steve kwan user experience designer

Review: Superman Returns

(July 4th, 2006 - 7:17PM)

My favorite part about Superman is that little hair curl thing.

(4 / 5 stars)

One sentence summary: Superman Returns greatly exceeded all my expectations, and is my favorite summer blockbuster so far this year.

As soon as I saw the full-length trailer for Superman Returns, I wrote it off. It looked way too cheesy to be considered worthwhile - and yes, I know that Superman is kind of cheesy already, but there's a limit. Luckily, this was one of those cases where the trailer doesn't do the movie justice. Superman Returns is definitely worth your time.

Things I liked about Superman Returns:

• Brandon Routh was perfect for the Superman/Clark Kent role. He looks the part, which I suppose isn't that impressive. But he also manages to inject a bit of personality into the wooden role of Superman, which is quite impressive.
• The cinematography is excellent. I think that more than anything else, the visuals draw you into this movie and keep you captivated.
• Despite the fact that the film is around two and a half hours long, it doesn't feel like it's dragging on.
• Superman's costume looks great. This is an important point, because back in the day Christopher Reeve's spandex suit didn't make him look that heroic at all.
• Kumar is one of Lex Luthor's goons. I don't think Harold is in the movie.

Things I didn't like about Superman Returns:

• Kevin Spacey is underused. In Superman Returns, Lex Luthor is the most stereotypical bad guy you can imagine. He acts (and looks) like Dr. Evil. Having a weak bad guy isn't a huge problem here, because the main storyline is the love triangle between Superman, Lois Lane and her husband. The fact that Superman needs to stop an evil mastermind feels secondary. However, the movie still would have benefited from a little more attention to Lex Luthor's character.
• The plot is quite shallow. But considering that this is a Superman movie, I'm surprised it achieved the little depth it did. If this script appeared in any other movie I'd likely complain about it, but I don't think it's realistic to go into a Superman movie expecting brilliant screenplay.