He may have a new face, but it's great to see Superman fly again. That's what I thought about this movie when it ended. It may have it's rough edges around the cape, but this movie creates the same type of wonder and awe as the first two Superman did. But, if you are looking for an action movie where Superman punches the teeth out of some supervillian, you won't find it here. There some awsome action sequences that keep you at the edge of his seat, but the movie is in fact a love story. Don't barf just yet, becouse this movie will keep you holding your teeth from the very biggining to the very end. It's that good.
Bryan Singer, who also made the first two X-Men movies, gives great justice to Superman's film predessecors. It's almost an homage to the first two films. This is not a bad thing, becouse I could not image a better superhero film than the first Superman movie. But this movie dares to do the unthinkable. It actually erases those horrible III and IV films out of existance. By that I mean, is that this movie takes place five years after Superman II. It creates a brand new storyline. Think of it as in Back to the Future, where marty McFly uses his time machine to 1955 to change what happened in the future. It's just like that. II and IV never and will never happen in this new film series. A good decision.
The movie involves Superman, that after scientist find the remnants of his planet of origin (Krypton) in outer space, he flies off to space to find it. But the problem is that he has been gone for 5 years looking for his planet, and while he has been gone, everybody he knew on Earth have gone on with their lives. Even Lois Lane, Supes #1 girl has gone of with a new boyfriend and had a child. When Superman comes back, he finds that nobody cares for him. What's worse, becouse Superman was not there to send Lex Luthor to jail (he was away, remeber?), he never went to jail and is now planning a new scheme to get what his wants.
Yes. That's true, this film does not introduce any new villian. But that's okay, becouse the Lex Luthor you see in this movie is like a brand new villian, becouse unlike his 1970's counterpart, the new Lex Luthor is very different. He is now more serious, more villanous, more menacing than the original ever was. He doesn't do wisecracks anymore. He is just interested in one and one thing only: land. He even makes his own continent made out of kryptonite in the movie. He really is a new Luthor. But, now, one of the most important things about this movie that there is a new Superman. Brandon Routh takes Christopher Reeve's place as Superman this time around as the new Superman. Does he stack up to Christopher Reeve? Well, Christopher made a superb role as Superman. But his Clark Kent persona wasn't as good as his Super one. But Brandon Routh is the exact opposite. His Superman persona is not as good as Christopher's, but his Clark Kent persona is far better than Christopher reeve's Clark kent was. And they both look identical to boot.
The film had a huge budget, in fact, one of the biggest in film history. Was it put to good use? Can't tell. But you can clearly see what the effects of the budget has done in the opening credits. The Superman movies have included the best opening credits in the business, with the super-cool blue credits zooming past the audience with John William's heroic score in the background. In this film, the credits are better than ever. With the planets and galaxies flying by you, you feel like a kid again. Most of Superman's flying was done using CGI rather than the traditional green screen setup, resulting in the flying more preetier and belieavle, but not as special. But what was more suprising is the orchestral score. John Williams was not avaible to reprise his role to conduct his Superman score, but John Ottman actually does the theme justice. He is so good, it's like almost having John Williams himself, and that is no small task.
Overall, this is a great movie that finally gives Superman justice. It may not be the giant superhero spectacular like the first one, but it is far better than those horrible 1980's movies. I personally can't wait what happens next.
