Oct.13-19 - More Returns and Changes

Superman Returns
(Delayed review/comments)

I buried my initial (spoiler-free) reactions to the movie back in The Ol' Switcheroo post on the 29th because a key group of regulars (Tammy, D, Tony, Mark & Lisa) here weren't going to see it that early... not until today, in fact. Come to think of it, no signs of a viewing from Tim or Dwight so far, and I'm not sure which one surprises me more. Probably Dwight, because I'd not only expect him to be out to see it fairly early but because he's been posting often through the past couple weeks (Which I'd been too occupied to notice until today, though I hope to get around to making some comments over there on a couple of them before the weekend's out), while Tim's been too pinned down.

I'm going to quickly cobble together... somewhere between a scattering of comments and a review from the brief post I made the morning after seeing the movie and various other comments I made off-site.

I caught it Wednesday night, June 28th - the nominal "opening day" despite reports from some locations that showings were beginning as early as 10 pm Tuesday the 27th. Uh... how early can they get started on the "opening weekend" box office figures? (It's done fairly well at the box office, though at a little under the two week mark it still hasn't reached its production budget of $260 million -- a solid $40 M of which was holdover debt from various false starts over the past decade or so. I'm sure it'll make a profit for the studio in the long run, but it's going to take a while.)

An enjoyable film.

If you enjoyed the 1978 movie you'll almost certainly like this. It takes most of that film's best elements - to a degree that approaches embarassingly slavish in some respects -- and does them better. Nothing in the film was in the least bit surprising, which isn't necessarily a problem. Many little nods to elements in the first film and and, and overall it is almost certainly the launch of a successful franchise.

From here on down I'm going to presume you saw the movie or don't care about details being spoiled.

The Super Stalker bit was rather creepy, wasn't it? Superman floating outside the suburban mansion sitting along the waterfront where Richard, Lois and her son live, using his x-ray vision and super-hearing to spy on them definitely raised matters to an uncomfortable state, reminding us of the potential dangers of a superman who might be a little too human. One can't help but wonder how much he would have hung around had he arrived at a less family hour moment.

That the kid ended up being Superman's bothered me more because it made the situation of Lois' new relationship versus the one Superman walked away from less interesting. If the boy was really Richard's - and I give them credit for making Richard (James Marsden -- who we last saw as Scott Summers, about to be incinerated in X-Men: The Last Stand) a concerned, loving, heroic guy rather than some self-centered ass who caught Lois on the rebound and is someone to "free" her from - then Superman's attentions would have remained fully creepy.

I avoided reading director and case interviews prior to the film because I was avoiding spoilers, and simply haven't bothered looking for them afterwards, but it struck me that while they were avoiding specific mentions to confirm it we were supposed to accept that not merely the events of the first film but some version of those in the second were also part of the backstory. For one thing there's the wry smile Lex gives the audience instead of an answer when Kitty (Parker Posey) asks him if he's ever been to the Fortress of Solitude before.

Also, it was in that second film when Supes decided to have his powers cancelled and subsequently bedded the abrasive, chain-smoking hag that was the Kidder version of Lois. (Okay, she didn't necessarily look this bad in the film, but the spirit of it certainly came through in her character.) His altered state at the time is likely the reason they were able to conceive a child, perhaps even why the kid's having all these medical issues and why his power's emerging as erratically as it is. (Yes, I know the piano hurling was triggered in a burst by the trauma of seeing his mother about to be killed and worse, but still...)

While I enjoyed many aspects of the 1978 original, to be frank much of that film drives my finger to the Fast Forward button. That "Can you read my mind?" segment, for an egregious for instance, may as well have had "Intermission" flashing on the screen along with a helpful countdown clock. While some may discount Kate Bosworth's version of Lois for various reasons, most often her age, at least she gave us a Lois I could understand Clark/Superman falling in love with.

This latest film took the best thematic elements and, yes, somewhat slavishly, brought them into the here and now. I was pleased to not see the self conscious, play-it-for-laughs approach that was such an integral part of even the highly-lauded first film (an element that became worse almost by the movie) as people behind the camera and several of those in front of it seemed more worried about their reputations -- you know, if someone thought they were taking a comic book-based film seriously -- than they were in trying to make the movie work on the core concepts. Fortunately for us the subject matter's become so much more mainstream - so much more part of our popular culture - that we're finally seeing some quality work.

The selections from Marlon Brando (lines and scenes that were filmed originally for use in Superman II, btw, but legal problems due to a lawsuit at the time from Brando saw them cut and replaced with scenes of Kal El's mom) in particular laid on heavy Christ/savior themes that seemed a bit much to me.

I had no problems with Kevin Spacey's version of Lex Luthor, however, finding him playing the character as focused, amoral, but not played in the comic (in the bad sense of the word), over-the-top degree Gene Hackman took the character. (No knocks intended to Hackman -- it was plainly a decision that he and the directot felt appropriate circa 1978 -- but it aged poorly and in retorspect was a step backwards, as if comics-inspired villains all had to take a page from the 1960s Batman tv series.)

Sure, the deathbed signing of the old woman's will (Noel Neill, who played Lois for most of the 1950s tv series and played a young Lois' mother in the 1978 version) so that he was sole inheritor was silly -- as if the estate wouldn't have been tied up in probate for years, especially seeing the hallful of vultures crowding her bedroom door. Still, I'm willing to overlook items at that level. His decision to build the tainted, pseudo-Kryptonia close enough off the East Coast that it would over-run the land mass rather than farther out to sea -- or out in the Pacific, where it would have a much more pleasant climate -- is easily enough explained away between personal vendetta against so many in Metropolis and wanting to attach it to North America in order to make the prospective use of any nukes against him far less likely. Presumably he was counting on other bits of Kryptonian tech to defend the place once he'd gotten Superman out of the way.

Visually -- and even when all else fails, a summer spectacle has to have the visuals to fall back on -- are nicely done, even if it takes a little while to get to them. I particularly liked the visual nods to the Max Fleischer cartoons, seen most fully in the scene below, though this isn't the most representative frame.


So, all in all, while it has its warts it's a nice return for the man of steel. Presumably this is the start of a planned three-picture franchise, and given age of the leads selected (Routh & Bosworth) they have a nice piece of lead-time to work with. Hopefully the need (or so it seems to me) for the next film to give him some more straight-up fights won't find the filmmakers reluctant to do so simply because they'll be afraid of being accused of unoriginality. It doesn't have to be renegade Kryptonians, but we do need to see some super-flashes coming from at least one opponent IMHO.

That's easily two years away at best, though. We'll likely be seeing (from the DC stable of heroes) Wonder Woman and maybe even The Flash - though the latter seems stalled - before Superman comes back. For the moment they've managed a good showing for the man of steel.