What I Liked About Superman Returns

[David Swan]

Superman Returns was a huge disappointment for me but there were some bright spots in the sea of bad. What I liked about Superman Returns

 

1.It was a lovely film to watch. For me the high point of the movie was Superman rescuing Richards Branson's plane. I loved the blue skies and the dreamlike quality of it all. There was a very calm lovely blue feel to the movie (except for the ugly New Krypton). Even the scene where Superman was spying on Richard and Lois was beautiful to look at and I enjoyed the obligatory scene of Superman flying into space.

 

2. The set design. There weren't really any big sets but what they did was very nice. In particular I liked the Daily Planet set and Lex's yacht. Even the scene with Jimmy and Clark sitting in a bar was well done.

 

3. The casting. I have no issues here. I thought Henry Caville was a better Superman but Brandon Routh did a fine job as far as I'm concerned and I wouldn't have minded seeing him return. I thought Frank Langella was a better Perry White because whenever I looked at Perry White in Man of Steel I kept thinking 'Did that guy eat Lawrence Fishburne?' Kevin Spacey wasn't the best Luthor but that was probably because he was saddled with a lousy -script and I thought Kate Bosworth felt more like Lois Lane than Amy Adams.

 

4. The scene of Superman returning to Earth with the black costume was well done and touching and the rescue of Branson's plane was awesome.

 

To me this film is not to the level of Star Wars prequels level of disaster or a Battlefield Earth kind of train wreck but I would classify it as highly ill advised. Bryan Singer was trying for something, not sure what, but he failed big time. As to his assertion that $400 million should be a sign of success I have a feeling that Warner Brothers crunched the numbers prior to the film being greenlighted and estimated $400 million being the low end given the popularity of the character. The movie could have been worse but with a budget exceeding $200 million it really failed to capitalize on its potential.

 

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