Superman Returns

Ben and I watched Superman Returns over the weekend and both were not too impressed. It was an okay movie - maybe two stars out of four. Our biggest complaint is that the end really seemed to drag on. It seemed to be about half an hour too long! It should have been a two-hour movie, and not a two and a half hour movie. Also overall it didn't really excite us or make us care about the characters.

Also the beginning really annoyed me. I thought the whole launching a space shuttle from the back of a 747 full of passengers seemed highly unrealistic. I tried to suspend my disbelief for a while, but the whole no back-up for the locking mechanism, etc. just annoyed me.

To give you some background, while I like Superman, I am not a fanatic - so don't hate me for my review! :-) I watched the movies as a kid and loved them. I rewatched I and II a year and a half ago when I was down and out with morning sickness and felt reinspired by Superman. I liked the League of Justice cartoons as a kid too. While I've seen Smallville, I don't watch it regularly and I don't read the comics. So I guess I'm just judging the movie on a movie basis and not on they mythology of Superman basis.

Other complaints about the movie were that while Brandon Routh looks the part, he doesn't seem to add the personality to the part like Christopher Reeve did. Ditto to Kate Bosworth - she is not the bright personality that Margot Kiddor was as Lois Lane. I did like Kevin Spacey's Lex Luther. I also liked James Marsden's character, Richard, who is Lois' fiance. Off the bat you want to hate him as he stands between Superman and Lois, but he really added a depth to the story by being a likeable guy that you don't want Lois to leave. It shows that Lois has moved on. I feel kind of sad that James Marsden is always the third wheel (Cyclops in X-men).

The special effects annoyed me. It seemed too computer graphic at times. It seems like directors are moving more and more toward this and I think it looks really fake. Strangely old fashioned special effects on older movies look better!!

The overall plot is that Superman has returned to earth after an abscense of five years (he was off searching for Krypton). When he returns, he learns that Lois is engaged to another man and has a . . . five year old child (who's the daddy?). Lex Luther has been released from prison as Superman wasn't there to testify. He has a new plan to destroy North America and only Superman can stop him!!

I thought the best parts of the movie were with the Lois/Richard/Superman and Superson dynamics although they got old at the end.

I was really looking forward to this as I LOVED Bryan Singer's X-men and X-men II movies (did not like the third after he left). I'm still holding out hope that if he does another Superman movie, it will be better.

Am I being too harsh? Does anyone have a good defense for this movie?