SUPERMAN RETURNS(2006)
I had low expectations for this film, as I've always
measured any of the Superhero movies against the
great ones, Superman and Batman!! This wasn't either
of those, but still not as bad as I thought it would be. I
was pleasantly surprised with the ability of Brandon
Routh to take the place of one of the most iconic actors
in a role in history! And gotta say that Kevin Spacey did
an outstanding job as Lex Luthor! The other players
here, notably Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olson, was
not quite up to the role! Kate Boseworth did pretty
good as Lois Lane, really coming into the role late in
the movie. It just seemed like she wasn't into it at first,
but perhaps that was the writing. One side note here,
the nod to the original Superman TV series with having
Noel Neill and Jack Larson(Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen)
in the movie was awesome!! Kinda like the nod the
original Superman movie did with Noel and Kirk Alyn
(from the first and second serials of Superman in the
40's and 50's!) B+
From IMDb.com:
While Brandon Routh was a great choice and played
Superman well, the movie fell short where many
movies do in that the super-villain isn't a challenge
for the superhero. Lex Luthor is an evil genius, but
he is just a man with some kryptonite. Besides, the
kryptonite storyline has been beaten to death.
The movie really had some great scenes, and except
for the concept of Superman vs. Lex Luthor, was very
good. The opening scene where Superman saves an
airplane from crashing was outstanding. Later in the
movie, Superman's eye ball flattens an incoming bullet,
which was simply very cool.
I'm a huge superhero movie fan and have been a
comic book collector for 25 years. It is my opinion
that any time you have a superhero movie where
there is no physical compatibility between the superhero
and the super-villain, the end result is a disappointment.
For example, the Christopher Reeves Superman 2 movie
was a great success and received a solid rating from me,
mostly due to the challenge of super-powered General
Zod and his minions.
The sideline of Lois Lane having met a man while
Superman was gone, was done well, but it certainly
didn't get me as excited as a battle between Superman
and Doomsday would have.
This movie has a lot of eye appeal and is worth a watch,
but it's not one of the superhero movies that I can watch
again and again. - atlassub34