Sunday, July 02, 2006
The Review I Promised
Alright, I saw Superman Returns on Saturday at 6:15.
I am going to skip the details pointing out things like the Park Place Mall was packed and we had to fight not only eachother (she wanted to go to Dillards to buy some make-up) but the massive movie going crowd as well.
I am going to skip everything but the actual end product of the movie and say this...
Superman Returns is not only my favorite movie of all time at this point, but the best movie ever made.
Yeah Yeah Yeah, I know there are people out there who take the film industry far too seriously, as though there were actual real life application or physical merit in it. And I know those people would like to scorn me for taking something so modern and giving it the credit that I have. Fortunately for me however, I have realized that art is one hundred percent subjective; which means that no one persons opinion is any more important than someone else's. That means that no matter how much a film critic may try to display some sort of superior credibility, they will fail miserably. It is because art is subjective that I can say Superman Returns is the best movie ever made.
Now to the movie itself:
First and foremost, the special effects and computer animation were superb. As I watched the film, I never once thought about the fact that superman was flying all over the place. It just seemed a natural part of the movie. Unlike the previous films in which I was constantly asking myself "how are they doing that?" One could hardly tell the computer animated Brandon Routh was animated at all; it looked just like him. Another thing that I later though of was that as I left the theater and overheard some of the conversations around me, I heard no one even mentioning the graphics; which is quite unlike my experience after having seen the third Matrix, where the sentence "yeah, it was really cool, but it just looked kind of fake" was commonplace. Kudos to whoever it was that made that happen, it was amazing.
The plot was exsactly what it needed to be. It was Superman. One thing I will say of these storytellers however, they really showed a side of Superman that we were never really exposed to in the originals; and that was his divinity, for lack of a better word. They really had him take on the role of savior emphasizing his omnipresence and unwavering benevolence. This was kind of refreshing to see. Even after all these years we can still learn something about the Man Of Steel.
The acting was also something very noteworthy. As it ought to be with the likes of Bosworth and Spacey. As usual Kevin Spacey delivers a stellar performance, but that makes sense considering he is one of Hollywood's best. Still he had tough shoes to fill as Gene Hackman is no slouch himself. Wonderful performance and a perfect Lex Luthor fit. The real surprise though was Brandon Routh. I cannot get over how close to a Christopher Reeves style Superman Routh portrayed. He looked like him, talked like him, moved like him, he played Superman perfectly. It was because of Routh that one felt like the originals never came to a hault to begin with. It was one of the more fluid transitions into a continuation of films that I have ever seen, and this kid was the dominant factor in that phenomenon.
I could go on for hours with all of my favorite parts and how I felt as I was watching the movie, but I will save that for another time. For now, to say the least, you should do yourself the favor of watching this movie in the theaters. You may not feel the same way about it that I do, but you won't be let down.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, greatest movie I have ever seen.
I am going to skip the details pointing out things like the Park Place Mall was packed and we had to fight not only eachother (she wanted to go to Dillards to buy some make-up) but the massive movie going crowd as well.
I am going to skip everything but the actual end product of the movie and say this...
Superman Returns is not only my favorite movie of all time at this point, but the best movie ever made.
Yeah Yeah Yeah, I know there are people out there who take the film industry far too seriously, as though there were actual real life application or physical merit in it. And I know those people would like to scorn me for taking something so modern and giving it the credit that I have. Fortunately for me however, I have realized that art is one hundred percent subjective; which means that no one persons opinion is any more important than someone else's. That means that no matter how much a film critic may try to display some sort of superior credibility, they will fail miserably. It is because art is subjective that I can say Superman Returns is the best movie ever made.
Now to the movie itself:
First and foremost, the special effects and computer animation were superb. As I watched the film, I never once thought about the fact that superman was flying all over the place. It just seemed a natural part of the movie. Unlike the previous films in which I was constantly asking myself "how are they doing that?" One could hardly tell the computer animated Brandon Routh was animated at all; it looked just like him. Another thing that I later though of was that as I left the theater and overheard some of the conversations around me, I heard no one even mentioning the graphics; which is quite unlike my experience after having seen the third Matrix, where the sentence "yeah, it was really cool, but it just looked kind of fake" was commonplace. Kudos to whoever it was that made that happen, it was amazing.
The plot was exsactly what it needed to be. It was Superman. One thing I will say of these storytellers however, they really showed a side of Superman that we were never really exposed to in the originals; and that was his divinity, for lack of a better word. They really had him take on the role of savior emphasizing his omnipresence and unwavering benevolence. This was kind of refreshing to see. Even after all these years we can still learn something about the Man Of Steel.
The acting was also something very noteworthy. As it ought to be with the likes of Bosworth and Spacey. As usual Kevin Spacey delivers a stellar performance, but that makes sense considering he is one of Hollywood's best. Still he had tough shoes to fill as Gene Hackman is no slouch himself. Wonderful performance and a perfect Lex Luthor fit. The real surprise though was Brandon Routh. I cannot get over how close to a Christopher Reeves style Superman Routh portrayed. He looked like him, talked like him, moved like him, he played Superman perfectly. It was because of Routh that one felt like the originals never came to a hault to begin with. It was one of the more fluid transitions into a continuation of films that I have ever seen, and this kid was the dominant factor in that phenomenon.
I could go on for hours with all of my favorite parts and how I felt as I was watching the movie, but I will save that for another time. For now, to say the least, you should do yourself the favor of watching this movie in the theaters. You may not feel the same way about it that I do, but you won't be let down.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, greatest movie I have ever seen.
