Spaey hammed it up to much. The beach-front property is stolen straight from the original and sucks.

The Kid was an annoying bastard. Should of never been brought into the story.

Bosworth was useless.

CG could of been better.

Routh was perfect.

This movie was was really great as a sequel to the previous films. That being said, I would rather they had completely started the franchise over and went in a different direction.

I thought Luthor's scheme was a little overblown but again it fits the mould of the character in the previous films.

I still find it funny that Kryptonian spaceships still haven't mastered that graceful landing on a planet's surface.

It was a good film, it had it's faults, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I had expected.

Count me in the "Loved It" crowd.

Shortened Scorecard To Eliminate Redundancy:

Routh? - Outstanding. Fit the bill as Supes perfectly.
Spacey? - Great. Over the top and wonderful.
Bosworth? - Serviceable - more importantly BETTER than I expected.
Supporting Cast? - Very engaging and, overall, exceptional.
The Mood? - Darker, more heartfelt, added more suspense and sense of urgency for me. AND FUNNY.
The Story? - Good, not great. A little reminiscent of the scheme from '78, but that's Luthor's character and his desire. But the emotional core of the story was well intact and signature of Singer.
Action Sequences? - Thrillingly Entertaining.
CGI? - Not perfect, but damn near in my eyes.
Cinematography? - Terrific.
Down-Time Scenes? - Great flesh, stretched a hair too long, but still heartfelt.
The Flying? - WOW.
Supes Other Powers? - VERY well done. Especially the bullets.

Any Gripes? SPOILERS ...


OVERALL - Bring on the next Superman, Singer. You did a great job with this one.

Superman Returns: A-

I may of just been sitting too close to the screen, but the effects looked great from my pov, save for the rocket scene.

That said, I enjoyed the hell out of the movie. After all the recent superhero flicks have taken the ultra-serious route, it was fun having one remember its comic roots. I had no problem with the cast or lack of depth. My only big complaints were the went on a bit long, a few too many Superman poses, and the Luthor plot wasn't the best developed (began and ended rather abruptly).

Overall though, it was 2hrs 30m of wonderful entertainment, and one I'd gladly see again.

It was ok. I'll give it a generous 3 stars out of 4 because at least Singer and Co. had their heart in the right place. The problem is Singer was so enamored with Richard Donner's original Superman flick(and the parts of II that he directed) that he decided to essentially remake the movie, minus the first two acts in Krypton and Smallville.

Routh was perfect as Superman/Clark Kent and Kevin Spacey was pretty good as Lex Luthor(although I still prefer Hackman, especially playing off of Zod in II). Kate Bosworth was alright as Lois Lane, but she seemed pretty lifeless at times compared to Margot Kidder in the original.

Again, it all comes back to Singer recycling the original movie. When Chris Nolan relaunched the Batfranchise, he went in a whole new direction. Singer should've done the same. Keeping the Williams music, the whooshing title credits, and Marlon Brando as Jor-El was fine. Everything else should've been brand new.

It's not a perfect film, I mean what is, but I only really have one single complaint.

Did anyone else find the echo effect for the dialogue inside the yacht a little jarring?

PLEASE! Do not have Lex Luthor in the sequel! He has officially been turned into a joke of a villan. He knows kryptonite kills Superman and yet after four movies... he still can't get anything to go right. Why bother having him back when we know yet again nothing will happen.

A couple of things...

1) I'm pretty sure that this is a sequel to Superman II, hence, no, Superman doesn't need the crystals for General Zod or wahtever.

2) It was my understanding that Superman burrowed beneath the crystal complex and proceeded to lift it out of the earth. It wasn't until pieces of earth began to fall off that he came in closer contact to the kryptonite.

3) Great movie!

As a longtime fan of the first two original SUPERMAN movies, I was thrilled to see Bryan Singer's respectful homages and tributes to the Donner films. It's easy to see that this movie has a heart and soul, and fans should thank their personal gods that after years of development hell, the Return of Superman was placed in the hands of a fine director who wanted to make something personal and artistic.

Having stated all that, I, too, agree that there are many problems with the finished product, including unexplained concepts, overly dark cinematography, problematic special effects, and other elements. I had no problem with Bosworth as Lois Lane, and Routh as Clark Kent was fine. His presence as Superman, though, felt less than larger than life and thus made comparisons with Reeve inevitable. I enjoyed the movie, and feel that is far better than the SPIDER-MAN and the first four BATMAN movies, but it clearly had faults.

After a first viewing tonight, here's how I'd rate the recent spate of comic book superhero films (Blade through SR)


Batman Begins
Spider-Man 2
X2: X-Men United
Blade
Spider-Man
Superman Returns
Blade 2
X-Men
Hulk
Daredevil
X3: The Last Stand
Blade Trinity
Fantastic Four
Catwoman
The Punisher
Elektra

I'd give the film a marginal *** out of ****, or a 7 out of 10. It had moments of greatness, moments of puzzling mundaneness, and some spotty pacing in parts. That having been said, Routh was pitch-PERFECT as Superman. I bought him hook, line, and sinker. Spacey made a formidable Luthor and Bosworth was completely serviceable as Lois Lane. Marsden had a much better character in Richard White than he EVER had as Cyclops. I liked it but didn't love it, and I'm a HUGE Superman fan. Disappointed? A little. But still a good movie nonetheless. I'll see it again, after the film settles in and I stop burping up popcorn. Freakin 4:00 am and I'm still nauseous.

Loved Roth as Superman/Clark Kent. Since the film was a sequel to the 1st two movie, Roth was suppose to play the parts just like Reeves.

Lois was 100x better than I thought she would be. Strong and yet tender. The best Lois ever, well Teri Hatcher was great also, but this Lois was more more real than the TV version.

Opening credits perfect, even better than the 1st movie.

The kid had the best sceen the movie, the on the boat with the music.

Jimmy is the only chacter that truely bugged me.

The movie was more about the pain of the missing 5 years, once again a movie about people which happen to be super.

Grade A-

The above list seems fair, I would place Blade below Superman Returns.

It was great to get a copy of the Daily Planet News Paper before going into the movie, a really cool touch.

Absofuckinglutely loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Can't think of anything I didn't like and I personally was wary about the kid especially having been spoiled rotten for weeks now. But somehow, they made it work. I love the kid. In any other movie, I loved that part.

I think my favorite part though was when . That was just awesome. Kudos to Brandon Routh. IMO, he's Superman period. And I'm secure enough in my masculinity to say that that is one beautiful man. Never once did I think of Chris Reeve (RIP) while watching the movie. And Kate Bosworth who I admit I was also not too crazy about, won me over as Lois.

Definitely seeing it at least twice. Once on IMAX 3-D and once on DLP. Man that was great.

Regarding your #2 gripe,

Just got back. My thoughts:

I've been reading about this film for weeks while trying to avoid spoilers. So I was dying to see it tonight. As soon as the opening credits whooshed onto the screen, I had a huge grin on my face. It felt like I was just watching the next Superman film, which worked perfectly. It made total sense for Singer to continue in the vein of Donner. I disagree with people who think it should have been a brand new start. Batman required a new start because Burton's take was too personal and also flawed. Donner made Superman work, and Singer respects that. Perfect.

However, pretty quickly I see the first flaw. The cinematography. I hate that soft style people use now to make CGI blend more seamlessly. I would rather have more obvious CGI with sharper photography, because I can suspend my disbelief. However, the film was moving along at a nice pace and Brandon Routh really got into the role. I did think of Christopher Reeve, but not to condemn Brandon's performance, but because I was surprised at how well he took the role from Reeve's shoulders.

That being said, I was unhappy with his portrayal of Clark Kent. Kent felt much more like Superman in disguise than a separate persona, which is a shame, because Reeve played Kent to perfection. Now, I know it's not fair to judge one actor's choices against another like that, but since this film is meant to be a continuation of the series, I just felt that Routh missed what made Clark Kent work as a character.

Kevin Spacey was perfection as Lex Luthor. Less hammy than Gene Hackman, with the perfect balance of menace and humor. A strong highlight.

Kate Bosworth did a very nice job. I was hearing so many bad things about her, but I think she nailed Lois Lane. I prefer her to Kidder and especially a fan favorite would-be choice around here, Rachel McAdams.

James Marsden. Wow. Who knew he could act? The X-Men movies certainly gave no indication. Maybe it helped that we could see his eyes. I enjoyed his performance quite a bit.

The kid was fine. Nothing extraordinary, nothing terrible.

The only other thing that really bothered me was the overuse of the Superman theme. In the original films, the theme is used when he does some really big feats. In this one, everytime Superman does just about anything, the strings come in and DUN DUN DUN we get the theme. One moment that really felt like too much was when We all knew it was coming and using the theme there just felt like too much.

But I want to stress how much I enjoyed almost all of this film. The action was superb, the characters were spot-on, and the humor was great. I would easily recommend this to Superman fans or fans of the previous films. However, without seeing the previous ones, I think this might lose a lot of its impact. Has anyone here not seen the originals before seeing this one? WhoGirl wasn't so crazy about it, and she saw the originals so long ago she basically doesn't remember them. So I'm just curious.

Anyway, this movie rocked and definitely made up for the travesty that was X3.

Isn't this "Bill's" theory in KILL BILL? ;)

Bryan Singer gets it! And I loved the film. This is the Superman III that is worthy of the name.

The only quibbles I have probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for my having seen the trailers and read the novelization.

it wasn't too long
it just shows that many other movies are too short and rushed

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/9571/duct5xt.jpg

:D

I think what this new development revealed in the coda does is basically give Superman a reason to be a better man. With his power, it's easy to be super, but does he have what it takes to be a good man going forward. He's spent 5 years looking back, but now, he's got everything in the world to live for to watch what develops in the future with proud, watchful eyes.

I wasn't saying Singer should've completely abandoned what Donner set up in his first 2(or 1 1/2 to be exact) films. I like that he made Superman Returns as the 3rd movie in the series, although they played around quite a bit with what did and didn't happen in I & II. My problem is that he ended up essentially remaking Superman: The Movie.

We get Superman making his presence known all over the world through a montage of stopping crime and helping people, including preventing a plane crash and foiling a bank robbery. The exact same thing happened in the first movie.

Lex Luthor is the heavy and has his sights set on destroying a significant chunk of the U.S. in order to gain control of a sizable amount of land. He's accompanied by a female cohort who's sympathetic to Superman's plight. Sound familiar? It should, since it's taken directly from Donner's film.

Superman manages to overcome nearly being drowned by a Kryptonite attack and proceeds to save a city from being destroyed by Luthor's plan. Again, it happened in the first movie as well.

And then there are the other "homages" to the Donner film(s) like rehashed dialogue("Do you know what my father said to me?" "Get out.", "Statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel.", "Sorry Miss Lane, I didn't mean to startle you.") or scenes such as Superman flying with Lois over Metropolis(although at least Singer didn't reuse the infamous "Can You Read My Mind?").

Where Chris Nolan went right where Singer went wrong was creating a fresh take on Batman that we'd never seen before. Sure, he had extra incentive to do that since it had been only 8 years since the last bigscreen entry vs. 19 years for Superman. And in the case of Batman, there had never been a great Batflick whereas Superman has had arguably two.

But at the same time, he didn't recycle anything from the Burton or Schumacher films. And I don't just mean losing Elfman's music or redesigning Gotham and the Batmobile. He also used entirely new villains like Ra's Al Ghul and the Scarecrow. He came up with a new plot(or at least a significant variation) that hadn't been used in the previous 4 films. The easiest thing would've been to stick with more popular Batman heavies like The Joker, but Nolan had the creative energy and guts to take us somewhere we'd never been before.

Singer played it safe for the most part by going over the same beats Donner already covered 28 years ago. And you know what? Donner did it better. In the future, if I have a choice between watching Superman: The Movie on DVD or Superman Returns, I'm going with the original.

Aren´t we forgetting some:

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Asterix et Obelix contre Cesar
Conan the Barbarian
Inspector Gadget
Captain America
Flash Gordon
Mystery Men
Dick Tracy
Barbarella
Hercules
Supergirl
Darkman
Tarzan
Sin City
Hellboy
Spawn
Zoro
The Mask
The Saint
The Crow
The Shadow
The Phantom
The Rocketeer

...I´m sure there are many more. :toast: