Stupored

It's been a week since I saw "Superman Returns" and I think I finally have an opinion about it.

I didn't like it.

When it started, and I heard the music, and saw the titles that were just like the first two "Superman" movies, I was thrilled and excited. I'm a sucker for nostalgia. But then the nostalgia kept going on and on and on. It's like Bryan Singer was so busy paying homage to the first two movies, he forgot to come up with anything original. Yeah, seeing Clark crash into the farm, just like he did as a kid, was a nice throwback, but come on. Did it make any sense? Having to save Lois from a crashing plane--thus combining two events from the first movie--and then having Superman repeat that same line about air travel? Yeah. We've SEEN that before.

Did we really need another Superman movie with Lex Luthor as the villain? And if you're going to bring him back, couldn't you at least have him come up with a plan that wasn't just a take-off on the land-grab plan in the first film? (And if you're going to go that route, at least have the plan make some sense.)

There are more throwbacks than I care to mention, but I could possibly get past all of that if the movie was, as a whole, entertaining. And I was only entertained occasionally. There's nothing entertaining about Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane. She's just a total downer in a really bad wig. There's nothing spunky about her. Seeing Parker Posey up there as Lex's moll just made me wish SHE had the Lois Lane roll (and she even looks a little like Margot Kidder). Brandon Routh was actually OK, especially in his Clark Kent moments. Too bad they didn't give him some, I don't know, actual dialogue.

Ultimately, I found the whole movie depressing. There was no joy in it. The '70s Supermans have their flaws, but at least they were fun. I don't think Superman, as a character, really lends himself well to the same brooding that other superheroes go through. Yes, he's an alien, and he's alone, but ultimately, he just wants to do good. Truth, justice, and the American way. He IS a boy scout. He isn't Christ falling from the sky.