Its a bird... Its a plane... Its a hit!

Review by Bryan
My Rating:  4.5 stars out of 5



Now in Theaters
Released:  6/28/06
Rated PG-13
Length:  2h34m
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey

Rotten Tomatoes:  75% Fresh
IMDb: 7.3 stars out of 10
Roger Ebert: 2 stars out of 4
CrapLousy: 36% Crap

This, being my first movie review for Inconceivable, may be a bit rough around the edges, so forgive me any ramblings that I may accidentally fall into.  I've received no small amount of grief from Larry and Fat Jack for may lack of postings to this blog so I will try to make up for it with this review and hopefully before Wednesday a review a some movie about boats, a pearl, and swords....

While I'm not the wide-eyed child I was in 1978 or 1980, I still came out of this movie "Believing a Man Could Fly" to borrow a catch-phrase from the original.  I was kind of nervous about how this movie was going to turn out.  Not due to the fact that Bryan Singer was directing.  He is a marvel at making you want to be interested in characters and his Usual Suspects is one of my favorite movies.  My doubts were in the picking up from Superman II and continuing the legend from there.  I really like the first two movies n the series just like I really like the first Batman movie and the Catwoman half of Batman Returns, but I appreciated the fact that the powers-that-be decided to restart the Batman franchise from the beginning and at first thought they should have done the same here.

Well, most of my fears were for naught.  The storyline plays well from the first two movies and in a very eerie way, Brandon Routh does seem to channel Christopher Reeve at times, many of which he not only sounds like the prior tights wearer, but looks like him too.

The plot is pretty simple, but woven into the story, in a way done much better than the originals, is character background information.  Clark's early years discovering his powers and Luthor's vileness as a master manipulator, and not just a techno-geek as he is sometimes portrayed, are worked into the story well and give you some ideas as to where each of them are coming from.  Clark, the child that won't understand for many years why he floats in the air and run so fast, and Luthor, the former prisoner, who dotes on an elderly millionairess, while her family waits for her to die, just so he can have her Yaught.

The first half of the film deals with the return of Superman to Metropolis (hence the title) after he has been gone from Earth for 5 years looking for his homeworld.  It seems that some scientists found what looked like a planetary body orbiting the red sun of Krypton.  Superman returns to Earth and is surprised to find that people went on without him but not without problems.  The world is in chaos and he begins to make a difference immediately.

Meanwhile...  Luthor schemes to create a new body of land in the Atlantic that he can control and sell to the highest bidder.  Why new land.... In creating the new body, he basically floods half of the US, thus making his land much more valuable... and too boot, its laced with Kryptonite.

On the side, Lois is engaged and has a 5 year old son who is sort of a weakling, snotty nosed, whiner and as if nobody sees it coming, should be Clark's child.  Lois "supposedly" doesn't suspect this until the end of the movie after young Clark junior throws a grand piano across the Yaught's ballroom in a fit of rage.  They never come right out and say that the child is Clark's but there is a whisper that we don't hear that alll but implies it.

So... Did I love the movie?  Absolutely!  Is it one of the greatest movies ever made?  Probably not.  Is it better than that other Superhero movies that came out this year X-Men 3?  You betcha!  The saddest part of this last fact is that X-Men 3 will probably make far more money that Superman Returns.  I chalk that up to two things.  1)  Superman Returns is a full hour longer than X-Men 3 which means the later movie can plan more times for the same amount per seat and 2)  I think this by many is like a restart (even though it isn't).  And first episode movies sometimes do not do as well as subsequent eps.  There was doubts about Singer's original X-Men movies and it grew into a huge franchise for Marvel.  Let's hope that Superman can do the same for DC.


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