Today and Superman
First, a quick Public Service Announcement: I found out tonight that my email inbox had gotten tagged as 'full', and so no email from the past 24 hours or so has gotten to me. I've cleaned the box out, so if you've been trying to mail me about anything, please just try again now, thanks. :?)
Other than that, today's been rather cool. I've had the house to myself the past couple of days, the fam being away, and since today I didn't have to work and the weather was nice I woke up in a great mood. Lots of watching Lost music vids and listening to music and singing along loudly through the house, some critter care while relistening to the excellent Doctor Who audio Storm Warning. Then I ran some errands, picked up a few weeks worth of comic books waiting for me (including the new Neil Gaiman miniseries Eternals and the first issues of the new Gargoyles comic...woo!) Then I grabbed a quick $3 meal at Wendy's courtesy of the dollar menu...and arrived at the theater just in time for the next showing of Superman Returns. *g*
Yeah, I loved it. It had its flaws, and the greatest superhero movie in my book remains Spider-Man 2...but it's a great and highly unusual story (at least for a superhero film) with some brilliant, tense action scenes and fine acting all round. It was also very much a love letter to the 1.5 Superman films Richard Donner made...right down to cleverly echoed dialogue, Marlon Brando, and gorgeous use of the original John Williams theme music.
I suspect this is a film I'm gonna love more the more I watch. This first time, it didn't quite hit the ball out of the park, though it didn make brilliant use of a literal ballpark. :?P Part of that was that I did feel it had some pacing issues...there were certain sequences, especially near the beginning, which I would have liked to see move along much faster. We get that the crystals are growing; we get that the train set is shaking; we get that everyone in the plane is being dangerously shaken...we don't need several minutes and cuts to establish all of this! But that's not as big a flaw as it sounds. Maybe it's just that after Serenity, every other movie feels slow. (Directors of the world, learn from Joss!)
I think the bigger reason this movie doesn't feel like a home run yet, but will as I get used to it is...this wasn't your typical feel-good slam-bang superhero film. It's a film about loss and picking up the pieces, and it treats that with the complexity it deserves. Bryan Singer plays a tricky game with the history of the Superman films (well, the first two anyway). He takes the events and the emotional core, but he also tries to sharpen the edges a little, bring a little more real-world focus to them. Kal-El's slightly darker color scheme, maroon replacing the fire engine red, is a fitting symbol here. When Superman takes Lois flying in this movie, it takes more than a grip on her fingers to keep her aloft. (Instead, she steps on his boots and they steal some dance moves from John Crichton and Aeryn Sun...gotta love it. *g*) When he catches a car, he needs to grip it from the center of balance and set it down one end at a time (neatly mimicking the cover to his first comic, natch!). There's a little more physics here...
But there's emotional gravity, too. Clark comes back home after 5 years in space making certain no one else survived the destruction of Krypton, only to find that Lois is engaged and has a child. The new guy in her life is very cool, even. (Why couldn't Bryan Singer have given James Marsden so much to do as Cyclops in the X-Films? Ah well...he rocks here.) And then in the big twist of the film we learn, and eventually Clark learns...the child is his.
Which wasn't a twist at all to me, really, actually. Ever since fans found out Lois had a kid in the movie, the speculation that he would turn out to be Clark's was out there. It just made sense as a big plot twist. And humanified!Clark and Lois did have that whole Fortress of Solitude love!nest thing goin' on in Superman II. *snerk* Still...I rather liked the 'twist' anyway. I wasn't sure at first if they'd done enough with it. But I expect it's meant to be developed in further films...it almost reminded me of the not-very-summer-blockbuster ending to the first Spider-Man film, with Peter walking away from Mary Jane. Not very fulfilling at first, but made more sense the more I thought about it...and then we got Spider-Man 2. And I *liked* the fact that it never led to soap opera hysterstics. Clark really wouldn't ask Lois to leave Richard, he wouldn't even ask to be any more a father in the boy's life than she would have him be...that's not Superman. He'll be there for his son, but he's also not going to complicate his life by taking him away from the family he knows, nor presume to tell Lois he has a right to get involved after 5 years. I think gradually and naturally they will come together more as a family, and hopefully we'll see it in future films (I really wanna know what Clark's mom thinks of this!)...but yeah, this *fit*. This was Superman.
I'd also say it is completely right, and not at all coincidental, how much Superman felt like Spider-Man in this film. Because Spider-Man really is a reinvention of Superman...the nerds who can save the world but can't look cool for the girl. The guys who value responsibility, doing the right thing, more than anything else in their lives, and will sacrifice everything else, no matter how much it hurts, to keep doing right by everyone around them.
Brandon Routh was excellent...like Christopher Reeve before him, he made Clark as interesting as Superman, because he was always watching everyone else around him. So many subtle feelings played across his face, all the stings and loss and the futile desperation to look as good in the girl's eyes as you know you can be. I really knew how he felt at times there.
The boy who played Jason...at first I thought they made him too quiet, and then I realized...he was just taking after his dad. He's a people-watcher too...so in the end I decided he was perfect. Loved the picture he drew his mom, too. *g*
Kate Bosworth was pretty much perfect as Lois. She always felt real...everyone in the film did...and she never overplayed the annoyance with Clark, she managed to be frustrated and understanding at the same time. A line those who truly love often have to walk in the world, and a harder one to act. She was in distress, as Lois must ever be, without ever seeming too much the old Hollywood damsel, too...she tended to get into trouble while helping others out. Of course there was the rather dimwitted bit of investigation of the Luthor estate/boat with her son in tow, of course...but hey, if she hadn't had that case of the stupids we'd never have gotten Lex with the toothbrush. That moment redeemed everything!
And what else can be said about Lex anyway? Kevin Spacey was perfect. Just go, go watch him steal the show. And wonder for just a moment if he might've gotten marooned on Lost island. *snerk*
Overall...yes indeed, great film. I wondered a little if they might have missed some opportunities by making the film so, well...domestic. When Singer and his writers talked about the story in interviews, talked about examining what it means to the world when a saviour returns...well, I'm not sure they did so much of that. The world basically said, "Yay! Woo hoo!" and Superman saved them a few more times. The story here was really much more, "What happens when the saviour comes back and his old girlfriend has a kid and a boyfriend?" It might have been interesting to see Superman questioned a little more, to see a few people demanding to know, "Where the frell were you when my loved one was killed overseas?", etc. But then again, it rarely serves a story well to dilute the focus. And I do try and avoid reviewing a story based on what I would've done with the concept, rather than what it actually is in itself. And again...with a little thought, it makes sense.
The question is raised several times in the film...does the world need a Superman? And the answer is...both no and yes. And the more I think about it, the more I realize this is what Singer got so very right, this is rather brilliant. Superman ISN'T about saving the world, about fixing it for good. Superman isn't about perfection, this too perfect good too many people mistake him for. Superman is about the never-ending battle...which is the essence of imperfection. Superman is existentialist and transcendentalist. The world always needs saving. We're always crying out for a saviour. And sometimes one listens...and sometimes one doesn't or can't. Sometimes someone saves us...and sometimes we have to save the saviour. (Loooooved the seaplane rescue sequence by the way--both ways it went!) The point of Superman is that we have to try. That we can't let ourselves not. It's Quixoticism at its best. All we can do, no matter what is going on in our own lives, how our heart is breaking, is to keep going back and trying to do right by those around us.
You could say, no matter how many opportunities we've wasted or mistakes we've made or how much the odds are against us, all we can do...is return.
Other than that, today's been rather cool. I've had the house to myself the past couple of days, the fam being away, and since today I didn't have to work and the weather was nice I woke up in a great mood. Lots of watching Lost music vids and listening to music and singing along loudly through the house, some critter care while relistening to the excellent Doctor Who audio Storm Warning. Then I ran some errands, picked up a few weeks worth of comic books waiting for me (including the new Neil Gaiman miniseries Eternals and the first issues of the new Gargoyles comic...woo!) Then I grabbed a quick $3 meal at Wendy's courtesy of the dollar menu...and arrived at the theater just in time for the next showing of Superman Returns. *g*
Yeah, I loved it. It had its flaws, and the greatest superhero movie in my book remains Spider-Man 2...but it's a great and highly unusual story (at least for a superhero film) with some brilliant, tense action scenes and fine acting all round. It was also very much a love letter to the 1.5 Superman films Richard Donner made...right down to cleverly echoed dialogue, Marlon Brando, and gorgeous use of the original John Williams theme music.
I suspect this is a film I'm gonna love more the more I watch. This first time, it didn't quite hit the ball out of the park, though it didn make brilliant use of a literal ballpark. :?P Part of that was that I did feel it had some pacing issues...there were certain sequences, especially near the beginning, which I would have liked to see move along much faster. We get that the crystals are growing; we get that the train set is shaking; we get that everyone in the plane is being dangerously shaken...we don't need several minutes and cuts to establish all of this! But that's not as big a flaw as it sounds. Maybe it's just that after Serenity, every other movie feels slow. (Directors of the world, learn from Joss!)
I think the bigger reason this movie doesn't feel like a home run yet, but will as I get used to it is...this wasn't your typical feel-good slam-bang superhero film. It's a film about loss and picking up the pieces, and it treats that with the complexity it deserves. Bryan Singer plays a tricky game with the history of the Superman films (well, the first two anyway). He takes the events and the emotional core, but he also tries to sharpen the edges a little, bring a little more real-world focus to them. Kal-El's slightly darker color scheme, maroon replacing the fire engine red, is a fitting symbol here. When Superman takes Lois flying in this movie, it takes more than a grip on her fingers to keep her aloft. (Instead, she steps on his boots and they steal some dance moves from John Crichton and Aeryn Sun...gotta love it. *g*) When he catches a car, he needs to grip it from the center of balance and set it down one end at a time (neatly mimicking the cover to his first comic, natch!). There's a little more physics here...
But there's emotional gravity, too. Clark comes back home after 5 years in space making certain no one else survived the destruction of Krypton, only to find that Lois is engaged and has a child. The new guy in her life is very cool, even. (Why couldn't Bryan Singer have given James Marsden so much to do as Cyclops in the X-Films? Ah well...he rocks here.) And then in the big twist of the film we learn, and eventually Clark learns...the child is his.
Which wasn't a twist at all to me, really, actually. Ever since fans found out Lois had a kid in the movie, the speculation that he would turn out to be Clark's was out there. It just made sense as a big plot twist. And humanified!Clark and Lois did have that whole Fortress of Solitude love!nest thing goin' on in Superman II. *snerk* Still...I rather liked the 'twist' anyway. I wasn't sure at first if they'd done enough with it. But I expect it's meant to be developed in further films...it almost reminded me of the not-very-summer-blockbuster ending to the first Spider-Man film, with Peter walking away from Mary Jane. Not very fulfilling at first, but made more sense the more I thought about it...and then we got Spider-Man 2. And I *liked* the fact that it never led to soap opera hysterstics. Clark really wouldn't ask Lois to leave Richard, he wouldn't even ask to be any more a father in the boy's life than she would have him be...that's not Superman. He'll be there for his son, but he's also not going to complicate his life by taking him away from the family he knows, nor presume to tell Lois he has a right to get involved after 5 years. I think gradually and naturally they will come together more as a family, and hopefully we'll see it in future films (I really wanna know what Clark's mom thinks of this!)...but yeah, this *fit*. This was Superman.
I'd also say it is completely right, and not at all coincidental, how much Superman felt like Spider-Man in this film. Because Spider-Man really is a reinvention of Superman...the nerds who can save the world but can't look cool for the girl. The guys who value responsibility, doing the right thing, more than anything else in their lives, and will sacrifice everything else, no matter how much it hurts, to keep doing right by everyone around them.
Brandon Routh was excellent...like Christopher Reeve before him, he made Clark as interesting as Superman, because he was always watching everyone else around him. So many subtle feelings played across his face, all the stings and loss and the futile desperation to look as good in the girl's eyes as you know you can be. I really knew how he felt at times there.
The boy who played Jason...at first I thought they made him too quiet, and then I realized...he was just taking after his dad. He's a people-watcher too...so in the end I decided he was perfect. Loved the picture he drew his mom, too. *g*
Kate Bosworth was pretty much perfect as Lois. She always felt real...everyone in the film did...and she never overplayed the annoyance with Clark, she managed to be frustrated and understanding at the same time. A line those who truly love often have to walk in the world, and a harder one to act. She was in distress, as Lois must ever be, without ever seeming too much the old Hollywood damsel, too...she tended to get into trouble while helping others out. Of course there was the rather dimwitted bit of investigation of the Luthor estate/boat with her son in tow, of course...but hey, if she hadn't had that case of the stupids we'd never have gotten Lex with the toothbrush. That moment redeemed everything!
And what else can be said about Lex anyway? Kevin Spacey was perfect. Just go, go watch him steal the show. And wonder for just a moment if he might've gotten marooned on Lost island. *snerk*
Overall...yes indeed, great film. I wondered a little if they might have missed some opportunities by making the film so, well...domestic. When Singer and his writers talked about the story in interviews, talked about examining what it means to the world when a saviour returns...well, I'm not sure they did so much of that. The world basically said, "Yay! Woo hoo!" and Superman saved them a few more times. The story here was really much more, "What happens when the saviour comes back and his old girlfriend has a kid and a boyfriend?" It might have been interesting to see Superman questioned a little more, to see a few people demanding to know, "Where the frell were you when my loved one was killed overseas?", etc. But then again, it rarely serves a story well to dilute the focus. And I do try and avoid reviewing a story based on what I would've done with the concept, rather than what it actually is in itself. And again...with a little thought, it makes sense.
The question is raised several times in the film...does the world need a Superman? And the answer is...both no and yes. And the more I think about it, the more I realize this is what Singer got so very right, this is rather brilliant. Superman ISN'T about saving the world, about fixing it for good. Superman isn't about perfection, this too perfect good too many people mistake him for. Superman is about the never-ending battle...which is the essence of imperfection. Superman is existentialist and transcendentalist. The world always needs saving. We're always crying out for a saviour. And sometimes one listens...and sometimes one doesn't or can't. Sometimes someone saves us...and sometimes we have to save the saviour. (Loooooved the seaplane rescue sequence by the way--both ways it went!) The point of Superman is that we have to try. That we can't let ourselves not. It's Quixoticism at its best. All we can do, no matter what is going on in our own lives, how our heart is breaking, is to keep going back and trying to do right by those around us.
You could say, no matter how many opportunities we've wasted or mistakes we've made or how much the odds are against us, all we can do...is return.