I have watched
Superman Returns with a bunch of my university buddies. (It was the natural choice since the alternative was catching Garfield 2 with another bunch of 5 guys. Yech. You know who you are!)
I think Superman Returns is awesome! I think it's great! No. I think it's SUPER! Here's why.
They showed Lois with cigarettes so we all feel it's still the same old Lois we saw in Superman I and II.
The scene of Clark, in a light tan jacket, standing at the fence with the farm behind him reminded me of
Smallville's Clark.
Christopher Reeve's Superman once batted a baseball and threw a lead box containing Krytonite into orbit. Brandon Routh's Superman throws a baseball into orbit.
At the beginning, the heat vision used under normal circumstances were invisible heat waves similar to those in Smallville. Later at the end, the heat vision he used on the extremely large artificial land mass was more intense red beams, which is what we see in the old Superman movies and comics. They actually bothered to put it all in perspective.
When Superman was beaten up by Lex Luthor's thugs, I think I felt more agitated and angry than in Superman II where he was beaten up by a trucker.
The way Supes held up the artificial land mass, by propping it onto his back and shoulder, draws a nod from me.
The lines said by Jor-El to Clark, and what Clark said to Jason induced bittersweet joy.
Jor-El: Even though you've been raised as a human being you're not one of them. They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son.
The photograph of Superman lowering the runaway car was tribute to the cover of
Action Comics #1issuded in June 1938!
They gave fans what they were all used to and expecting. They kept the reassuring method of presenting the credits, the familiar Superman music score and did the all-important (at least to me) the "Superman fly-by and smile" at the end of the movie. And I felt that the scene at the end was deliberately dimmed slightly and shot in an angle so that it would strongly resembled Christopher Reeve's Superman.
Now of course, there are a few certain parts that I had minor gripes with.
His superhearing sounds digital. Which is a little odd.
The S shield on his cheat could have been bigger.
His boots were a little too chunky.
His suit should have been slightly charred and torn whilst the cape should have been burnt up in reentry.
I feel the part where he slammed himself down onto the artifical land mass could be improved.
Nonetheless, I give it a 10/10. Superman Returns rocks.
PS.
X-Men 3 The Last Stand sucks.
