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Superman Returns
My overall feeling: I liked it a lot, and I definitely liked Brandon Routh more than I expected to.
I actually think I liked Routh's Clark Kent *more* than I liked either CR's or TW's. He was sweetly geeky without being too over-the-top, and I think I might have a little crush. I'm more divided about his Superman, though that might be the writing and the costume rather than the acting choices. (I didn't mind the alterations in the color of the costume, but honestly I thought he looked like a plastic action figure every time he was wearing it, which affected my ability to buy him as Superman.) I have mixed feelings about how much they were pushing the overt Christ symbolism, too, both with the Jor-El voiceovers throughout (cool that they could use actual Brando stuff, though) and how he was in the shape of a cross right before he fell.
I also loved Spacey's Luthor. He's not my Lex Luthor, of course, but he was great as a more traditional Luthor, villainous and funny and smart. I loved how much his evil scheme hearkened back to his real estate plans in Superman I, too. And Parker Posey just about stole the movie, for me. I loved her to death, and thought she had all of the best lines in the film, especially in the scene where Lex submerges the crystal in the train village. (And wasn't that a lovely visual metaphor).
One thing I really did not like, though, was the love triangle. I mean, obviously we are supposed to be wanting Clark and Lois to get together, and yet I could *not* hope for that scenario in any way, shape or form. Because even if Jason is biologically Clark's son, Richard has been his father for 5 years, and he and Lois have a good relationship, and so instead of finding all the scenes with Superman and Lois romantic, they were making me cringe. And I was half expecting, the whole time, that Richard was going to get killed off, which was also making me cringe in anticipation. I'm glad they didn't go that route, and I'm glad Richard actually got to be heroic--but I'm really finding it impossible to anticipate Clois in future sequels. And that kind of killed a lot of the emotional undercurrent of the movie, for me.
As for Kate Bosworth's Lois: well, I don't think it was precisely her acting, as much as the combination of her acting choices and bad writing, that made her not ping as Lois for me. I mean, as long as I thought of her as some reporter with a pre-existing relationship with Superman, the movie was fine for me; I just didn't get a Lois Lane vibe from her at all, except maybe in her confrontation with Luthor on the boat.
Overall, I enjoyed it, but I think what I enjoyed most were the little character pieces (every single scene with Martha, especially when she was standing outside the hospital; Clark on the farm, looking out over the landscape; teen Clark bounding through the fields; Kitty's realization that Lex's schemes really *are* too evil for her, etc.) rather than the overall plot of the film.
I actually think I liked Routh's Clark Kent *more* than I liked either CR's or TW's. He was sweetly geeky without being too over-the-top, and I think I might have a little crush. I'm more divided about his Superman, though that might be the writing and the costume rather than the acting choices. (I didn't mind the alterations in the color of the costume, but honestly I thought he looked like a plastic action figure every time he was wearing it, which affected my ability to buy him as Superman.) I have mixed feelings about how much they were pushing the overt Christ symbolism, too, both with the Jor-El voiceovers throughout (cool that they could use actual Brando stuff, though) and how he was in the shape of a cross right before he fell.
I also loved Spacey's Luthor. He's not my Lex Luthor, of course, but he was great as a more traditional Luthor, villainous and funny and smart. I loved how much his evil scheme hearkened back to his real estate plans in Superman I, too. And Parker Posey just about stole the movie, for me. I loved her to death, and thought she had all of the best lines in the film, especially in the scene where Lex submerges the crystal in the train village. (And wasn't that a lovely visual metaphor).
One thing I really did not like, though, was the love triangle. I mean, obviously we are supposed to be wanting Clark and Lois to get together, and yet I could *not* hope for that scenario in any way, shape or form. Because even if Jason is biologically Clark's son, Richard has been his father for 5 years, and he and Lois have a good relationship, and so instead of finding all the scenes with Superman and Lois romantic, they were making me cringe. And I was half expecting, the whole time, that Richard was going to get killed off, which was also making me cringe in anticipation. I'm glad they didn't go that route, and I'm glad Richard actually got to be heroic--but I'm really finding it impossible to anticipate Clois in future sequels. And that kind of killed a lot of the emotional undercurrent of the movie, for me.
As for Kate Bosworth's Lois: well, I don't think it was precisely her acting, as much as the combination of her acting choices and bad writing, that made her not ping as Lois for me. I mean, as long as I thought of her as some reporter with a pre-existing relationship with Superman, the movie was fine for me; I just didn't get a Lois Lane vibe from her at all, except maybe in her confrontation with Luthor on the boat.
Overall, I enjoyed it, but I think what I enjoyed most were the little character pieces (every single scene with Martha, especially when she was standing outside the hospital; Clark on the farm, looking out over the landscape; teen Clark bounding through the fields; Kitty's realization that Lex's schemes really *are* too evil for her, etc.) rather than the overall plot of the film.
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