following after Reeves, but Routh does a commendable job, adding his own stamp by making Superman more introspective. Besides his Grecian god looks and wide-eyed innocence, there's some agile acting going on underneath the costume, especially when he reveals the lonely heart of our hero.

By making this Superman more existential and a touch darker, the franchise moves into more complex waters. But never fear, with this cast, this director and these writers, we're in good hands wherever the sequels takes us. Welcome back, Man of Steel, you've been gone far too long.

Randy Myers is the Times movie critic. Reach him at [email protected] or at 925-977-8419.

'SUPERMAN RETURNS'

A-

Starring: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, Parker Posey

Rated: PG-13 (some intense action violence)

Opens: Wednesday, with advance screenings tonight at 10 p.m. and midnight, select theaters.

 

[GreenKToo]

yup.seems so.Nothin for us to do now, but see it for ourselves.

Again, it seems the reviews on this seem to be lining up along the same critical consensus that Revenge of the Sith got last year.

 

[Pickle-El]

San Francisco Chronicle: Bout half and half.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/27/SUPERMAN.TMP

 

[Pickle-El]

wffa.com Dallas Fort Worth Channel 9

A-

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-superman_0627gl.State.Edition1.8317bb.html

 

[J.Howlett]

Same critical consensus as Episode III? I'm all good then.

 

[Cmill216]

San Francisco Chronicle: Bout half and half.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/27/SUPERMAN.TMP

I'd say it's negative.

 

[Pickle-El]

Here's a nice, mostly negative review....I'm sure some will enjoy:

http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=202914

2.5 Stars

Gire's review of Superman: Fans waited 19 years for this?

BY DANN GIRE
Daily Herald Film Critic
Posted Monday, June 26, 2006



2.5 stars

If you loved Christopher Reeve's Superman in 1978, you'll love him again in 2006.

Brandon Routh's interpretation of the superhero doesn't just pay homage to Reeve's performance, it's a Xerox copy. And we all know that duplicates never quite match the quality of the original.

Brandon Routh never lays a convincing claim to the Superman persona.
"Superman Returns" has ripped through five directors, untold numbers of scripts, countless actors, $350 million and 19 years of patient fans waiting for their next silver-screen Man-of-Steel action fix.

And for what?

For Lex Luthor's recycled scheme to be Donald Trump?

For John Williams' recycled theme music?

For the late Marlon Brando's recycled, phoned-in appearance as Superman's pop?

For the script's recycled "Passion of the Christ" subtext?

Don't get me wrong. "Superman Returns" blings the screen with super special effects and retina-arresting spectacles.It offers comical quips, a scene-masticating performance by Kevin Spacey, a cameo of TV's original Jimmy Olsen (Jack Larson as Bo the bartender), a romantic flight through Metropolis and the cutest kid since Jonathan Lipnicki in "Jerry Maguire."

But why make a "Superman" for the 21st century when so much of it remains tied to a film almost 30 years old?

In this movie, Superman really does return. He's been away five years, apparently checking out the space debris that used to be his home planet of Krypton before it exploded.

When he returns to Metropolis, his alter-ego Clark Kent gets his job back as a reporter for the Daily Planet newspaper, but the Man of Steel doesn't get back girlfriend Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth).

She's moved on and in with editor Perry White's handsome nephew Richard White (James Marsden late of "X-Men" fame) with whom she has a little boy, Jason (Tristan Lake Leabu).

Yep, Lois is a happily unmarried mommy.

Super is bummed. His new costume with dead reds and blues suggests his less than cheerful disposition.

Meanwhile, Spacey's brilliantly executed super villain Lex Luthor concocts a daring scheme to use the crystals from Superman's icy Fortress of Solitude to create a continent that will displace oceans, flood North America and make him a real estate mogul. (Gene Hackman's 1978 Luthor bought up worthless land that would become lucrative beachfront property once he sunk California's West Coast under water.)

Director Bryan Singer, who jumped the "X-Men" ship to make "Superman Returns," has a knack for bold and epic strokes, especially in an early sequence involving a crippled jetliner plummeting into a crowded Metropolis ballpark.

He also handles a romantic nocturnal flight over the city with almost the same dreamy escapism Richard Donner manufactured with Reeve and Margot Kidder.

Yet, there's not much smoldering emotion between Bosworth and Routh, who are supposed to be tragically drawn into an impossible relationship.

Bosworth appears vaguely ill-at-ease as Lois; Routh proves affable enough, but never quite lays convincing claim to the Superman persona.

As a minor quibble, Routh looks - how can I put this politely? - a little creepy, like a giant GI Joe doll or those plasticized kids from "Polar Express." Maybe it's his super-smooth shave, like those "after" models in Schick Quattro commercials.

Or maybe it's his indecisive hair style. Either way, he emanates this model-like artifice that makes me think I've seen him hailing taxis in the men's section of a JC Penney's catalog.

As the Daily Planet editor, Frank Langella has a ball bellowing Perry White-isms like "Great Caesar's ghost!" Parker Posey makes Kitty, Luthor's henchwoman, a looker with a heart of gold. Sam Huntington's Jimmy Olsen manages to be quirky and comical in his brief scenes.

Recent Superman comic books have emphasized the Man of Steel's Christ-like characteristics. Comic books and graphic novels employ bombastic symbolism with gleeful abandon, but the cinema requires a lighter touch.

Not here.

Brando's Jor-El, lifted from "Superman - The Movie," appears on omnipresent TV monitors to remind his boy Kal-El that humans are basically good, "but they only lack the light to show them the way. That's why I've sent them you, my only son!"

That's subtle compared to the scene where Superman, apparently dying, falls to earth in a crucifix pose. Christ symbolism hasn't been this blatant since Charlton Heston croaked giving his blood to save humanity in "The Omega Man."

Luthor figures out an ingenious scheme to lure Superman onto an island laced with Kryptonite that zaps his super powers. There, like a modern-day Pontius Pilate, Luthor lets his henchmen pummel the Man of Steel (read: scourge) before spearing him in the side with a Kryptonite shard.

Christ's empty tomb? Now a hospital bed. This movie even throws in a Joseph and Mary.

"Superman Returns," like most fantasy or horror films, relies on internal logic to keep it believable, and yet, Singer lets inconsistencies eat away at its credibility. Why does Kryptonite render Superman too weak to walk in one scene, yet he moves an entire asteroid of the stuff into space and just winces in pain?

In an added-on bank robbery scene, a baddie blasts 50-caliber machine gun bullets into Superman with no effect. Does the robber flee? No. He then shoots Superman with a small hand gun, because, hey, that'll stop him, right?

Early rumors that Superman has gay attributes (apparently because the director is gay) are hardly true. Superman flies as straight as Green Arrow.

But, if the Man of Steel ever joins Batman and Robin in an action film directed by Joel Schumacher, all bets are off.

 

[Michael Corleone]

I'd say it's good to hear that Mori is going to take it in as much as possible. I expect what I've been asking for. A well thought out review.

 

[Pickle-El]

'Superman Doesn't Take Off'

Yet, it still gets 3/4 stars

Salt Lake Tribune:

Superman doesn't take off
By Sean P. Means
The Salt Lake Tribune

Superman Returns

Where: Theaters everywhere.
When: Opens today.
Rating: PG-13 for some intense action violence.
Running time: 154 minutes.
Bottom line: The Man of Steel is as solid as ever, in a well-mounted but emotionally distant action epic.

"Does he still stand for truth, justice, all that stuff?"
That question, posed by editor Perry White (Frank Langella) to his Daily Planet reporters after a comeback appearance by the Man of Steel, is never in doubt in "Superman Returns." This new Superman, as imagined by director Bryan Singer, is every inch the all-American icon he ever was - which is both a joy and a problem.
Singer doesn't just emulate the iconography of the original Jerry Siegel/Joe Schuster comic book: The blue suit, the red cape, the big red "S" on his chest. No, Singer elegantly (if obsessively) copies the specific icons established by Richard Donner's 1978 version. Not only did Singer hire an actor, Brandon Routh, who bears a striking physical resemblance to Christopher Reeve, but he has incorporated the crystalline set design, laser-blue opening credits, triumphant John Williams theme music, and recycled voice-overs from Marlon Brando as Superman's birth father, Jor-El.
Not since Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot "Psycho" remake has a commercial filmmaker strived so laboriously to step in another filmmaker's footprints. Unfortunately, Singer's efforts to make a Richard Donner film hobble him from making a Bryan Singer film - which, as "The Usual Suspects" and the first two "X-Men" movies have shown, should be more exciting than this.
The story (developed by Singer and the film's screenwriters, Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris) begins six years after the events of "Superman II." Superman, aka Clark Kent, has been away from Earth, searching for the remnants of his home world, Krypton. He returns to find a world that has carried on without

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him. Among those who have moved on is Lois Lane (played by Kate Bosworth), who now has a boyfriend, White's nephew Richard (James Marsden), a 5-year-old son Jason (Tristan Leabu), and a Pulitzer for her editorial, "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman" (ouch).
Also returning is archvillain Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), out of prison and again plotting to create new real estate by destroying lots of existing real estate. This time, though, he's using Kryptonian technology he stole from Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Spacey has lots of fun with Luthor's lethal vanity, and he delivers the goods with the same humor but more menace than Gene Hackman did.
If only the good guys were as engaging.

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Routh fills out the blue suit well, but he's not called on to do much more. Bosworth is a feisty Lois Lane, but her scenes with Routh don't spark - because Singer invests more care in the effects and the lovingly realized Super-mythology than in his leads' chemistry.
The action set pieces, such as the sight of Superman saving the Space Shuttle and a jet, are strong but infrequent. But what's really missing from "Superman Returns" is any emotional resonance, the sense of how high the stakes are for Superman and the people of Metropolis. The world may still need Superman, but in today's superhero movie, Singer & Co. need to show why he needs us. --- Contact Sean P. Means at [email protected]" or 801-257-8602. Send

 

[Pickle-El]

Chicago Tribune 2.5/4 Stars:

Movie review: ‘Superman Returns'

rating (out of four)


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By Michael Phillips
Tribune movie critic

"Superman Returns" is a pretty decent comic book movie. For $200 million it should be. God (or Jor-El) knows director Bryan Singer hasn't succumbed to sardonic tomfoolery, even with Kevin Spacey taking the role of evil genius Lex Luthor. Singer, who made superhero hay directing the first two "X-Men" pictures, treats the mythos of the original 1938 "Superman" comic book by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (developed in bits and pieces a few years earlier) as seriously as a filmmaker can without the celluloid turning to bronze.

If that sounds like qualified praise, it's because "Superman Returns" has everything going for it except surprise. A little velocity wouldn't have hurt, either. Singer, who broke through with his twisty crime affair "The Usual Suspects," thinks in terms of individual images and faces rather than images in hurtling, rhythmic sequence. "Superman Returns," a full 2-1/2 hours in length, is full of things to look at without those things making the jump into memorable or fully shaped vignettes. The film doesn't quite do for Superman what last summer's "Batman Begins" did for Batman: invest a familiar pop myth with a sense of vivid rediscovery, or what actors call the illusion of the first time.

It's certainly not short on heart. If Singer's franchise jump-starter becomes as big a hit as Warner Bros. hopes for, it'll be because of the central romantic triangle within the triangle that frames the world's most famous "S." The triangle involves the savior from Krypton; reporter Lois Lane; and Lane's affable blank of a boyfriend, father of Lane's little boy. Or is he?

As a teenager Singer had big love for the 1978 "Superman," and by the time he made "Superman Returns" he was in a position to express it. His film opens with credits designed in the '78 version's space-whoosh style, scored to the original John Williams theme. The late Marlon Brando returns as well, in a few clips from Richard Donner's film. The new Superman, played by Brandon Routh, looks and sounds enough like the late Christopher Reeve -- with a crucial difference we'll get to in a minute -- you may wonder if Reeve has somehow returned as well.

Also known as the god Kal-El, Superman has left Earth to check out rumors regarding the state of his old planet, presumed destroyed. A few years later, in his Clark Kent guise, he returns to his old job at the Daily Planet. (They held the position open for him -- talk about science fiction.) Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) left in love's cruel lurch by her gadabout man of steel, has recently won a Pulitzer for a story called "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." Luthor, meantime, has been sprung from prison and has a nefarious plan (akin to that of the '78 film) to create a continent in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Singer and screenwriters Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris take all of this very seriously, which is better than taking none of it seriously enough. The '78 film was very different in tone, half-serious, half-wisenheimer. (Two of its screenwriters wrote the libretto for the 1966 Broadway musical "It's a Bird … It's a Plane … It's Superman.") Here the derring-do carries an edge. When, thanks to Luthor, a space shuttle with Lois on board plummets toward the ground, the intensity hews more closely to "United 93" than anything from the old television series or its progeny, "Lois & Clark" and "Smallville."

Routh's Superman is a lot like Reeve's, except he's not funny. He's not required to be, but still. Reeve's Clark Kent lightened the load of the '78 film and its excellent sequel, "Superman II." With Routh up against James Marsden's bland Richard White, Singer's version lacks formidable screen personalities. Spacey's Luthor has presence, certainly, but if anything the actor is allowed too much screen time, in protracted scheming sessions aboard Luthor's tricked-out evil yacht or, later, atop his newly created evil continent, an ashen-gray variation on Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

Singer has a knack for iconic imagery: When, Christ-like, Superman floats above his adoptive planet and listens to the millions of voices below, you're seeing something new and arresting.

My favorite shot is a simple, beautiful nighttime close-up of Eva Marie Saint's Martha Kent gazing out of her kitchen window after her adopted son returns home from his interstellar trip. In such isolated moments Singer honors the myth and finds a fresh way to dramatize it. The director is scheduled to do a sequel, to be released in 2009. Maybe in that one we'll get more magic along with the reverence.

 

[Kaiser]

Well, I was dissapointed.

It was to far fetched even for a comic book movie.

The CGI was bad in some parts.

I think the kid killed the movie for me. The "piano scene" really made me angry.

Very cliche.

I learned that Sups is hella strong.

Lex Luthor was hardly in it.

No Spider-Man trailer.

I thought to myself several times during the movie that Brandon was to skinny for the role. I know he is fit but I think his height makes him appear to skinny.

 

[Cmill216]

Damn, a lot of critics (even when positive) are kinda ripping Bryan Singer for not being all that original. Ouchies.

 

[bsquad]

Goign by what I have read I really think the general audience will dig it. They are for the most part not as critical as we are and just want some good honest fun. I imagine its going to make a **** load of money its first week and through July 7 but when POTC hits it will lose its top spot. Word of mouth will most likely keep Superman high up and people who can't get into screenings of POTC may go see Superman for the first time or again because of the word of mouth.

 

[GreenKToo]

moriarty gave it a 6 there in the poll.

 

[DvilDog]

So far, 3/4 seems to be a general consensus, IMO. It's a good flick, but not quite BB or SM2.

I think opinions are going to vary a little on this I liked BB and SM2. But i like SR better hands down that bb and a little more than SM2.

 

[DvilDog]

I must not be able to Judge a movie at all. I loved this flick. And i really dont understand a lot of the points some these guys are making