Thor...

[mylittledemon]

Oh man now you got me on a Superman rant... I think part of the reason that Superman Returns didn't work was because of the story. That's first part of making an interesting film, and it was the part that I think that Bryan Singer failed on. The last time we saw Superman on the big screen before that was 1987. So aside from having Christopher Reeve cemented in our minds as Superman (and rightly so, he is Superman)... the new "Superman Returns" incarnation lept from nowhere. The story supposedly takes place after the events of Donner's Superman 2 and I don't think the movie going public at large was aware of this.

Lois Lane was downright unlikeable in the film. Sure she's better looking than Margot Kidder, but she didn't have that spunk, that pizazz that Kidder had. She certainly had zero chemistry with Brandon Routh.

I can go on and on about how Routh was wrong for the part... and how the Superman costume was lame and that it didn't need to changed... about how Kevin Spacey's plot to sell newly created land from the crystals from the Fortress of Solitude (how would have right to sell this "land"?) was thinner than his hair... Not to mention the fact that Superman and Lois had shagged (in Superman 2) and now Lois was toting around their love child...

Overall I think the movie doesn't feel like Superman because it made Superman unlikeable... he wasn't larger than life... and he wasn't fighting for truth, justice, and the American way... All amidst a gloomy backdrop of a film. There was a great deal of magic missing from Routh's performance (Reeve had it in spades)... although he nearly got Clark Kent right. Well... maybe I'm being too harsh on the film. The only thing I really remember about the movie is the airplane rescue scene. Plus, the guy sitting next to me in the theatre was farting repeatedly.

Superman II the Donner cut? Brilliant. 8/10 for me. The only thing that didn't work is a particular scene between Lois and Clark and it's so out of sync because the footage used was test footage... so you have Clark with a different pair of glasses, different hair... and it's a bit jarring. The rest is nigh-perfection.