Anna's Superman Returns Review - Spoilerless

Buck and I (your intrepid bloggers) went and saw Superman Returns last night.

I was underwhelmed.

First of all, how about a little character development? I don't care if it's a direct sequel to the second Superman movie, it's been almost 30 years. We are expected to know why Lex Luthor hates Superman so much. We are expected to know why Superman loves Lois Lane so much.

Secondly, while Brandon Routh makes a good Superman, Kate Bosworth is an lacking Lois Lane. Humorless and uncharismatic, why would Superman ever love this woman? Thank goodness for James Marsters, Parker Posey, and Kevin Spacey.

And why have Clark Kent at all in this movie? Kevin Smith once said that Superman is about the love triangle between Lois Lane, Superman, and Clark Kent. In this movie, they only play lip service to fundamental truth.

Superman is not a bad movie, far from it. It is entertaining enough. But Superman Returns lacks the greatness of the Spiderman movies or Batman Begins.

Look, if I'm going to have to suspend my disbelief, and oh, how incongruous the story is! at least give me characters and a story that I can care about.

For a better review than mine, that also addresses the Father-Son aspects of it, check out Orson Scott Card's review