I went to see Superman Returns last night, and I have to admit that I was disappointed with it. Overall, it wasn’t a bad movie, but it just didn’t live up to the hype. I don’t think I have ever seen the original Superman movies. If I have, I don’t remember them. My biggest problem with the movie was that Superman’s powers were just a little too over the top. I guess that’s a complaint against the Superman franchise instead of just against this movie, but the movie itself was a little light on the action. I think that was due to the over the top powers though. I mean, fight scenes are just a little boring when one guy can stop bullets with his eye, but even still, they could have shown a little more butt-kicking action. The other big problem I had was that the story line was quite familiar. The main love story centered around a girl who loved Superman, but hardly noticed Clark Kent. Sounds a little like Spiderman to me. I don’t know which franchise came first, Spiderman or Superman, but the love interest seems to be practically the same.
To be fair, I can easily see how this type of love-story structure started in the comic book genre. Since the average comic book reader is a male nerd (I know I’m generalizing), this type of love story just make sense. Certainly, a story in which the hot girl ignores the geek but falls in love with the real man underneath would appeal to guys who can’t get girls.
I guess that all sounds a little harsh. The movie really wasn’t too bad, it just did not live up to all the hype around it. It did get me out of my apartment for the evening, and I don’t feel cheated about spending $7.50 on watching it, which is more than I can say for some movies.
In other news, I’ve been watching a lot of World Cup action lately. One of my roommates is a huge soccer fan, and he’s honestly gotten me interested in it. It’s really not a bad game to watch. Unfortunately, all of the teams I wanted to win this weekend ended up losing. I was pulling for the Ukraine, Argentina, Brazil, and England. I guess I’m the kiss of death for soccer teams. The US team lost in team play, which is the first round, in case you didn’t know. I have to say that even though they lost, I am still proud of those guys. All of the other teams (see Italy and Portugal) seem to be a bunch of wusses. They take dives and falls all over the place to try to get the refs to call fouls. The sad part is, this tactic actually works. The announcers even condone it as being “part of the art of soccer.” To me, taking a dive is probably one of the most dishonorable things you can do in sports. Now I know why Americans don’t watch. It’s not because soccer is boring; it’s because soccer players are pansies.
I will still watch as much of the tournament as I can because I don’t have work next week. I will need all I can to fill my time. I should probably spend my free time getting ahead on my reading for class. We’ll see how ambitious I get though.
July 2, 2006
I haven’t seen it yet, but I do plan on it, because I’m a fan of Superman. Though I haven’t heard the best reviews of it. I was slightly disappointed in the directors decision to cast Routh as The Man of Steel.
After watching Smallville for 5 years, I’ve gotten used to seeing Tom Welling as Clark Kent, and I think it would have only been natural to use members of the Smallville cast for this movie.
Welling and Erica Durance, the actress playing Lois Lane on Smallville, have great chemistry and I think it would have been great to see that on the big screen.
But as for the plot, Scott…that is what Superman became famous for: The love story between Superman and Lois Lane and her ignoring Clark Kent as well as his incredible inhuman powers…so yeah, he’s gonna be able to stop bullet’s with his eye…which I thought was a pretty cool special effect.