christ666's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Superman Returns All right bitches... The next movie down is Superman Returns. I was excited about this movie all year, and though I shouldn't bring my expectations to be so high for any movie, when it comes to comic films, I tend to get a little amped and a surge of adrenaline just keeps my mediocre life going when I get to see my favorite men in tights flying across the screen... Superman Returns, however, is a little more complex than your typical comic book movie, as this one is not only trying to keep in spirit of the comic books, it's mainly a sequel to Superman and Superman II with Christopher Reeve. The third and fourth installments really have nothing to do with this movie, so it seems they kind of just brushed off those failures, in order to revive this new chapter. And this movie is not only under so much anticipation by fans, but Warner Bros had taken so long just to get this project going. Let's dive into a brief history of this long awaited sequel. For those that don't care, scroll down to the actual review... Even with Superman IV: Quest for Crap or whatever, there was always plans to make a V, with rumours of having Reeve star and direct it, but when IV crashed at the box office, Reeve left and the project eventually came to passing until Superboy writers got the rights and started working on Superman: The New Movie, which was going to be a sequel to the first two (kinda like Returns) including Braniac (from the comic books). Trying to get Reeve back and failing, and eventually settling for the Superboy star Gerard Christopher, the rights expired. Then came Superman Reborn which was loosely based on the Death of Superman storyline which was just released in comics and causing quite the stir. However the story happens to be that Superman gets killed by Doomsday (from the Death Story), his spirit enters Lois Lane's body who gives birth to Superman's child, and while Lois gets killed early in the film, the baby grows into a 21 year old man in weeks and saves the day, becoming the new Superman... pretty fucked up huh? Then another draft still uses the Death story, but includes Braniac as the main character. Braniac actually falls in love with Lois, decides to destroy Earth, uses Doomsday to kill Superman. He gets revived and battles Braniac without powers. But execs gave it to Kevin Smith later on, who because of creative differences with Jon Peters (producer of Batman '89, Thangarian Snare Beast confilict) and conflicts with Tim Burton, and eventually it all went spiraling down until Brett Ratner picked up the directors helm. Until he was fired and went his way with X-Men: The Last Stand, Bryan Singer finally came to the lead and created his story. Singer is a fucking genius. As a director of great cinema, he's at the top of his game, and as far as those comic flicks, he exceeds expectations. X-Men and X2 were (in my opinion) the only movies (besides Batman Begins) that found the boundry between loyalty to the books, and creativity. Comic fans need to understand that you won't get a movie that's the exact representation of a famous book storyline, that there needs to be some new plot, and movie goers need to understand that loyalty to comics is such an important role, and that as far as characters, things should stay like the did on the pages. Singer knows how to make a story his own and all those little comic geeks out there. As far as Superman Returns, he achieves. Not surprisingly, Singer has not only shown his incredible direction, but also helped revive an American Icon. And not just the direction, the cast was incredible. Brandon Routh had such big shoes to fill. After Reeves death, Routh had to create his performance in the shadow of an already made hero. And honestly, he portrayed Superman just perfectly. And all those people out there that think no one can compare to Reeve, don't think I didn't love old Chris, but get the fuck over the performance held so dear over three decades ago, and embrace that new portrayls must go on. For instance Spacey, more like any Lex Luthor than I have seen. Hackman was good, but Spacey pulls off Lex. The Kaiser Soze of comics. Yeah, that was a pretty week fucking joke. The only performance I didn't like was Kate Bosworth's. Better than Margot Kidder's and much more attractive, though I just don't think Lois has been given the character she deserves. And the story was great with one exception. Because Superman gave up his powers in Superman II and was with Lois for a brief amount of time, a little boy was conceived and hey, it's Superman's, unbeknownst to him and Lois' boyfriend Richard who's Perry White's nephew and thinks the kid is his. Besides this, the story, the visual effects, the music (which included much of the original John Williams music) the opening credits, and the closing sequence reenacted... The movie was great, and has so far been tied with Clerks 2 as the best movie this summer. I'm still raving about this movie, and highly recommend for continual viewing. You will believe a man can fly... and you'll believe I'm supergay for having said that last little quote. 1:57 a.m. - 2006-08-01 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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