Superman Returns

*Contains Spoilers*

Just saw it last night. Yay!
I loved Superman Returns!


My friend, "J-Mag" remarked, "I was thrilled. I was awed. I was a kid again." I think that just about sums up my feelings of the movie. I totally felt like a kid again! The scene after Superman catches the plane and he opens the door and walks in and asks matter of factly, "Is everyone alright?" gave me goosebumps. I really got a sense of "Superman's back!"I do think that the movie was maybe about 15 minutes too long though... After Superman was rescued by Cyclops'... err... Marsden's plane, I couldn't figure out how Superman was going to beat Luthor. His solution to everything seems to be a little redundant: Just friggin pick it the heck up.
The fact that Superman had to spend time recouping in the hospital was kind of lame too. Ahh well. I can't think of a better ending to the movie either.

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Another friend of mine said,

"The parts that really worked are the things that Singer brought to the table such as the suggestion that Superman needs and seeks the adulation and attention, a nice little character beat."

That's an interesting interpretation. I didn't get that from the basebal stadium scene. To me, it was more like Superman remembering what his purpose on Earth is; to help people. Him looking around and seeing all the humanity made him feel fulfilled and right again. That was my take on it.

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I'm not too excited about following up with the Superman Jr. storyline. What's next? Krypto the Superdog? Come on.


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I'm sure Singer researched Superman lore pretty thoroughly, but there was an apologetic essay that I read once about Superman's powers and that his powers might actually go beyond super strength but cross over to a little bit or telekinesis. Which explains why Superman can carry things from impossible angles. (Like carrying an entire plane fuselage from the tip of it's nose or picking up an entire landmass from one 3x3 sqaure foot space, for example.) Interesting thought.

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I also thought Routh (pronounced like "mouth") was the perfect casting choice and I appreciated that Singer had several hommages to the original Superman movie and didn't try to reinvent our folklore. Lois' smoking bit, the opening title sequence, the score, the train set's destruction (that looked suspiciously like the earthquake sequences from the first movie) and so forth, were all great little subconscious flashbacks with which Singer tantilized our childhood memories. Very good directing, I'd say!

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I think I will go back again with my son. He will absolutely love it.