Superman Returns [HD DVD]

     He's back. A hero for our millennium. And not a moment too soon because during the five years (much longer in movie-fan years!) Superman sought his home planet things changed on his adopted planet. Nations moved on without him. Lois Lane now has a son a fiance and a Pulitzer for "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." And Lex Luthor has a plan that will destroy millions - no billions - of lives. Filmmaker Bryan Singer (X-Men) gives the world the Superman it needs honoring the legend everyone loves while taking it in a powerful new direction. Brandon Routh proves a perfect choice to wear the hero's cape leading a top cast that includes Kate Bosworth as Lois and Kevin Spacey as Lex. And the thrills - from a sky-grapple with a tumbling jumbo jet to a continent-convulsing showdown - redefine Wow. "I'm always around" Superman tells Lois. You'll be glad he is.

      If Richard Donner's 1978 feature film Superman: The Movie made us believe a man could fly, Bryan Singer's 2006 follow-up, Superman Returns, lets us remember that a superhero movie can make our spirits soar. Superman (played by newcomer Brandon Routh) comes back to Earth after a futile five-year search for his destroyed home planet of Krypton. As alter ego Clark Kent, he's eager to return to his job at the Daily Planet and to see Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth). Lois, however, has moved on: she now has a fiancￃﾩ (James Marsden), a son (Tristan Leabu), and a Pulitzer Prize for her article entitled "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." On top of this emotional curveball, his old archrival Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is plotting the biggest land grab in history. Singer, who made a strong impression among comic-book fans for his work on the X-Men franchise and directed Spacey in The Usual Suspects, brings both a fresh eye and a sense of respect to the world's oldest superhero. He borrows John Williams's great theme music and Marlon Brando's voice as Jor-El, and the story (penned by Singer's X-Men collaborators Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris) is a sort-of-sequel to the first two films in the franchise (choosing to ignore that the third and fourth movies ever happened). The humorous and romantic elements give the movie a heart, Singer's art-deco Metropolis is often breathtaking, and the special effects are elegant and spectacular, particularly an early airplane-disaster set-piece. Of the cast, Routh is excellent as the dual Superman/Clark, Spacey is both droll and vicious as Luthor, and Parker Posey gets the best lines as Luthor's moll Kitty. But at 23, Bosworth seems too young for the five-years-past-grizzled Lois. It's nice to see Noel Neill, Jack Larson (both from the classic Adventures of Superman TV series), and Eva Marie-Saint on the screen as well. Superman Returns is one of those projects that was in development for seemingly forever, but it was worth the wait -- it's the most enjoyable superhero movie since Spider-Man 2 and The Incredibles.

Comment:
       I enjoyed this movie. You probably know what this movie is about from the product description, but if not then I'll break down the movie for you. Superman returns, like the title say, from a trip in space to look at the remains of Krypton. A lot of people have criticized this, but then again, I felt that it would be weird if he didn't because in the end I can understand and defend him. He's the last of his kind, it's not easy, and take into account this movie doesn't count the flop that was Supergirl. Of course he wants to go out there because he hopes to find someone who survived the destruction so it makes him mortified to see the place where he was born as nothing but a dead ruin. After coming back to the Daily Planet he finds that things have changed, the woman he loves, Lois Lane has a man and is with child. Of all those most hurt by his sudden departure is Lois and she refuses to even get involved in him and his journey back to her heart mirrors the popularity of superman with our own hearts. How we forget him and sometimes expect too much of him or hate him because he is so powerful and I find that this reminds me what it was like to first dismiss superman as i grew up and then to realize how good it was to admire him. True her performance leaves something to be desired if not a lot, but she is the weak link. Then comes the show stealer Lex Luthor played for gusto by Kevin Spacey. Now everyone says Gene Hackman's better, I kind of like Spacey better because he's kind of intimidating and incorporates something more menacing. Too bad he's out to use Superman's crystals for a somewhat brilliant land prospecting scheme, which I do agree is kind of lame. It's ingenious in what he does witht he crystals and his schemes are more proactive and really he's more of a criminal mastermind in this one than Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor ever was. Really if you're not that person who is just diehard extremist over things like that, you might like Kevin Spacey better. Also his bumbling cousin/henchman is replaced by what I call a trophy girl, who provides some assistance in his schemes. I also like how he uses the wigs for disguises and not as one would wear when they are ashamed of having no hair, in fact from his entrance scene, which was done so well to make menacing and he really steals the show with his style that is a good successor to Gene Hackman. Let's face it people, there is a new Luthor. Now Brandon Routh is a decent Superman, not as commanding as Cristopher Reeve's Superman was, but not terrible as most of the extremists say. In fact the reason I made this review is because those extremists put out these reviews which sounds like the angry rants of religious groups. Now there are some who are right in their opinion and have given this movie good thought, while others just wanted to get on a screw this movie bandwagon. There are some parts where it seems like he tries too much to be Cristopher Reeve and really I think it would be better if he did his own thing because he still shows himself to be a decent Superman. There is potential you have to note and in the next one I hope to see more of him working into Superman. The big problem with the movie besides the noir type style that gets too dark for a Superman movie, but the big problem is that this movie doesn't try to be different for the ones before it, the good ones. Now it has some potential but it only goes so far as the others and doesn't know where to go afterwards. Kevin Spacey's Luthor seemed too big to be contained in a land prospecting scheme, no matter how clever it sounds and the fact that it would be a good commodity. Superman does very little with his strength besides the final act and he really needs an opponent or scheme that will be worthy of such magnificence, we have the technology for it.