 | This review was posted to the General Forum before I discovered how to post it here. Thanks to Jonathan Fauth for his directions.
* * * * *
After walking out in the middle of the campy Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (supposedly the #1 Movie in America) with the foppish Captain Jack Sparrow, I was sorely in need of a good movie, and boy did Superman Returns ever deliver. If Hollywood can make a movie like that, then it can do justice to Atlas, if that movie ever makes it to the screen.
Superman Returns is pure fantasy, of course, but nowadays, Hollywood can make pure fantasy come to life in an amazing way. Brandon Routh, the new Superman is a spitting image of the comic book hero, square of jaw, cleft of chin with a handsome visage framed by Isaac Azimov horn-rimmed glasses as the mild-mannered, ever deferential Clark Kent. Kate Boseworth serves up a well-acted, contemporary version of Lois Lane, even though a bit younger than I remember her.
The acting is very good in a highly stylized way, which is appropriate to this film, with Kevin Spacey playing arch-villain Lex Luther, hell-bent on taking over the world and consigning Superman to oblivion.
Sign of the Times: At one point, Richard White as the editor of the Daily Planet (played by James Marsden), comments on Superman as a hero who stands for "truth, justice and all that good stuff." He couldn't bring himself to say, "truth, justice and THE AMERICAN WAY! You can't say that these days, because it lacks multicultural sensitivity. THIS is the world to which Superman has returned!
Notwithstanding this minor concession to political correctness, Superman Returns is so truly and passionately heroic, I could scarcely believe that I was seeing a movie that portrayed these values so proudly and unapologetically. I kept thinking, they're going to compromise it with some anti-heroics. But they never did! Plus, the visual effects were stunning and glorious. It was as if Ayn Rand had written the screen play, or someone with Ayn Rand's sense of life.
What a triumph! Thank you, Bryan Singer! I give this movie five stars.
- Bill |
