Superman Returns

We saw Superman Returns at the IMax on Friday. It's one of the most expensive movies in the history of movies and yet it doesn't feel like a Jurassic Park or even Spider-Man where every special effect is chasing down every scene. Instead of huge explosions or giant robots the movie dedicates the enormous amount of special effects to simply making the movie look good. There's some impressive transitions between live and CG actors, CG backgrounds, etc., which all lend the movie a hand in making the reality and fantasy of the movie blend.

The story is pretty good. It's actually a bonus that this movie is a sequel to the previous Superman films because it serves as a kind of homage to those movies while updating the material fairly intelligently. The plot is similar, except that we're dealing with a more modern "supermom" version of Lois. The dialogue is similar, except that most of the tired cliches are used as jokes instead of served cold (side note: conservative nutcases who got all pissy at this film need to STFU and take their culture war elsewhere). It's a lot like the revival of Doctor Who - it doesn't shy away from the corniness that makes the foundation of Superman's long media history, it simply takes advantage of it. Singer also pulls excellent performances from everyone involved.

Much of the drama goes towards proving just how hard it is to be Superman ... even if you're tall, handsome and invincible. It works fairly well, although we never get much of the backstory or too awful in depth into any character. I hate to use the comic book card as an excuse, but for the genre it more than gets the job done.



tagged: movie, superman