Welcome to a review of Superman Returns in two-parts...
I left everyone on a bit of a cliffhanger in my last entry. I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. But if my description of the opening credit sequence piqued your interest, then I've done my job.
So let's come to brass tacks here. Is Superman Returns good? For the casual Superman or superhero fan, the action movie fan, the dedicated moviegoer, the person who barely knows anything about The Man of Steel other than his costume and that he's also Clark Kent?
Yes. Superman Returns succeeds for anyone walking into the theater. It even succeeds for the die-hard, lifelong comic readers like myself. It also succeeds for the folks like me will always have Christopher Reeve's portrayal of Superman seared in their childhood memories. Chris Reeve was our Superman, just as George Reaves was for the kids of the 50s and 60s.
I firmly believe Brandon Routh is the Superman of this generation. The kids today who see Superman Returns will fall in love with the character because of Brandon Routh's Superman. Decades from now, when another filmmaker is setting about to make a new Superman movie and is hunting for a new Superman, today's kids will be like we were: "Huh. Good luck finding anyone who like our Superman.“ But they’ll finish that statement with “Good luck replacing Brandon Routh."
My love for the character goes beyond any one portrayal in the film medium. After all, I'm used to a myriad of different artistic renderings of Superman in the comics I've read for over twenty years. So I didn't hold anything against Brandon Routh.
Brandon Routh is Clark Kent. Brandon Routh is Superman.
And folks, Superman has indeed returned.
A lot of movie reviewers today go to great lengths to entertain. I’m not sure that should be the goal of a review. The biggies (in more ways than one) like Ebert do what they can to make you know that they know more than you ever will about movies and that, as a result of this fact, you can’t help but listen to them and do what they say. Think what they say. Believe what they say. Or write, depending on the medium. All in all, they have an agenda: this is how you should feel about a movie you HAVEN’T SEEN.
And there’s the problem. You haven’t seen the movie yet. I read Ebert’s review after seeing Superman Returns. Never before did I read such a biting, bitter, abysmal, and truly pathetic vomiting of vitriol against one film. This man apparently has a vendetta against this movie. Ebert long ago lost this film fan’s respect. He proves this when at one point in his review, he lays out this gem: “It would have been fun to give Superman Returns a bright, sassy child, like one of the Spy Kids, and make him a part of the plot.” Ebert’s referring here to a child in the film whose presence is extremely important to the plot, despite a performance wisely nuanced by director Bryan Singer. Ebert just doesn’t get it. This is a guy who thinks the Garfield films and the Spy Kids live-action cartoons are high-caliber cinema. He long ago lost his voice and his heart, and should retire to the Bahamas on the loads of money we all know he’s sitting on.
One of my closest friends, Roy Petitfils, whose name you either know by now or will become familiar with in a few months based on who he is and the work he’s doing, told me with way too glibly last night over drinks that “The reviews are terrible. They don’t like this new movie.” Like Ebert, my good friend Roy sounded happy that reviewers don’t like Superman Returns. I retorted that I’d read and heard otherwise in other reviews. Roy just wouldn’t buy it. The popular movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, which collates reviews from various media into one collective popularity percentage, seems to indicate otherwise. The site uses its “Tomatometer” to give you a consensus of a lot of different reviews from newspapers, magazines, television news programs, etc. Currently, Superman Returns has a 75 % rating. That’s based on 136 “fresh” ratings (meaning good) and 46 “rotten” ratings (meaning bad). You can see all of this for yourself here.
The fine folks at Box Office Mojo tell us that Superman Return’s current domestic box office take as of yesterday is $48,823,000. It’s worldwide take is $51,042,000. This is a pretty good take after three to four days of release (I’m counting the Tuesday “geek previews.”) So these numbers indicate that this movie is being well-received by moviegoers and movie reviewers alike. You can see these numbers yourself and more here.
So here’s the deal. My review is my review. I’d be lying if I said I don’t care if you hate this movie. That’s because I love the genre and the character,and I want other people to love it too. But my review doesn’t have the same agenda as most other reviews. I’m not here to sound as self-amused as I can or show you how much I know about movies or comic books or obscure German Expressionist art. I just want to inform you by answering the question we all ask when confronted with a slew of expensive movies and dwindling cash: Is this movie worth my time and money?
Here’s the answer outright: yes. If you like action, adventure, and a well-told and quite romantic story, then yes. If you see a movie a week, a month, or a year (not that hard to imagine for those of us with full-time jobs and children), then you should see Superman Returns.
Now, this isn’t a perfect movie. It has its flaws, as any movie does. All of my favorite movies remain so because they have flaws that you can forgive because everything else works. The same goes for Superman Returns, which gets added to my list of favorite films. I liken it to a love relationship with anyone: if you’re not willing to love them in spite of their imperfections, then you’re not willing to love. Granted, liking a movie isn’t like loving a person. Those of you who know me well out there might not believe that I think that, but I do. But the point is, don’t go see this movie to see a perfect movie. ‘Cause just like that perfect love, it doesn’t exist.
On to Part Two...
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