Superman Returns!
When just asked by a coworker, I couldn't recall if it was cyanide or arsenic that left the poison victim's breath smelling of almonds (it's cyanide), but I immediately knew that the poison Socrates took was hemlock. This seems telling, but I don't know quite what it tells!
In other news, I celebrated my massive case of jet-lag by finally seeing Superman Returns on Sunday.
Needless to say, I really loved it. But I can also see why it hasn't been the Pirates of the Carribean-sized megahit that the studio probably wanted for its $250 mil.* It was, in many ways, a small movie about a couple for whom it didn't work out.** That's what makes it clearly a fan-made movie -- there's less about the blowing-crap-up and more about the people in whom Singer, and I, have such strong psychic investments.
Superman Returns is a surprisingly meditative movie for a summer blockbuster. I'd heard it was ponderous, but maybe because I'm such a Super-geek, I didn't find it that way at all -- it was quiet, surprise of surprises, and thoughtful, and even poetic.
I had already been spoiled about Jason's parentage walking in, so I can't say whether or not that reveal worked, but I loved that the sign of his hybridity isn't so much his strength under stress but his weakness: all the illnesses, the allergies, everything read to me as a sign that like his father, he's not quite made for Earth. It also reads to me as one of many signs that maybe Superman and Lois weren't made for each other after all -- which is not to say that really allergic kids are that way because their parents shouldn't be married, of course, but the sickly child of a failed union is a pretty old dramatic trope, and I thought one used well here.
I also liked the way Clark's inability to find an apartment throughout seemed a very subtle underlining of the major theme -- Superman is a man without a home. His birth world is a graveyard, he can't stay in Smallville and still fulfill his destiny, and the one home he had a chance at in Metropolis, with Lois, he ran away from. The choices he's made, both the good ones and the bad, keep him alone. I hope we get more of Clark as Clark if there are sequels -- he's a character in an interesting predicament.
I liked Richard, and I wasn't expecting to -- I figured he'd be, well, more like every other character of Marsden's in superhero movies, none of whom I've liked. But Richard was, as we say in Brooklyn, a mensch. He was just jealous enough to be real, and secure and stable enough to seem worth giving up a superhero for. If there is a sequel, or sequels, he probably gets written out somehow, but I hope he doesn't: the prickly but respectful relationship between him and Superman is one of the better things in the movie.
I thought Lois was all wrong -- not enough fire, and about five years too young. It makes me sad to think that a Margot Kidder could probably not get the role of Lois today -- too fierce, and too old. Bosworth did a good job with what she had, and I did, I'll admit, cheer when she finally got to rescue Superman for once.
Routh did a fine job, and actually his stoicness throughout as Superman made the scenes where he's in pain all the more shocking. I was really upset by the sequence where Superman is beaten up, and not just because of the too-heavy Christ references.
Kevin Spacey's Luthor was a real Broadway baby -- a total showman. I would have liked more scenes with him and Superman, or even him and Lois, since I didn't feel like the villain plot was well-integrated into the emotional plot until the end. Parker Posey, I always love, but Luthor has to work on finding babes without consciences.
I was sad when the crystals were lost for good when Kitty threw them out of the copter -- even though I get the metaphor of the son becoming the father, the fact is we are never just a parent or a child, we're always both. The way Supes repeats Jor-El's line at Jason's bedside is precisely about that moment of "I'm becoming my mom/dad" (which can be both positive and negative). Jason deserves the chance to get to know his heritage through the crystals as well as through his father, but I'm fanwanking it to say that Clark has super-memory and can at least give him verbatim what Jor-El had to say when he's ready to ask.
What else? The scenes that stick with me are the quieter ones -- Lois and Superman's talk about whether she's satisfied "flying" (*cough*) with Richard pulling back to show them in flight, the late-night scenes at the Planet, Superman at Jason's bedside. I could easily see it again, though given how rarely I get to the movies, it'll probably be a home viewing. I want to know what comes next.
* Has the "disappointing" opening of the movie led to any talk that the sequels Singer wants to make won't happen?
** (This morning, surfing the intarweb, I came across a page dedicated to deleted scenes from the movie. One of the deleted bits involved Martha's Scrabble buddy, who played a larger role in the Smallville segment in the film as shot. I can see why they would have cut that, since the scene as described on the site sounds kind of anvilicious, but I can also see the benefit of underlining the idea that just because two people loved each other very much doesn't mean that the one left behind won't eventually want to find someone new.)
So, clearly, now I need you all to link me to your reviews, your recs, your stories. I need to read that OT3 I know SOMEONE has written *eyes the room*....
In other news, I celebrated my massive case of jet-lag by finally seeing Superman Returns on Sunday.
Needless to say, I really loved it. But I can also see why it hasn't been the Pirates of the Carribean-sized megahit that the studio probably wanted for its $250 mil.* It was, in many ways, a small movie about a couple for whom it didn't work out.** That's what makes it clearly a fan-made movie -- there's less about the blowing-crap-up and more about the people in whom Singer, and I, have such strong psychic investments.
Superman Returns is a surprisingly meditative movie for a summer blockbuster. I'd heard it was ponderous, but maybe because I'm such a Super-geek, I didn't find it that way at all -- it was quiet, surprise of surprises, and thoughtful, and even poetic.
I had already been spoiled about Jason's parentage walking in, so I can't say whether or not that reveal worked, but I loved that the sign of his hybridity isn't so much his strength under stress but his weakness: all the illnesses, the allergies, everything read to me as a sign that like his father, he's not quite made for Earth. It also reads to me as one of many signs that maybe Superman and Lois weren't made for each other after all -- which is not to say that really allergic kids are that way because their parents shouldn't be married, of course, but the sickly child of a failed union is a pretty old dramatic trope, and I thought one used well here.
I also liked the way Clark's inability to find an apartment throughout seemed a very subtle underlining of the major theme -- Superman is a man without a home. His birth world is a graveyard, he can't stay in Smallville and still fulfill his destiny, and the one home he had a chance at in Metropolis, with Lois, he ran away from. The choices he's made, both the good ones and the bad, keep him alone. I hope we get more of Clark as Clark if there are sequels -- he's a character in an interesting predicament.
I liked Richard, and I wasn't expecting to -- I figured he'd be, well, more like every other character of Marsden's in superhero movies, none of whom I've liked. But Richard was, as we say in Brooklyn, a mensch. He was just jealous enough to be real, and secure and stable enough to seem worth giving up a superhero for. If there is a sequel, or sequels, he probably gets written out somehow, but I hope he doesn't: the prickly but respectful relationship between him and Superman is one of the better things in the movie.
I thought Lois was all wrong -- not enough fire, and about five years too young. It makes me sad to think that a Margot Kidder could probably not get the role of Lois today -- too fierce, and too old. Bosworth did a good job with what she had, and I did, I'll admit, cheer when she finally got to rescue Superman for once.
Routh did a fine job, and actually his stoicness throughout as Superman made the scenes where he's in pain all the more shocking. I was really upset by the sequence where Superman is beaten up, and not just because of the too-heavy Christ references.
Kevin Spacey's Luthor was a real Broadway baby -- a total showman. I would have liked more scenes with him and Superman, or even him and Lois, since I didn't feel like the villain plot was well-integrated into the emotional plot until the end. Parker Posey, I always love, but Luthor has to work on finding babes without consciences.
I was sad when the crystals were lost for good when Kitty threw them out of the copter -- even though I get the metaphor of the son becoming the father, the fact is we are never just a parent or a child, we're always both. The way Supes repeats Jor-El's line at Jason's bedside is precisely about that moment of "I'm becoming my mom/dad" (which can be both positive and negative). Jason deserves the chance to get to know his heritage through the crystals as well as through his father, but I'm fanwanking it to say that Clark has super-memory and can at least give him verbatim what Jor-El had to say when he's ready to ask.
What else? The scenes that stick with me are the quieter ones -- Lois and Superman's talk about whether she's satisfied "flying" (*cough*) with Richard pulling back to show them in flight, the late-night scenes at the Planet, Superman at Jason's bedside. I could easily see it again, though given how rarely I get to the movies, it'll probably be a home viewing. I want to know what comes next.
* Has the "disappointing" opening of the movie led to any talk that the sequels Singer wants to make won't happen?
** (This morning, surfing the intarweb, I came across a page dedicated to deleted scenes from the movie. One of the deleted bits involved Martha's Scrabble buddy, who played a larger role in the Smallville segment in the film as shot. I can see why they would have cut that, since the scene as described on the site sounds kind of anvilicious, but I can also see the benefit of underlining the idea that just because two people loved each other very much doesn't mean that the one left behind won't eventually want to find someone new.)
So, clearly, now I need you all to link me to your reviews, your recs, your stories. I need to read that OT3 I know SOMEONE has written *eyes the room*....