A friend and I met up on Saturday, and watched some movies and TV. When he arrived, i was watching X1. I then put on Superman Returns (I got the collector's box set for free).
While i ended up enjoying the movie more, my friend didn't like it all. Within an hour he left the room and came back with some college papers that needed marking and was marking them as the film played. Clearly, he wasn't gripped by it!
This friend of mine does not come on the Hype, he is not aware of the intricate and lengthy arguments for and against the movie on here, he is only aware that the film came out. I put the movie on and said nothing, except for a few times I actually defended it for its visual beauty when he was attacking the movie!
His views were that:
1) Brandon Routh was miscast, had no charisma and was fine as Clark Kent, but not at all good as Superman. He felt Lois and Lex and Richard were great on screen, watchable and convincing.
2) He didn't like the set-up for the movie - Superman leaving without saying goodbye. I never mentioned the long debates on here about this, he brought it up all by himself and felt it was a serious flaw in the writing that Superman just disappeared, that no one guessed where he had gone, that he didn't say goodbye to someone if they were obviously in love.
3) He didn't like the Christian symbolism at all. As soon as Lois mentioned the word 'saviour', he said 'Oh no, we're not going to get him portrayed as a Christ figure, are we?' and when he first flew into space he said 'Please, he's not going to do a crucifixion pose, is he?' He felt the imagery was 'laid on with a trowel' and that Superman is a hero and a champion, not a saviour.
4) He didn't like the muted colours. He said: 'Why is everything brown? There are NO primary colours in this at all.'
5) He didn't like Superman lifting the island at the end, especially with kryptonite growing downwards out of it and with a shard of kryptonite in his side. He felt it was 'not internally consistent' as a movie. I then said: 'What about Wolverine marching up to Phoenix in X3? People have complained that Wolverine's healing powers were increased in that scene to a ridiculous level'. and he said something along the lines of: 'But it's not the same level of inconsistency as this. Superman struggled to lift the plane, but he lifted an island after he was weakened by the kryptonite on it, beaten to a pulp, stabbed in the side, and still had some stuck in his side and some growing out of the island right next to him, and a few seconds in front of the sun is enough to recharge? I don't buy it.'
6) He felt the film had a 'nasty' side. He hated the ball being thrown for the dog (he said 'That wasn't very nice of him!'), he thought other elements were sadistic and cruel. (I suspect Dougherty here).
7) He felt the film included a lot of irrelevant scenes, like the henchman playing piano with Jason on the yacht which, he said, completely removed the tension and suspense of the scene. He didn't like the scene where jimmy tells Perry about the fax, and loads of other scenes that seemed irrelevant to the story and took away any sense of drama.
8) He didn't really like Jason, he felt it was a contrived plot device and that it was very obvious it would be Superman's son from the moment he appeared on screen.
So that's the view of an intelligent non-Hypester with an analytical mind... I just thought it was interesting to hear what he said.
I actually argued that the movie was visually/technically very well shot and he argued that it showed the difference between quality and entertainment, that the technical film-making was not enough on its own if the story and structure aren't good enough to create an enjoyable movie. I tend to agree: this movie does show the difference between 'quality' and 'entertainment', that the artistic merit of quality is not in itself entertaining, and that the popularity of something entertaining is not a sign of quality.
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