Superman Undecided

I saw Superman Returns last night, Tuesday, at an IMAX theater. I still really haven't digested the film. I did like it. It was very well made, lived up to all the hype, and I'm sure that come this Monday, it'll break some box office records - but there were some holes.

Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor really annoyed me. It was so unclear what he wanted and how Superman figured into his plan. Spacey is a great actor, and even though I know many will disagree with me, I think it was a casting mistake. Of course, some of that is just the writing.

At the end of the film, I didn't know what I should think. Should I be getting a message of some sort? One of the trailers played up the whole Superman outsider thing, which is a part of the film, but it's never resolved or confronted, just mentioned.

Also, for a title character, Superman/Clark Kent gets very little screen time. I mean, he flies around a lot (absolutely amazing special effects by the way) but he has very little dialogue as the movie progresses. Brandon Routh was amazing. He had a very difficult challenge of filling Christopher Reeve's shoes; he did and more so. Like others have said, and I will reiterate it here, Routh makes the character his own. You will believe that a man can fly because of his performance as Superman.

Also, I would suggest seeing the film at a normal theater first, then at an IMAX. At least in my case, the print they used was really bad and didn't fit the screen that well at all. I thought we would have good seats sitting halfway up the theater, but after 2.5 hours of Superman, my neck was killing me. Sometimes it was impossible to follow the action - except in the case of the mindblowing airplane scene, which is worth the price of admission.

I still don't know how to sum up this film, as either good or bad. Bryan Singer made a film that I can't truly love the way I want to. I will ponder this......

Ace