Sunday, July 09, 2006

Superman Returns and a Dead Man's chest

This weekend is my 20th wedding anniversary and as a treat my wife and I decided to do a double bill of Captain Jack Sparrow and Mr. Kent.
I am a big fan of the original Pirates of the Caribbean. Even though it was filled with old film cliches they were put in a fresh light with this film. Sadly the sequel doesn't pull it off. My 8 year old daughter said it best, ( no she didn't see the second movie), when talking about sequels in general. She said that film makers always make sequels too serious and loose the fun of the original. Very true with this film. Dead man's chest tries to take itself too seriously and the comedic moments are cliches taken from the first film. No longer fresh! I still enjoyed it, come on it's pirates, and will look forward to the 3rd. If for nothing else just to laugh at Jack. Captain Jack.
Superman Returns
This was a great Superman movie. I make that distinction because if it was any other character but Superman the whole Christ imagery stuff just wouldn't have worked. I'm OK with the whole comparison to a savior thing and I think Singer really pulled it off, except for one shot when Superman is falling back to earth in the crucifixion pose. That made me laugh. The balance between heroic images and dramatic plot devices was well maintained through out. There were more than a few homages to old comic images ranging from Alex Ross to the original action comics cover. A good ride for sure.

5 comments:

Keith Savage said...

I agree with the review on Superman Returns. I haven't seen Pirates yet, nor will I. The only problems I had with Superman was the lighting. It looked more like a Batman movie, being so dark. I don't mean dark as a metaphor, but literaly dark. There wasn't enough lights, and combines with the fact that Superman's costume was not made of brightly coloured material, even Superman didn't look like Superman. Unless that was an intention of the filmakers. He may brighten up in the sequels. The only other thing I didn't like was the lack of dialogue that Brandon Routh had. There were more shots of him standing there reacting, and floating in the air looking superman-like, but overall he had nothing to say. I felt it made his character seem a bit underdeveloped.
It had a really cool feeling though that this was just the beginning of something. Once the movie ends, you kinda feel like this was the first half hour of a movie. Like they have set the stagge for a lot to happen in the next movies. I look forward to seeing what they do next.

Keith Savage said...

I agree with the review on Superman Returns. I haven't seen Pirates yet, nor will I. The only problems I had with Superman was the lighting. It looked more like a Batman movie, being so dark. I don't mean dark as a metaphor, but literaly dark. There wasn't enough lights, and combines with the fact that Superman's costume was not made of brightly coloured material, even Superman didn't look like Superman. Unless that was an intention of the filmakers. He may brighten up in the sequels. The only other thing I didn't like was the lack of dialogue that Brandon Routh had. There were more shots of him standing there reacting, and floating in the air looking superman-like, but overall he had nothing to say. I felt it made his character seem a bit underdeveloped.
It had a really cool feeling though that this was just the beginning of something. Once the movie ends, you kinda feel like this was the first half hour of a movie. Like they have set the stage for a lot to happen in the next movies. I look forward to seeing what they do next.

Anonymous said...

Brian Singer should marry Richard Donner cause he obviously loved the Superman movies wayy too much. They had their moments, but overall, it was just more of the same. Superman vs Some Normal Guy, boring! Brandon Routh looked and sounded good as Superman, had no problems with him. Didn't mind the girl playing Lois, better than flakey Margot Kidder anyway. Kevin Spacey was ok as Luthor, still boring motivation "Laaand, must have Laaand", lame. At least Superman didn'thave any stupid powers he didn't normally have this time around (except for the ability the ignore a continent made of Kryptonite when needed!) How'd he pull that off? Supercharged on sunlight or something? All in all, was still a fun movie though. Favourite moment: when he lifts the shuttle off the jet--just looked great. That's it.

Suzanne Marsden said...

I actually really enjoyed Superman Returns. I liked the music and the light in the film; I loved the lush orange/pink Alex Ross light that appeared occasionally. Kevin Spacey was nice and evil and his henchmen were nasty, instead of being slapstick/ stupid, which was good. I liked all the flying scenes; the hairs stood up on my arms during the wonderful, archetypal Supes looking down at the world moment. Wow. Hmm, what else? Oh yeah, I couldn't help but feel sorry for James Marsden as the "other guy" it felt like an extra clip from X-men, where Scott inevitably loses the girl, again.

Haven't seen Pirates II, but am eager to! I love creepy characters, over-the-top monsters (yes, watched Godzilla vs Mothra last night..) and women in drag. YAY! (& Johnny Depp of course :-)

Candace Steeves said...

I can't wait to see Pirates 2. Maybe I will be able to make it one night this week. Some of the previews look pretty cool, but it could be those are the best parts. I hate when they do that! oh well.
don't know if I'll get a chance to see superman. Movies don't stick around very long here. Also not sure if anyone can compete with my Christoper. I was in love with him when I was little. 'sigh'