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Superman Returns - Single Disc [DVD] [2006] |
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Staring:
Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, Parker Posey, Frank Langella
Director:
Bryan Singer
Average Customer Rating: 
List Price: £18.99
Our Price: £0.01
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Amazon.co.uk Review
It's fair to say that Superman Returns probably wasn't quite the blockbuster many were expecting. It concentrates its action on a handful of dazzling, audacious sequences, it spends time working with its characters, and it deliberately pays homage to the heritage of the source material. Knitted together by Bryan Singer, the man behind the camera for the first two X-Men features, it's some distance away from the last time the Man of Steel appeared on the big screen. But that's very much a good thing. Whilst it doesn't quite, and nor did it need to, perform the major surgery that Batman Begins had to undertake on the Dark Knight's adventures, Singer nonetheless leaves distance between his film and some of its predecessors (although there are respectful tips of the hat to the first two films, not least the nostalgia-inducing credits sequence). The plot finds Superman returning to Earth after several years away, to discover that the world has moved on in his absence. It's not as safe, Lex Luthor is out of prison, and Lois Lane now has a family. Which is the cue for a lot of soul searching, slower, tender moments and character development that divided some sections of the cinema audience. Yet, thanks to a stirring cast, led by newcomer Brandon Routh, the end product gels extremely well. Routh's performance is a fitting tribute to the late Christopher Reeve, while Kevin Spacey chews up anything he's allowed to as key villain Lex Luthor. Further, credible, support comes in the form of Parker Posey, James Marsden and Kate Bosworth. It'd be remiss to call Superman Returns a flawless film. After all, the running time could use fifteen minutes taking off, there's not enough Kevin Spacey and there are occasional moments when the pacing feels a little off. But it is a superb return to form for the classic superhero, with the modern day blockbuster ingredients of some meat to go with the action firmly in place. Further instalments, Mr Singer, will be more than welcome. --Simon Brew
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 You'll believe a man can brood, 2010-03-19
It would be tempting to dismiss Superman Returns with a cursory he shouldn't have bothered. Certainly for all the noble intentions it's the most misconceived blockbuster in years, at times misjudging its audience more than any mega-budget film since Speed 2. On paper it sounds so promising - ignoring the last two Superman films and following on from Superman II as if they never happened, throwing Marlon Brando back in the mix via archive footage and bringing the Man of Steel back to Earth after an absence of several years during which people have begun to question whether they even need him anymore. And after Bryan Singer's success with the first two X-Men films, he'd seem the perfect director. Yet the end result is one of the most disappointingly dull and relentlessly glum movies of the century, and certainly one of the grottiest looking major studio films ever. It's at once one of those films that manages to look both expensive and cheap. You can see where money has been spent, but it never really counts. If anything it looks like a busted, bloated miniseries, all buildup but precious little payoff. What we get instead is endless brooding.
Yet the relentlessly oppressive look of the film is merely a symptom of a far greater malaise. Where Donner mixed sorrow with joy and exuberance, Singer just gives us naval gazing as his Superman spends far more of the movie brooding, brooding and then brooding some more, not even finding any satisfaction in the few feats of heroism he performs. Indeed, they should have changed the tagline to 'You'll believe a man can brood' as he mopes his way through much of the agonisingly long 154 very long minutes. He hardly even flies - he just hovers around wallowing in wistful self-pity forever before we finally get half an hour of decent action before its back to the misery (albeit somewhat more effective than the dreary first half).
The film is often genuinely monotonous in the dictionary sense of the word. There's no sense of pace or narrative economy, no joy of discovery, no eagerness to see what happens next, just an unexciting trudge through the superhero's angst as he endlessly hovers around. Worse, this is a film with no sense of wonder at all.
Where the Donner films worked was their ability to juggle loss, emotion, a sense of wonder and joy and exuberance - with Reeve you got the impression that Superman enjoyed using his powers to do good, but here it's nothing but a cross to bear in a series of even-more-bleedin'-obvious-than-The-Passion-of-the-Christ metaphors. Look, there's Supes being crucified; look, there's Supes being scourged; and look - on the Third day the tomb is empty and he has risen!
Yet for all the time spent on would-be character building scenes, even by the half hour point we know surprisingly little and care less about the characters, so that when Superman finally goes into action in a well-conceived but strangely unexciting shuttle rescue it carries no real weight. Only Kevin Spacey seems to be bringing anything to the party, his Lex Luthor dominating the film far more than should be good for it as he sets about his latest real estate scam at great length. On the side of good, Brandon Routh fares better as Clark Kent than as Superman, his weak voice combining with a poor sound mix to make the Man of Steel sound distinctly wimpier than the mild-mannered reporter. Kate Bosworth does her best with Lois Lane, but the character goes through the film with such a huge chip on her shoulder it's impossible to warm to her despite her best efforts. Hell, you know a film's in trouble when James Marsden makes the most impression!
And it all looks so grotty all the time, with the limitations of the video photography robbing even close-ups of detail (some shots of Superman's face look more like a Final Fantasy computer simulation than a real person), limiting the color scheme (Superman's costume usually looks turquoise or green here) and seemingly limiting the action to clumsy tight shots that limit the film's scale. Even basic no-brainer shots are simply botched - hard to believe but even the would-be iconic shot of Clark ripping off his shirt to reveal - well, just a little bit of blue vest actually - flops because the shot misses the iconic `S' logo entirely as if the film was framed for fullframe TV instead of widescreen.
Nor are the well-intentioned nods to the Donner films successful. The Brando footage, after the first scene, seem more gimmick than anything else, with lines thrown in almost at random to no effect whatsoever. It even rehashes huge chunks of other characters' dialogue from the first film, showing up just how short some of the players fall (Routh seems almost apologetic when delivering the `flying is still statistically speaking the safest way to travel' bit while Parker Posey does her best with Valerie Perrine's cast-off wisecracks).
Although they're talking about adding more action for the proposed sequel, that's really not the solution - the 1978 film probably had less action than this, but it counted because we were involved with and liked the characters: you wanted him to rescue Lois from the helicopter, whereas this time round you couldn't care less if the surly cow burned up in the shuttle scene or not (as an introduction to her as well it's incredibly poor). What this needs is characters we like and can root for, not bigger set pieces. As it stands, Hell, even Fantastic Four was a more successful superhero flick than this. It's as if someone decided to film Lois Lane's editorial `Why the World Doesn't Need Superman.' Looks like Supe's fatal flaw isn't Kryptonite, it's Bryan Singer. Still, it could have been worse: it could have been Brett Ratner...
The transfer of the feature is okay, but the limitations of the original digital photography are often very apparent, meaning that it frequently looks worse than the first two films made more than a quarter of a century ago! No extras on this single-disc edition, but while the extras on the 2-disc set are good and at least highlight the sincere intentions behind this misfire it's hard to muster up the enthusiasm to watch them throughout after seeing the film, especially since the expensive Krypton prolog is NOT included in the deleted scenes, being held back for a future special edition in what seems a particularly cynically commercial move.
 Dull, 2009-07-21
If you found a wooden dummy it would act better than the guy who plays Superman in this movie. Ex-Kevin Spacey, none of the others are much better. Add to that a boring plot and poor action scenes and this movie is a big MISS!
Let me hear you say it... just once. This is a good... WRROOONG!!!, 2009-12-26
Brian Singer has spent so much time trying to recreate the original movies he is so fond of he forgot that he isn't Richard Donner, who made the amazing first movie and the well done directors cut of the second.
What's clear is Brian Singer isn't a Superman fan so much as a Superman movie fan. He shows a certain lack in understanding the character of Superman/Kal El that Richard Donner had or from the comics.
Even worse some of the things that go on in this is based off the dire Richard Lister version of Superman 2.
Even the dialogue comes from the first movies as joke references.
Did it not occur to him that maybe those films were done the way they were due to the limitations in technology at the time?
The talent here is decent but the characters are a waste, Clark Kent/Superman seems hollow and empty because he doesn't show the emotion of the character like Christopher Reeves did, yet is trying to play him the same way and Lois is useless compared to the character she is supposed to be and Lex Luther is a joke.
I have to compare this to the TV series Smallville, I would rather have the Lex Luther from that to start with, an evil person who would stop at nothing to get to his goal, the lex from that is more believable. The stories have been so much better than in this film, the story in this film is just so awful.
Even the special effects in Smallville are better. I remember watching the first time Clark flew (as Kal El) it was amazing the use of bullet time, the sound waves and watching him shoot through the sky several times the speed of sound with ripples going through his face because of the speed. There is nothing even remotely interesting going on in Superman Returns bar saving the plane at the beginning.
I think it would have been much better to have a proper Superman movie with characters and storylines based on the comics than this useless attempt to make a 5th movie of the originals. I mean Superman having a son with Lois, nonsense of the highest order. With technology now, Superman could be realised how he was intended from the comics.
I have never been in a packed Cinema with people getting so bored with a film, security had to be called... until now, people couldn't wait to leave, usually people may sneak into another movie but I think they kept waiting for it to get better. Plus it would be a bit funny to see half the people in a screening trying to get into another movie.
You make a small homage in your film, not make the whole film a homage.
What really makes this worse is that because Brian Singer was making this crap, X-men 3 was made by some nut who effectively just ruined the movies with the worst ideas ever and any possible near future X-men movies because half the X-men universe is dead now.
Shoemakers, 2010-01-10
What a load of old shoemakers this film is. Look guys, this is a comic strip brought to the screen. Thanks for the great catastrophe scenes but can we do without the lovey-dovey, S'man is in love with Lois rubbish. Just who had aspirations to make a romantic film out of a comic book? This film will bore the socks off you and, while you are alseep, you will miss all the faster-than-a-speeding-bullet Superman stuff. We mourn the passing of Christopher Reeve who will forever be the personification of Superman. The greatest compliment to his great spirit would have been to let the franchise sleep in the peace he now enjoys. Don't waste your money on this.
 The Greatest Superhero Film Ever Made, 2010-03-11
I know, a big statement to make. But from my perspective it is the best. Also, I'm not in the habit of handing five star reviews out frivolously. So sorry, I'm going to go overboard on the length of my review, but I feel this film deserves it, especially after some of the stick it gets.
Other reviews here have handled the plot, but needless to say Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is out of jail and up to his old tricks. Superman (Brandon Routh) meanwhile has been AWOL for the past few years and returns to a world that on the surface has learned to live without his watchful protection.
Bryan Singer crafted a truly astonishing film, one that is referential to the character in the extreme, but if there was one to be referential about, then Superman it is.
The one major criticism leveled at the film is that there isn't any action. Does there need to be? That is what Batman, the X-men, and Hulk are for. Superman is about being a hero, and no, that doesn't mean pounding your enemies into the ground the first opportunity you get. In fact if you look at it, Superman is the pretty much the only major superhero who doesn't need a nemesis to define him. His character is about being a saviour in times of crisis, not a punisher of evildoers. And that is what this film respects, he is a protector above all else, not an excuse to have some special effects leaden punch ups.
So no, there isn't much beat'em up action, as the criticism goes, "he doesn't throw a single punch". So what. He saves a falling jumbo jet, in one of most stunning set pieces of recent years, lifts run away cars to safety, catches falling people, rescues a sinking yacht and restores crumbling skyscrapers. What more do people want?
If you have a love of the character, then there are several moments that brought a tear to my eye. One of admiration at heroism, one of sorrow on for his suffering, and one of joy. All partly because this is a rare thing, a $200,000,000 film with a heart, and interest beyond making it's budget back at the box office. Very few films (especially in that budget range) can say that, and do you know what? Those are usually the best and most enduring.
I'll be fair and talk about the things wrong with it. Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane didn't work, people point to her being too young, but in all honesty I just didn't believe she was Lois Lane for a second. The same cannot be said of the rest of cast, all were very believable. Like pretty much every blockbuster of last ten years, it's far too long, but I'm not sure what they could cut without harming the film. For some reason Bryan Singer wanted to tie the film to Richard Donner's first two Superman films continuity and ignore the two, frankly dire, sequels to those. But it doesn't quite match up or make sense, they show some of origin story here anyway, and who doesn't know a little bit about Superman's origin? Certainly no one who is going bother to watch this film, so just make it a standalone and keep the basic Donner aesthetic, which the film does anyway. A few people have pointed out that Superman is a stalker in this film, I didn't see that until someone pointed that out to me, but yep, he does stalk Lois. But watching it, it felt more like they were trying to get across the loneliness that he feels on Earth, but it was a bit of a misstep, one of incredibly few here though.
I went for a special two disc edition, don't know why, I hardly ever watch special features. But the special features are plentiful, tons of interviews and behind the scenes docs. While stuff on the character of Superman himself is moderately interesting, if you didn't know much about him already.
I dare say anyone looking for an in your face action spectacular is going to be bitterly disappointed. If that is why you are looking at this film, turn and find another one. On the superhero end of spectrum Singer's first two X men, the first two Spider men and Nolan's Batman films, and the Hellboys are more action packed and are all great films in their own right.
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Audience Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Binding: DVD
EAN: 7321900723510
Format: PAL
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 2
Release Date: 2006-12-04
Running Time: 148
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2006 |
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