Saw it last night. Wowed, I was. Half of me was sated with the nostalgia trip alone and the music and the Marlon Brando, but aside from all that it was a really it was a good movie. The climax was somewhat overshadowed by an earlier scene, which I may go into in a subsequent post. But suffice it to say that as of this writing, it was awesome.
Registered: Sep 2000
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Yeah, I saw it on the 28th. I thought it was great too. At first I thought it would suck hard, but then saw the previews and decided to see and be glad to be proved wrong.
The only thing I'm unsure of is the whole Superman love child thing. Hasn't that been a long time what-if scenario in the comics?
-------------------- I'm slightly annoyed at Hobbes' rather rude decision to be much more attractive than me though. That's just rude. - PsyLiam, Oct 27, 2005.
Registered: May 1999
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I'm not one for the superhero films. I loathed Spider-Man (though I thought the sequel was a bit of an improvement), have never read Daredevil or Hellboy so didn't go to see them (although I did eventually see the former on a plane journey); but I did make sure I went to see the X-Men ones (barring the third - no time) and The Punisher. I never even got round to seeing the new Batman or V For Vendetta. . . OK, so maybe I am one for the superhero films! But I'm really looking forward to this, especially from the trailers. Not sure why it's not on here until the 14th, maybe they thought the target audience wouldn't be interested until after the World Cup. . .
(also, I saw The Hulk on TV and loved it. I gather this means there's no hope for me.)
-------------------- I'm slightly annoyed at Hobbes' rather rude decision to be much more attractive than me though. That's just rude. - PsyLiam, Oct 27, 2005.
Registered: May 1999
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I liked this one. MInd you, I really liked the 1978 movie, which was my introduction to the Superman franchise. To me, this is a worthy addition to that continuity, and I'll gladly see it again. I further think there ought to be at least one sequel (or more - who here HASN'T wanted to see the Doomsday arc be played out on the big screen?), to if anything play out the offspring plot. Dunno where he was going with that, as this movie didn't take it too far.
Routh as Superman didn't do much besides emulate Reeve, as much as Kevin Spacey emulated Hackman's Luthor. However, these are as much archetypes of the characters in this continuity, and if this movie is to be an opener to further ones, I'd rather establish the actors in those roles before letting them expand them. In that sense, I think the actors all did their jobs well, except maybe for Lois, who didn't have the same spunk most of her counterparts have had. Mind you, this is the first time we've seen a MATERNAL Lois.
Mark
PS - So is THAT how it works? You get disintegrated in the Marvel universe, and you end up in the DC universe with a slightly meatier, yet still rather wooden role?
quote:Originally posted by Lee: I never even got round to seeing the new Batman or V For Vendetta. . . (also, I saw The Hulk on TV and loved it. I gather this means there's no hope for me.)
Mate, you really need to see Batman Begins. It's worth watching just to see that car in action, if nothing else. It rocks.
As for Hulk. I can't remmember if that was any good because I fell asleep mid way through, somewhere around the mutant poodle bit I think. When I woke up the credits were rolling. Did I miss anything good?
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Nope, you caught the best part of that movie. When it finally ends.
-------------------- I'm slightly annoyed at Hobbes' rather rude decision to be much more attractive than me though. That's just rude. - PsyLiam, Oct 27, 2005.
Registered: May 1999
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Ja, ja. Wunderbar! Suddenly zis is all makink sense. Ze Spider-Man film iss beink ze holy grail of ze superhero film for zo lonk, ze nerds are beink unwillink to admit to zemselves zat it sucks ze big one. Zen, ven ze Hulk film iss comink out, zis double-vammy iss beink sufficient to enrage zem zuch zat zey are prepared to admit zat a bad superhero film can be existink. But - and zis iss vere ze pathology is arisink - zey vill not admit zat Spider-man blew. Hackneyed zough ze script iss beink, and ze performances beink zub-par and hammy zroughout, zey ztill clink to zis delusion, lest zeir entire vorld-view iss zhatterink like ze. . . zing zat zhatters. A course of treatment I am recommendink. Pliss to be tellink me about your mother.
posted
The Spider-Man films are certainly good (my 5 year old niece says so) but I certainly wouldn't rate them the best comic book movies ever. I think Sin City gets that title for me, but that's a matter of personnal taste and not reflective of objective quality. Mind you that applies to just about everything, so I may as well admitt that I actually liked the Daredevil & Punisher movies. Hellboy was fun too, but that's mostly down to Ron P's performance, the plot didn't grab me, if indeed it had one...I couldn't tell.
The one I'm waiting for is Watchmen. It's either going to be really good or just...wrong.
Oh yeah keeping the thread vaguely on topic I better mention that I haven't seen Superman Returns yet, but I intend to soon (I'm not sure if it's out over here yet) but given Singer's track record (Usual Suspects is one of my all time favs) it can't go too far wrong.
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Yeah, but as more time goes on TUS is starting to look more and more like an aberration. He's never done anything that has had quite the same impact. While he's a talented director, he seems to be getting more and more typecast as, well, a fanboy - the X-Men films, Superman, attempts to bring back Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek.
The movie was good. The most impressive thing I found was Spacey's Luthor, who I found to be superb since he really embodied that SOB persona. The only thing that kind of killed it a bit for me was the Lois Lane baby's momma drama and Luthor's lame "I gonna make my own island" scheme.
Registered: Feb 2005
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Once I got comfortable with this being a sequel to the Reeves movies, I enjoyed it alot more. I was looking for more of a reboot ala Batman Begins. I wanted a fresh, maybe slightly darker Superman continuity where Luthor was a little more e-vil and less snobby, toupee wearing jag-off. I wanted an Alex Ross style Superman. Older, tired, but still galantly fighting the good fight.
A leather cape... on Superman? Did. Not. Work. I also couldn't stand the small "S" on his chest. It really needed to be bigger. And the neck line on his uniform looked really dumb. They did it better in "Lois and Clark".
Some little plot holes: 1) "Thousands of years" passed during Kal-El's original trip to Earth, presumably due to relativistic effects of near-lightspeed travel, yet Supes manages to make a round trip this time in 5 years. I thought him being all weak and barely able to stand after he landed from going so long without exposure to the Earh's yellow sun was cool though.
2) Didn't Luthor use the Addis Ababba meteorite in the first movie? I suppose more than one chunk could've been a part of that meteor strike.
3) Would a dying woman's barely legible signature on a recently updated will really hold up in court? And surely the family would've tied up the inheritance in court for years.
But hey... the special effects rocked hard, especially the shuttle rescue sequence. I was super-stunned.
posted
Anyone else catch Richard Branson among the shuttle crew? That was a nice touch.
When I first saw the film, I admit, I was riding the nostalgia train. The performances, the style of dress, and principly the music took me back to a simpler time. A bumbling Clark, The Daily Planet, a real honest and upright good guy, and a deceitful and clever villian took me right back to popping that ragged VHS into my parents' monstrosity of a player.
A subsequent viewing helped me to enjoy it in its own right. I don't think it's a great film, but there is an awful lot to enjoy. I liked the cape and the smaller, protruding S. The effects were for the most part terrific and little touches like the dogs and the sequence with Lex's train set were just brilliant. I found Superman's first public reappearance with the shuttle to be very stirring (not quite the riders of Rohan charging, but stirring).
So my big problem was that while the climax certainly had some exciting action, and drama, it just didn't quite ignite the way earlier sequences had. I think part of it was a basic problem with Lex Luthor. By telegraphing his intent with the giant continent of Kryptonite it defused the brilliance of his plan. We weren't really all that surprised when he sucessfully decks the man in the cape. By letting the audience in on the plan ahead of time, it lessens the impact of that moment and instead of duping Superman, it makes our hero sort of a dope. I guess I 'm a fan of the idea that although Lex Luthor isn't faster than a speeding bullet, etc, he is really, REALLY intelligent, and that's why and how he is a threat to the man with the S on his chest. I like that Superman caught Lex's foot at one point, and I felt like maybe he ought to have been able to put up a little more of a fight before getting stomped and Krypto-shivved.
Add to that the Lois Lane housefamily turning about to rescue their rescuer, great for Superboy and triangle-tension, but it made our protagonist's triumph seem a lot less triumphant. I really enjoyed the sequence with him getting sunned up and then diving into magma and lifting the nacent Krypto-continent into space, and the coma and the denouement was nice.
So it certainly had some problems, but I still thought it was a fine film and really there was so much to enjoy that I was willing to overlook some story and continuity/physics problems. (I never even thought about the relativity issues with his 5 year round trip to the remnants of Krypton. I must have left my Star Trek in my other pants)
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