Eleven Years Later, thoughts on the film SUPERMAN RETURNS

[daBronzeBomma]

June 28th, 2006:

Exactly 11 years ago, I dragged a friend (at the time) to a showing of a movie that I had been waiting to see, in a way, since I last saw Christopher Reeve on the big screen.

SUPERMAN RETURNS


11 years later, and my hatred for this movie has only grown. Everything about this movie sucked at the time of release, from the main premise, to the casting of everyone except Kevin Spacey (and then the complete misuse of such a fine actor), the appalling color filter, the lack of action, the overabundance of navel-gazing, the betrayal of the character of Kal, the slavish yet strangely half-assed devotion to the Donnerverse interpretation, the fact that Lois' husband was easily more likeable and heroic than Supes himself.

I hated this movie then and I hate it now. Time had not been kind to this "film".

I love MAN OF STEEL precisely because it was the antidote to SUPERMAN RETURNS.

But that's just my opinion. What are your feelings on this movie, now vs when you first saw it: Better, worse, or no change?

[MajorHoy]

Never saw it.

[adkal]

Honestly, I think I gave it a 7 back then... because of how much potential it had.

The trailers had me excited. My head-canon had the son stuff workable.

The costume was off - the 'evil Superman from Superman III' vibe was so strong.

I even went to Leicester Square when they held the UK premiere.

There was so much potential.

I made so many excuses for it - figured they would make up for things with the sequel and all would be right again.

There were some good bits: when Lois and Richard were watching Clark and he heard them (although the superhearing effect was meh), the plane rescue...

But there were so many bits that were blatantly missing and that just made everything fall flat.

Did anyone ever work out how many people got sliced to ribbons because of the falling glass? We only saw him vapourise the glass along one stretch of road, but...

Oh well.

[DochaDocha]

I knew going into the theatre that I was going to dislike Superman Returns. I wonder if I was being too harsh back then (probably), but I recall various things leading up to the movie that bothered me.

1) There's something along the lines of uncanny valley that makes his suit in this movie wretched. I mean, is it closer to the "classic" Superman suit than MoS'? Yeah, so intuitively that would seem like it's better for someone who likes the classic suit. However, with uncanny valley, the absolute worst place to be is close but not identical, and there's something about Superman's suit that makes me feel that way. It's like Singer wanted it close, but had to make these totally useless changes to the cut of the briefs, the size of the shield, and the colors. The differences stand out more than the similarity to the classic suit, whereas I don't feel that way about Cavill's suit.

2) Lois' kid was a stupid idea. I think everyone I chatted with said you have one of two terrible outcomes: it's Richard's kid (bad), or it's Supes' (worse). Ugh.

3) I'm not sure I was necessarily against retconning out Superman III and Superman IV, but it seemed pointless to do so twenty-some odd years after the fact.

Any optimism I had for the movie came from some of the trailers, which I thought were pretty fantastic. I wanted to believe my pessimism was unwarranted.

Anyway, these three problems were exactly as expected once I saw the movie, picking the worse of option two. Furthermore, there were all the other annoying things, like the lack of appeal of Bosworth Lois and Peeping Tom-El. I already had low expectations for the movie, but while it ended up being worse in some aspects, I couldn't recall any areas in which it exceeded expectations. Looking back, maybe the movie isn't as bad as my gut reaction to whenever I read or hear the words Superman Returns might indicate, but I can't imagine ever associating it with being any good. Once I learned that Marvel was willing to reboot Hulk, I wished the same fate for Superman.

Is it the worst Superman movie ever? No, but it'll go down as the weirdest Superman movie. If you ever play, "One of these things is not like the other..." with the Superman movies, it has to be this one. It's like seeing Emmitt Smith as a Cardinal, just weird to think about after the fact.

[Tuck]

Plane rescue is still the best scene in any Superman movie.

[Sacred Knight]

It's safe from being the worst Superman movie ever thanks to IV. That's pretty much the only good thing to say about it today.

Routh and Spacey had potential but were ultimately weighed down by the bad plotlines and character directions. Everything else was awful.

[adkal]

Addendum:

Gatling gun scene was great.

Bullet-in-the-eye should never have been in the trailer.

[Atomic Man]

Found this blog post from last year that sums it up beautifully for me: 10 Great Things About Superman Returns

To add to that, I'll just say this: despite the atrocious story decisions like the 5 year absence and the Super Kid, Superman Returns features the Iconic Superman and is vastly superior to all of the Snyderverse and New 52-inspired animated films combined.

[BBally]

Found this blog post from last year that sums it up beautifully for me: 10 Great Things About Superman Returns

To add to that, I'll just say this: despite the atrocious story decisions like the 5 year absence and the Super Kid, Superman Returns features the Iconic Superman and is vastly superior to all of the Snyderverse and New 52-inspired animated films combined.

Eh.... Still would rather rewatch Man of Steel over Superman Returns any day.

[stephtanner]

For me, time has not been kind to this movie at all. I've become really apathetic towards it. If I never see this movie again, oh well. Not a huge loss.

In contrast, I'm liking MoS more with the passage of time despite my initial lukewarm feelings toward it.

[BBally]

Superman 4 maybe the worst Superman movie but Superman Returns in my least favorite Superman movie. Yes, you read that right folks, I would rather watch 4 than rewatch that pile of mediocrity called Superman Returns. Here are my reasons:

1. Wasted potential: This could've been so much better and it hurts so much seeing that potential go to waste like that.

2. Waste of Brandon Routh's talents: His Clark Kent was pretty good and his scene as Superman on the plane was well played but the rest of the movie wasted his performance to the point he looked like a 3rd rate Superman cosplayer (and no he looks nothing like Christopher Reeve, seriously I don't see it)

3. Cast: Apart from Perry and Jimmy, everyone else could've used a better script or direction, Kate Bosworth was just bland as Lois Lane (at least Amy Adam's Lois had a personality in MOS), Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor felt like Spacey playing a over the top version of Gene Hackman's Luthor

4. The Must There Be A Superman Premise: That premise worked only once, which was the first time it was used when Elliot S! Maggin written that story in the comics.

5. Superman's Son: Felt like something out of a bad soap opera.

6. Its "Love Letter" to the Donner films: I get paying tribute to the best Superman films ever made but Singer took it so far that along with the weak script it felt like a high budgeted glorified fanfilm that made me want to see the actual Donner films instead.

7. Oh the DRAMA!: This was bad soap opera cringed induced drama that even the cringest soap operas would be embarrassed for.

8. It's just Boring, I mean I get they were trying to capture the feel of the original 1979 film but that was the film's downfall, while Superman The Movie handled with such passion and brilliance, Returns made it hammy, cringe inducing and worst of all boring. At least Man of Steel got me invested in something.

9. The whole WROOOONG! scene felt so out of place and is only fondly remembered because it's become a meme.

10. The entire movie felt like a complete waste, I felt I gained nothing from watching this movie, no real enjoyment at all, the best reaction I can come up with "meh", which is terrible for a movie about SUPERMAN RETURNING.

[FishyZombie]

Honestly even the stuff I like about returns (Spacey, some action scenes) pisses me off because even the decent stuff was nowhere near as good as they should have been. Overall just a boring, forgettable movie featuring an unlikable Superman.

[sunofdarkchild]

Not as bad as Superman 4, but also less enjoyable than Superman 4. It basically repeated the plot of the first Donner film - down to Lex being betrayed by his current girlfriend and the flying being safe line. Superman being away for 5 years just because he wanted to see a kryptonite asteroid field. The whole deadbeat dad thing. It's the only time I remember ever leaving a movie theater angry at the movie I just saw, and when it wasn't pissing me off it was putting me to sleep because it was so boring otherwise.

[rpmaluki]

Plane rescue is still the best scene in any Superman movie.

Absolutely.

[Kuwagaton]

I'm not sure I'd say it's below Quest for Peace, but it's pretty close. When it came out, I wasn't as big of a fan so I only saw it later on because my mom happened to see it and said she liked it. She's willing to say something nice when she's actually indifferent, though.

As everyone else said, it was a waste of an otherwise good cast. And a clear example of why love letters are not good stories, even if All Star had some exceptional bits. Truthfully, I don't care much at all for StM, so literally the whole Returns movie bored me with all they tried to homage. I'd probably feel a little better if I saw it again, but it's not really worth seeing again.