Well I saw Superman for the 2nd time last night and thoroughly enjoyed it second time round. I took my sister, her boyfriend, my dad and a couple of mates from taekwondo, who all loved it. My sister and I agreed that Brandon Routh is waaaay too good looking for his own good
and we rather liked the long lingering shots that Del mentioned...
Okay, drooling aside. I am very glad I decided to sit down and watch the original before going to see it. You probably need this little refresher if you don't know the Superman mythology verbatim. The scriptwriters have recycled a lot of moments and dialogue to pretty good effect, so it helps if you know which moments they are. Definitely bone up on your Marlon Brando farewell speech cause this appears several times.
Brandon Routh was excellent as Superman. I couldn't fault his acting and he does the BEST impersonation of Christopher Reeve. My dad, who's quite monogamous to Reeve's Superman, sighed as the credits rolled and said "wow, that kid did a great job, I coulda been looking at Chris Reeve, only younger". Kevin Spacey combines just the right amount of madcap and menacing for Lex Luthor but is COMPLETELY upstaged by Parker Posey as Kitty, his ditzy offsider. She is fabulous. James Marsden is also very good, as is the boy who plays Lois Lane's kid. If there was a weak link in the casting, its Kate Bosworth. She wasn't awful, but she gave us a very wimpy Lois Lane. I hate to make comparisons here, but the way this film was constructed and assembled, we are MEANT to make comparisons to the original - its borrowed the opening credits, the score, large chunks of dialogue and we're given a Superman that looks, sounds and acts startlingly like the original. So where was our gutsy, tenacious, gritty, street-smart Lois Lane?? We've ended up with a puffy-lipped, teary-eyed, soft, introspective yummy mummy... But her acting is good the whole way through, its just not the Lois I was bucking for.
Storyline was good, much like the original (again) and the way it was played out was great. I didn't notice the whopping 2 and a half hours flying by (pun intended
) and as soon as it was over, I really wanted to see it again.
I must have been the only person in the cinema to NOT pick the little twist until it, uhhh... hit me like a grand piano, but then I always like to let movies wash over me without needing to rush ahead in my mind and decide who's the bad guy, what the twist is, who's gay, who's a double agent etc. I just like to experience the twists and turns as they happen, so I didn't pick the little twist. But its going to make for a very interesting sequel!!!
