Superman Returns

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

What a great first twenty minutes. The whole plane crash set piece was fabulous.
It was the last ten hours of the film that let me down. The denouement happened too early. Then you waited, hopefully thinking some big spectacular twist was coming. It didn't.

I have a problem with the whole Superman mythos. He's indestructible, so you really can't fear that anything is going to hurt him. If he can't be hurt, he can never be in danger. If he can't be in danger, how can there be any suspense? Without any suspense, how can there be a story? I'll take Batman any time.

There were quite a few good moments. The actions sequences were good, with the exception of the rising of the new continent. And what kind of fortress of Solitude doesn't have a user id and password protection. It was was good to see Marlon Brando can still get work despite being dead all these years.

[Spoilers don't read further]

My favorite moment of the film was the boat wreck. There's that big build up as the crawl up the galley in the broken ship and they just reach the top when a wave comes and slams the door atop them. Priceless. The film needed more of those kind of twists.

My favorite moment of the film would have been the dialogue between Lois and Lex if I hadn't seen it in the trailer.

[King Bob]

The idea that the invicibility ruins the suspense is only an extreme case of the problem of all superhero films. We all know who will eventually win, so we all know how it ends. You've got to make the ride interesting. And, being big studios, they rarely do. (Not to mention the problem of ignoring the original stories.)

Also with Superman, I just can't buy the Lois Lane love interest. For a funny treatment of that, see Larry Niven's short story Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.

Speaking of Batman, the other night I saw part of the Tim Burton's second Batman film, the one with the Penguin. And it has not held up. Michelle Feiffer (sp?) was totally miscast as Catwoman. And Danny DeVito was his always annoying self. Interestingly, Christopher Walken's costumes were a bit like Willy Wonka's.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I thought of the same short story when I saw the film. And Niven does pose a great point, how do you stop the super ejaculation?