Superman Returns thoughts
Well, I had a nice little holiday. I did absolutely nothing but lounge around and nap. It felt good. Especially because my neighborhood sounded like downtown Baghdad all night with all the firecrackers and bottle rockets zooming by.
I saw Superman Returns this weekend. Overall I was pleased. I'm not a big Superman fan (I'm more of a Marvel girl), but from my limited knowledge of the DC universe and the Superman mythos I think it was very well done.
Perhaps, I'm terribly insensitive, but I don't understand why people bring infants into a movie. The people next me had a baby that cried through the whole movie. It was a 8:00 movie. The baby was probably tired and should have been in bed and I can't blame it for being grumpy, but I paid $8.00 for a ticket not to mention $4.00 for a drink. I want to enjoy the movie in peace. Not once did the parents take it out into the lobby. They just held it as it cried, through the ENTIRE movie.
1. Kevin Spacey was a great Lex Luthor as I knew he would be. I believe he is one of the great character actors. He was manic and grandiose without being over the top and cliche. He was cold and calculating and only incidentally cruel. I really believe he gave the best performance in the movie.
2. Parker Posey. Second best performance in the movie. I have loved her ever since Party Girl, though my personal favorite movie of hers was The Misadventures of Margaret with Jeremy Northam. In Superman she plays a great Super- Villain's moll. She knows where the bread is coming from, yet she's not really cowed. She get's snarky with Lex. And she should be given points for toting that pomeranian around for most of the movie too.
3. The costuming was very interesting. Lois Lane wore very tailored suits with wide shoulders and soft silk blouses underneath. It was a very 1940ish look. It reminded me a great deal of Rosiland Russell in His Girl Friday as did her hair.The evening gown she wore at one point seemed heavily inspired by Adrian's designs of the that period.
Kitty's (Parker Posey) costumes on the other hand were very 1930ish in style, except for one scene in the beginning where she looked like a Goth chick from the 1980s. For the most part though she wore soft dresses with furs, yards of pearls, and coquetish hats with veils. It was a little strange to see a woman dressed like that driving a 1960s Mustang.
Lex wore nicely tailored suits with combat boots which made me kind of laugh. The dapper super-villian is smart enough to know that classy crepe soled shoes aren't the smartest thing to wear when there's a lot of walking, climbing, and escaping to be done. He also had this really great white overcoat the very end.
Superman's costume was a little distracting on the big screen. It was textured and I kept squinting to see was the pattern was and I believe it was the 's' shield. I understand they probably didn't want to do the tired old spandex thing but still I kept staring.
4. The lighting and cinematography seemed heavily influnced by the painting style of the comic artist Alex Ross. Lots of deep shadows and pale slightly washed out highlights. The palette of the film seemed very pale and cool to me except for the interior Daily Planet scenes which were pretty warm and with lots of browns and golds looking very much like a news room you'd see in an old movie except for the computers and TVs. I thought it was strange that so much cool lighting was used in scenes with Superman, because he does get his power from Earth's yellow sun. It seemed like a warmer light might have been used, but then again Superman does struggle quite a bit, so perhaps that might be indicative of his struggle. Or perhaps I'm thinking to much about it. There is one great shot where Superman is hovering above Earth with his cape billowing that I could swear was directly ripped from one of Ross's paintings.
5. One thing bothered me at the end of the movie. Lex is creating an island of the coast of Metropolis which cause earthquakes and the like. Clark was at the Daily Planet when all the tremors began and of course he left and did his Superman thing, saving people from falling stuff. But no one, not Jimmy Olsen or the Chief wonder where Clark went as they're all fleeing. No one for the last half of the movie even seems to notice Clark has entirely disappeared. It's strange.
That's all my thoughts now. I may have more later.
I hope everyone else had a nice holiday.
I saw Superman Returns this weekend. Overall I was pleased. I'm not a big Superman fan (I'm more of a Marvel girl), but from my limited knowledge of the DC universe and the Superman mythos I think it was very well done.
Perhaps, I'm terribly insensitive, but I don't understand why people bring infants into a movie. The people next me had a baby that cried through the whole movie. It was a 8:00 movie. The baby was probably tired and should have been in bed and I can't blame it for being grumpy, but I paid $8.00 for a ticket not to mention $4.00 for a drink. I want to enjoy the movie in peace. Not once did the parents take it out into the lobby. They just held it as it cried, through the ENTIRE movie.
1. Kevin Spacey was a great Lex Luthor as I knew he would be. I believe he is one of the great character actors. He was manic and grandiose without being over the top and cliche. He was cold and calculating and only incidentally cruel. I really believe he gave the best performance in the movie.
2. Parker Posey. Second best performance in the movie. I have loved her ever since Party Girl, though my personal favorite movie of hers was The Misadventures of Margaret with Jeremy Northam. In Superman she plays a great Super- Villain's moll. She knows where the bread is coming from, yet she's not really cowed. She get's snarky with Lex. And she should be given points for toting that pomeranian around for most of the movie too.
3. The costuming was very interesting. Lois Lane wore very tailored suits with wide shoulders and soft silk blouses underneath. It was a very 1940ish look. It reminded me a great deal of Rosiland Russell in His Girl Friday as did her hair.The evening gown she wore at one point seemed heavily inspired by Adrian's designs of the that period.
Kitty's (Parker Posey) costumes on the other hand were very 1930ish in style, except for one scene in the beginning where she looked like a Goth chick from the 1980s. For the most part though she wore soft dresses with furs, yards of pearls, and coquetish hats with veils. It was a little strange to see a woman dressed like that driving a 1960s Mustang.
Lex wore nicely tailored suits with combat boots which made me kind of laugh. The dapper super-villian is smart enough to know that classy crepe soled shoes aren't the smartest thing to wear when there's a lot of walking, climbing, and escaping to be done. He also had this really great white overcoat the very end.
Superman's costume was a little distracting on the big screen. It was textured and I kept squinting to see was the pattern was and I believe it was the 's' shield. I understand they probably didn't want to do the tired old spandex thing but still I kept staring.
4. The lighting and cinematography seemed heavily influnced by the painting style of the comic artist Alex Ross. Lots of deep shadows and pale slightly washed out highlights. The palette of the film seemed very pale and cool to me except for the interior Daily Planet scenes which were pretty warm and with lots of browns and golds looking very much like a news room you'd see in an old movie except for the computers and TVs. I thought it was strange that so much cool lighting was used in scenes with Superman, because he does get his power from Earth's yellow sun. It seemed like a warmer light might have been used, but then again Superman does struggle quite a bit, so perhaps that might be indicative of his struggle. Or perhaps I'm thinking to much about it. There is one great shot where Superman is hovering above Earth with his cape billowing that I could swear was directly ripped from one of Ross's paintings.
5. One thing bothered me at the end of the movie. Lex is creating an island of the coast of Metropolis which cause earthquakes and the like. Clark was at the Daily Planet when all the tremors began and of course he left and did his Superman thing, saving people from falling stuff. But no one, not Jimmy Olsen or the Chief wonder where Clark went as they're all fleeing. No one for the last half of the movie even seems to notice Clark has entirely disappeared. It's strange.
That's all my thoughts now. I may have more later.
I hope everyone else had a nice holiday.