Cast: B
Plot: B-
Special Effects/Stunts: B
Similarity to Comic: B
Director: Bryan Singer
Comic Company: DC
Stars: Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth
Rating: PG-13
See the IMDB page
See the Rotten Tomatoes page
This movie was like a breath of fresh air after the first four Superman movies. The special effects were finally improved and the science of today wasn't challenged very much so it was much more realistic and MUCH more enjoyable.
The Good: Kevin. Spacey. If you had asked me last week if I thought anyone could ever successfully pull off playing Lex Luthor as well as Gene Hackman I would have said it wasn't possible. Mr. Spacey proved me wrong though, in fact, I actually like his representation of the character better than Gene's, which is saying a lot. I also liked Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane and Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olson, I thought they did a good job staying true to their characters, staying similar to the previous actors who played those parts, and putting a slightly new spin on their respective characters. Brandon Routh was a great Superman, though I still prefer Christopher Reeve for the part of Clark Kent. James Marsden did an excellent job in the "nice guy" role as Lois's husband and Tristan Lake Leabu did well as Jason.
They FINALLY fixed the special effects problems and this movie was actually possible to watch without stopping every two seconds to laugh at the cheesy effects. They kind of pulled a Spider-Man 2 though and they made too much stuff computer generated, but hey it was MUCH better than the old Superman movies in that category so I'm okay with it. The plot wasn't too bad. They didn't give Superman a bunch of new crazy powers and they didn't challenge modern science too much, which kept it much more believable that the old movies. The plot was also fun. It's been awhile since the public has seen a new Superman movie so I'm glad they stuck with the Superman-Lois Lane romance plot line as well as Lex Luthor, his most famous foe.
The Bad: The most distracting part of the plot is the fact that Superman actually returns. He shows up in the beginning of the movie by crash landing on his farm. He didn't leave in the last movie to go anywhere, so I was really confused, at first I thought they may have been retelling his origin story, but his dad wasn't there and he showed up as a man (in a black suit). By the time they explained where he had been it was halfway through the movie, so that was frustrating. Also, they end up implying that Jason is Superman's son, not Richards. What? When did Superman get it on with Lois? Not in the last four movies I can tell you that.
I didn't like Frank Langella in this movie or how they chose to portray Perry White. He wasn't anything like he was in the first four movies which sucked because he was one of my favorite characters. Instead of being comically mean, disruptive, and eccentric he was just a grouchy old man, not nearly as entertaining.
The Interesting: So never in the last four movies did they mention that Superman gets his power from the sun. That was Nuclear Man's thing, not Superman's. Also, not only do they just throw that out there but all of a sudden the sun gave him enough energy to use his powers even though he's got a sliver of kryptonite inside him and he's surrounded by a giant land mass full of the stuff, it just didn't make much sense to me.
So Jason pushes an entire grand piano at a bad guy to save his mom, then he does absolutely nothing amazing for the rest of the movie. That was lame. I have to say though that if he all of a sudden discovered his own powers and used them a bunch in the rest of the movie it would have been even lamer, but why bring it up if you're not going to follow through?
Conclusion: Overall I'd recommend this movie over the first four any day. If you can handle being a little confused and one or two of the characters not being played like they're supposed to then you'll probably like this movie.
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