Movie review...

I, like probably just about every other comic book junkie in the world, decided to go and see the new Superman movie, Superman Returns. I went last night, special early premier night and all, and I was first of all surprised that the place wasn't packed out. I was surprised because of all of the hype surrounding this movie launch of course. There has been endless stuff, and honestly, when I saw the trailer, I was in right there and then. I kind of muttered to myself when I first saw the trailer, "I'm all over that when it comes out." And indeed, I was. A night early I might add, again.

Being the sort of anal movie watcher that I am, I wanted to get there early so that we could get a good seat, the fiance and I that is. We arrived at the local megaplex at the mall around 8:30, movie time was 10, so off to do some shopping. After a short walk through the mall and the purchasing of some blush (for Steph not me, honest), we strolled back through the main drag of the mall. Which I noticed, well, I've noticed before, looks like something that should be in a happening downtown area in some small hip town/city. This is the outdoor portion of the mall of course. What I also noticed is that instead of the local teenagers hanging around in a nice little downtown area, they were of course hanging out at the mall. Do kids ever get tired of hanging out at the mall? I wouldn't know. I didn't have a mall close enough to hang out at really. Living and growing up in Mexico Maine, we had the dirt turnout, that was our "mall". I guess the point that I'm trying to make here is that maybe if we had some more downtown revitalization, and better public transportation access to said downtown areas, I'm sure people would flock to them. I know that Raleigh is currently trying to revive their downtown area, and seem to be doing a decent job of it. Another example is actually Greensboro, from what I hear. I hear that the downtown area is happening these days. Friday night, and the joint is jumping. When I lived there, there were about 2 bars that were down there, and they were of the cheesy dance club variety, in other words, they sucked. Not so these days, so good for them.

Anyway, we moved over to the movie theatre, it being about 9:15, and I thought that the lines might be forming. Of course, they weren't. We walked right in, even after gathering up an extra large soda. You know, the soda that is about 10 times larger than they really need to be. Those are the best ones. Luckily for us, we got good seats in the theatre, and then had, oh 35 minutes to go before showtime.

We had previews of course. In which I saw the trailer for the new Spiderman movie coming out next summer. I've got to say, it looks freakin' awesome. I'm already getting excited for that one. Finally, the lights go down, and it's time for the film to roll. Just like everybody else and their mother, I need to write a review of this flick, so here goes.

It opens very nicely with similar visuals as the original movie (the Christopher Reeves 1978 movie) with a little 3D action with the opening credits, and of course John Williams pumping in through the sound system with that oh so familiar Superman theme music, it gave me a few chills really. It was pretty sweet. It starts out with a bang, literally, with Superman coming back to Earth after having gone on a little voyage to see if there is anything left of Krypton. As we all know, there wasn't shit left out there in dark space, just a bunch of debris. Stupid astronomers who said something was there, Superman ought to kick them in the nuts. Send him on a boondoggle like that. Anyway, true to the origination story of Superman, he comes back to Earth and crashes back into the Kent's cornfield. His Mom rolls out to gather him up, and give him a couple of days of rest. You know, a little recuperation in his old room and then bury his extra large space ship in the yard so nobody finds it.

From there, the movie tends to drag just a touch really. Well, there is this whole set piece about the space shuttle, and a plane crash, and things like that. I'd have to say, that scene was stellar, the effects, the visuals, and everything in it, the action, all good stuff. Of course, the shuttle issue and plane crash, or in this case, the almost plane crash was directly caused by, yes, Lex Luthor. Played aptly by Kevin Spacey, very aptly. More on that later. Poor newcomer Brandon Routh though, he looks good in the suit, and channels Christopher Reeve very well, but they didn't really let him speak too much. Even his awkward turns as Clark Kent could have been much funnier, much goofier, but there seemed to be some restraint in the writing. Little or no dialogue for the hero of the movie. It's unfortunate really.

I guess the same could be said really for the entire cast of the movie actually. They had some genuine star power in there, like I said, Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Parker 'freakin' Posey, and they kind of wasted it. I was disappointed in the writing. The story was solid, but they really needed a lot more dialogue. The movie seemed to drag. The action though, top notch. In this one "Matrix" like scene, shows S-Man facing off against a 30mm gatlin gun (think A-10 Warthog gun) with the bullets bouncing off of his chest, and when the guy operating the gun runs out of ammo, he thinks it a wise idea to pull his 9, and pop a cap in his eyeball. Being Superman of course, the bullet just compresses against his eye, in slow motion, and falls to the ground. It was a great visual. Same for the flying sequences as well. Seeing Superman bust it out, and break the sound barrier with the shockwave forming around him as he moves through the air, looks awesome.

I was glad to be there, glad to see the movie, but was a little let down as mentioned before. Needed better writing, more dialogue, but the action was awesome. Now in lieu of the writing, if they had more action sequences, that of course would have made up for things more or less. Spacey, completely underutilized in his role as Lex Luthor, he was very good when he was on screen, but it was few and far between. Between the action sequences, the movie was pretty slow. Overall, I'd give it a B+ I guess. I was looking for the slam dunk A+, but I'm going to have to wait for Spiderman 3 for that methinks, and that isn't until next Summer. At least we Snakes on a Plane coming out soon.