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June 29, 2006
Superman Returns
Saw Superman last night. I was fairly happy with it, though it has some pretty egregious flaws. Tons of fanservice for people who love the earlier movies (as I do), but it has all the hallmarks of a movie that was in development hell for a long time. Mario Puzo should have been given a writing credit, as much of the dialogue is lifted straight from the first movie.
The special effects are mostly great, though there isn't a lot that you've never seen before. The $260M definitely isn't all on the screen.
Casting is a mixed bag -- Routh is very good at playing Christopher Reeve, Spacey plays Spacey playing Lex Luthor, Frank Langella is good at playing Jackie Cooper playing Perry White. Kate Bosworth is pretty lousy, though, as is the kid who plays her offspring. Was Jake Lloyd not available?
Spoilers follow...
Things I didn't like:
The kid: Why, why, why did they make him Superman's son? The scene where he's revealed as having latent super powers almost torpedoed the whole movie for me. As it was happening, I really wanted to erase the scene from my mind. I was hoping was that the "big shock" was that he *wasn't* Superman's kid. He didn't seem to have any personality at all. The speech that Superman gives him at the end (the same speech Jor-El gave to him at the beginning of "Superman") is touching in its way, but I didn't want him to have to give it.
Parker Posey: Bring back Valerie Perrine. PP was just terribly cast in this role and, save for a funny line or two, brings down every scene she's in.
Lex's plan: The plan in "Superman" made a perverse kind of sense -- buy up all the cheap desert land in the southwest, then blow up the San Andreas Fault to make it all beachfront property. In this movie, he's going to destroy the entire United States and replace it with black crystal Fortress of Solitude property that he thinks people are going to want to buy from him? Unlivable, inarable land with steep cliffs laden with radioactive rocks. This is not a plan he thought through very well.
Superman in the hospital: Unnecessary scene. Cut it out.
Lois' fiance: Unnecessary character. Cut him out. Although he's the only one who seems smart enough to realize that Clark's 5-year absence and Superman's 5-year absence might have something in common, in addition to their physical similarities.
Opening title sequence: This is tough because they pay really awesome homage to the opening titles of "Superman", music and all, but they put it all over this obnoxious galactic flyby with gratuitous special effects. The original "Superman" credits were classy and awe-inspiring. "Superman Returns"'s credits are more motion-sickness inducing.
Kate Bosworth: Again, not very well cast. Very pretty, but lacking in any edge. I didn't buy her as a reporter.
The heist: There's a silly sequence on the roof of a bank (I think it was a bank) that's ostensibly being robbed. The robbers have not only a helicopter, but a gigantic emplaced machine gun that requires a small crane to move around. It's a cool sequence when the bullets bounce off of Superman's chest (and eye), but in what kind of a world is this a remotely plausible to rob a bank?
Superman vs. Lex: There's no payoff to their longtime rivalry. The scenes with Gene Hackman and Christopher Reeve had snappy dialogue and, even though Hackman played the role like a car salesman, he had a nice sense of menace. The two characters barely appear onscreen together in this movie.
All that said, I did generally like the movie when taken as "Superman" fanservice. There are some great moments and some really nice homage moments to the original movies, but it's not nearly what it could have been.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)
June 19, 2006
Building the treehouse
Melissa's Dad and I built Riley a swingset and fort two weekends ago, and we're really pleased at how it turned out. Click the image for more pictures.
Posted by Lee Clontz at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)