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Superman Returns Review

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Description:
He's back. A hero for our millennium. And not a moment too soon, because during the five years (much longer in movie-fan years!) Superman sought his home planet, things changed on his adopted planet. Nations moved on without him. Lois Lane now has a son, a fiance and a Pulitzer for "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." And Lex Luthor has a plan that will destroy millions - no, billions - of lives. Filmmaker Bryan Singer (X-Men) gives the world the Superman it needs, honoring the legend everyone loves while taking it in a powerful new direction. Brandon Routh proves a perfect choice to wear the hero's cape, leading a top cast that includes Kate Bosworth as Lois and Kevin Spacey as Lex. And the thrills - from a sky-grapple with a tumbling jumbo jet to a continent-convulsing showdown - redefine Wow. "I'm always around," Superman tells Lois. You'll be glad he is.

Amazon.com:
If Richard Donner's 1978 feature film Superman: The Movie made us believe a man could fly, Bryan Singer's 2006 follow-up, Superman Returns, lets us remember that a superhero movie can make our spirits soar. Superman (played by newcomer Brandon Routh) comes back to Earth after a futile five-year search for his destroyed home planet of Krypton. As alter ego Clark Kent, he's eager to return to his job at the Daily Planet and to see Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth). Lois, however, has moved on: she now has a fiancé (James Marsden), a son (Tristan Leabu), and a Pulitzer Prize for her article entitled "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." On top of this emotional curveball, his old archrival Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is plotting the biggest land grab in history.

Singer, who made a strong impression among comic-book fans for his work on the X-Men franchise and directed Spacey in The Usual Suspects, brings both a fresh eye and a sense of respect to the world's oldest superhero. He borrows John Williams's great theme music and Marlon Brando's voice as Jor-El, and the story (penned by Singer's X-Men collaborators Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris) is a sort-of-sequel to the first two films in the franchise (choosing to ignore that the third and fourth movies ever happened). The humorous and romantic elements give the movie a heart, Singer's art-deco Metropolis is often breathtaking, and the special effects are elegant and spectacular, particularly an early airplane-disaster set-piece. Of the cast, Routh is excellent as the dual Superman/Clark, Spacey is both droll and vicious as Luthor, and Parker Posey gets the best lines as Luthor's moll Kitty. But at 23, Bosworth seems too young for the five-years-past-grizzled Lois. It's nice to see Noel Neill, Jack Larson (both from the classic Adventures of Superman TV series), and Eva Marie-Saint on the screen as well. Superman Returns is one of those projects that was in development for seemingly forever, but it was worth the wait -- it's the most enjoyable superhero movie since Spider-Man 2 and The Incredibles. --David Horiuchi

On the Superman Returns (Two-Disc Special Edition)
The two-disc edition offers about three hours of documentaries and other features. "Requiem for Krypton: Making Superman Returns" is an eight-part documentary about the movie, going back to Bryan Singer conceiving the movie back in 2004. There's a lot of on-set footage and analyses of special effects and stunts such as Brandon Routh's flying (helped by his swimming regimen), focusing more on the filming process than the design. For example, we see how the Metropolis scenes were shot but not how the often-striking sets were designed. Marlon Brando appears briefly in the bloopers section, and "Resurrecting Jor-El" spotlights the techniques used to create his footage. The eleven deleted scenes (about 15 minutes total) contain nothing earth-shaking, but it's nice to see more Eva Marie-Saint, one scene of Clark back in Smallville that could have altered the dynamic of his return to The Daily Planet, and a scene between Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey that is good for a laugh. --David Horiuchi

Superman Returns

Superman Returns is a 2006 superhero film based on the DC Comics character Superman. Directed by Bryan Singer, the film stars Brandon Routh as Superman, as well as Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden and Parker Posey. Superman Returns is a loose continuation of Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980). The film tells the story of Superman returning to Earth after several years of absence. He finds that Lois Lane has moved on with her life and that Lex Luthor is plotting a scheme that will destroy the United States.

After a series of unsuccessful projects to resurrect Superman on the screen, Warner Bros. hired Bryan Singer to direct and develop Superman Returns in July 2004. The majority of principal photography took place at Fox Studios Australia, Sydney, while the visual effects sequences were created by Sony Pictures Imageworks; filming ended in November 2005. Superman Returns was released with positive reviews, and grossed $391 million in worldwide box office totals. However, Warner Bros. was somewhat disappointed with the box office return and are now considering to "reintroduce" the Superman character in a future film

Superman Return's Plot

Superman has been missing for several years, having traveled to where astronomers believed they had discovered the remains of Krypton. During his absence, Lex Luthor was released from prison and married a rich widow to obtain her fortune upon her death. Superman returns to Earth and, as Clark Kent, resumes his job at the Daily Planet in Metropolis, and learns that Lois Lane has won the Pulitzer Prize for her article “Why the World Doesn't Need Superman”. Meanwhile, Luthor travels to the Fortress of Solitude and steals Kryptonian crystals. During an experiment with the crystals, Lex causes a power outage on the east coast. The power loss interferes with the flight test of a space shuttle attached to a Boeing 777, occupied by Lois Lane who is covering the story. Clark flies into action as Superman and stops the plane from crashing onto a baseball stadium, which is full of spectators.

The world rejoices at Superman's return, but Lois is more concerned with the blackout. Clark later meets her fiance Richard White, nephew of Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White, and their son, Jason. Clark is emotionally hurt when he overhears a conversation between Lois and Richard in which she says she never loved Superman. He then stops a bank heist, and saves Kitty Kowalski, Luthor's co-conspirator. With Superman distracted, Luthor steals Kryptonite from the Metropolis Museum of Natural History. Perry assigns Lois to interview Superman while Clark investigates the blackout. That night, Superman arrives at the Daily Planet and takes Lois for a flight, during which he apologizes for leaving her and tells her that, because of his superhuman hearing, he knows the world needs his protection.

Lois focuses her attention on the blackout again and ascertains its origin. Lois and Jason inadvertently board Luthor's ship and are captured. Luthor reveals to them his grand scheme of using one of the stolen Kryptonian crystals to grow a new continental landmass in the Northern Atlantic Ocean that will destroy the United States, in the process killing billions of people and leaving him as the new landmass' owner. Seeing the effect of a Kryptonite sample on Jason, Luthor asks who Jason's father really is; after Lois asserts that the father is Richard, Luthor leaves to launch the crystal, which he has encased in green Kryptonite, into the sea. Under water, the crystal begins to create Luthor's new landmass. Lois faxes their co-ordinates to The Daily Planet and is attacked by a henchman. The henchman is crushed to death by a piano, which Jason shoves at him. Afterward, Lois and Jason are imprisoned in a kitchen galley. Luthor flies in his helicopter to the still forming continent. Meanwhile, Superman is attempting to minimize the destruction in Metropolis caused by the new landmass' growth when Richard arrives in a sea plane to rescue Lois and Jason. Superman soon arrives to help and then flies off to find Luthor.

Meeting Luthor, Superman discovers the landmass is filled with Kryptonite, which weakens him to the point that Luthor and his henchmen are able to beat him. Superman is stabbed by Luthor with a shard of Kryptonite and falls into the ocean. Lois makes Richard turn back to rescue Superman, whereupon she removes the Kryptonite from his back. Superman, after regaining his strength from the sun, lifts the landmass after putting layers of earth between him and the Kryptonite. Luthor and Kitty escape in their helicopter; Kitty, unwilling to let billions of people die, tosses away the crystals that Lex stole from the Fortress of Solitude. She and Luthor are stranded on a desert island when their helicopter runs out of fuel. Superman pushes the landmass into space, but is weakened by the Kryptonite and crashes back to Earth. Doctors remove more Kryptonite from Superman's wound, but after it is removed they cannot penetrate his skin with their surgical tools. While Superman remains in a coma, Lois and Jason visit him at the hospital where Lois whispers a secret into Superman's ear and then kisses him. Superman later awakens and flies to visit Jason, reciting Jor-El's last speech to Jason as he sleeps, the way his father did to him. Lois starts writing another article, titled “Why the World Needs Superman”. Superman reassures her that he is now back to stay, and flies off to low orbit, where he gazes down at the world once again.

 Cast

* Brandon Routh as Clark Kent / Superman: Stephan Bender portrays teenage Clark Kent in a flashback scene. James Caviezel expressed interest in the role.[3] However, Singer believed only an unknown actor would be suitable for the part. "I found the James Caviezel reports very interesting," Singer said. "Superman is essentially the Jesus of superheroes and Caviezel portrayed Jesus in Passion of the Christ (2004)."[4] Routh was chosen from thousands of candidates interviewed at casting calls in the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia. He had coincidentally auditioned for Clark Kent in the television series Smallville, but lost to Tom Welling. Routh had also met director Joseph "McG" Nichol for the role during pre-production of Superman: Flyby. Dana Reeve, wife of Christopher Reeve, believed Routh's physical resemblance to her late husband was striking. To obtain the muscular physique to convincingly play Superman, Routh underwent a strict bodybuilding exercise regimen.
* Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane: Spacey recommended Singer to cast Bosworth in the role because she co-starred with Spacey in Beyond the Sea (2004) as Sandra Dee.[8] Claire Danes and Keri Russell were reported to be considered for the role. For inspiration on her performance, Bosworth studied Katharine Hepburn's acting, particularly in The Philadelphia Story (1940) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), as well as Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich (2000).
* Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor: Because of his Academy Award-winning performance in Singer's film The Usual Suspects (1995), and friendship with the director, Spacey was the only actor considered for Luthor. The writers specifically had Spacey in mind for the part when writing the script.
* James Marsden as Richard White: The nephew of the Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White and fiancé to Lois Lane.
* Tristan Lake Leabu as Jason: Son of Lois Lane. Jason's paternity is unclear at first (White or Superman), but as the movie continues it is revealed that he is the son of Superman, due to his display of superhuman strength and discomfort around Kryptonite, amongst other things.
* Parker Posey as Kitty Kowalski: The character is an homage to Eve Teschmacher from the 1978 film, portrayed by Valerie Perrine.Posey was the only actress considered for the role.
* Frank Langella as Perry White: Hugh Laurie was cast in the role but was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with House.
* Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olsen: A young photographer at the Daily Planet. Jimmy is friends with Clark Kent, and also struggles to take a pleasing photograph of Superman for Perry White.
* Eva Marie Saint as Martha Kent: The adoptive mother of Clark Kent / Superman. She was emotionally broken by her son's five year absence.

Marlon Brando reprises his role of Jor-El from the 1978 film with the use of previous footage combined with computer-generated imagery. This required negotiations with Brando's estate for permission to have his footage used. Singer explained, "we had access to all of the Brando footage that was shot. There was unused footage that had Brando reciting poems, trailing off subject and swearing like a sailor."[14] Kal Penn plays a small role of one of Luthor's henchman, Stanford. Jack Larson, who portrayed Jimmy Olsen in the 1950s television series Adventures of Superman, makes a cameo appearance as a bartender. Noel Neill, who portrayed Lois Lane in the television series, the 1948 serial and Atom Man vs. Superman, cameos as Gertrude Vanderworth. Richard Branson cameos as the pilot of the Virgin Galactic airship.

Effects

Superman Returns was shot using Panavision's Genesis digital camera.Production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright's Johnson Wax Headquarters for the design of the Daily Planet. ESC Entertainment was originally set to design the visual effects sequences, but Warner Bros. replaced them with the hiring John Stetson from Sony Pictures Imageworks as the visual effects supervisor.A total of 1,400 visual effects shots were created. The script required a scene of Superman safely delivering a Boeing 777 in a baseball park. This would have been impossible to assemble the number of extras, thus computer-generated imagery was used. A second unit crew traveled to Dodger Stadium to photograph elements that were composited into the final images. Using footage from the original Superman (1978) film as a reference point, Marlon Brando was re-created by Rhythm & Hues using computer-generated imagery. The opening credits for Superman Returns are presented in a deliberate recreation of the style used for Superman, again to the accompaniment of John Williams' theme music.

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