Saturday, July 01, 2006

Review: Superman Returns

Earlier this week I wrote about my anticipation of going to see Superman Returns, and I will sum it up as: "just plain fun!" Everything hinges on accepting Brandon Routh as Clark Kent/Superman, and he has some very big boots to fill. For me, Christopher Reeve was the iconic Superman. All of the television variants have been hit or miss (although I do like Smallville, it has been more like X-Files 90210). Routh simply looks fantastic as Superman. Vocally, he also sounded very similar to Reeve. Because this movie is a sequel to Superman: The Movie, Clark is played just as he was in the original, but not quite as naive. My favorite scene from Superman: The Movie was the helicopter sequence. This scene is essentially recreated, but instead of a helicopter, replace it with a 777 with a really big engine on top. What is cool about this scene is that you get a sense of scale and how powerful Superman truly is, something the original movies could never convey. I know much of this is CG, but it looks really good. I had just watched Matrix Reloaded this week because I remember that movie many main characters were animated during key sequences (the hurly burly fight scene comes to mind). When I saw the movie, this stuck out like a sore thumb and brought me out of the moment. Superman Returns uses a much higher degree of animation, but it kept me in the movie.

Superman Returns is rated PG13 for some Intense Action Violence. With X-Men III, I could walk away and definitely tell parents that they should go and see this before taking the kids (language and skin). I did not have any red flags. I can not recall cursing, though I know it is probably in there. Clark drinks a Bud (hey, he works hard), and Cindy's Spidey Senses tingled a few times. Because of that, I will go see this again with an eye toward the girls seeing it now or on video.

No comments: