Up, Up and Kevin Spacey!

We went to see Superman Returns last night, the IMAX 3D version. I rather liked it, despite many flaws, and that's just as well -- it has franchise written all over it.

Flaws first:

The action sequences were often too jumbled / visually cluttered / fast to make much sense of. Maybe it wouldn't be so severe in a regular, non-IMAX, non-3D version. Or maybe I'm just too old to parse visual information that quickly.

Likewise, some of it seemed pretty unrealistic. Now, I know that's a silly thing to say about a movie whose central character defies all the laws of physics but I kept thinking, "wouldn't she (Lois) have broken her neck by now -- or at least a fingernail?"

Brandon Routh is quite a cutie and he has a nice bod but he doesn't have the same presence Christopher Reeve had in the original. You've got to give Reeve the credit -- he took a skinny (6'4, 180 lb.) models body and packed on 40-50 lbs. of muscle to play the part. His muscles were real and it showed. From what I can tell Brandon's are real, too; I didn't see any overt evidence of padding. But I'd be a bit surprised if he tops 200 lbs. He seems boyish compared to Reeve, although I'm guessing he's about the same age Reeve was in the original. (Note to self: Check Imdb.com)

On the plus side:

I thought it was a nice story.

Superman goes to find his destiny, the rest of us go on with our lives, and then he comes back. He's a good boy so he doesn't expect a standing ovation just for showing up. He has fences (and hearts) to mend and he works hard at it. That's what he does, after all. The interactions with Lois and the kid and the new boyfriend had a genuine sweetness to them, although I can see how some people would be impatient with it all. Not enough whiz-bang-pow!

Better yet, from my point of view, Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey did bang up jobs as Lex Luthor and moll / sidekick. They didn't camp it up nearly as much as did Gene Hackman and Ned Beatty but that could be because Spacey and Posey (especially) are campy enough in their own right.

Lex Luthor had some hunky henchmen, too, which is always fun. David Fabrizio and Ian Roberts are hubba-hubba inducing. And I didn't realize that Kal Penn (who co-starred in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, one I've never gotten round to watching) was such a cutie. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for more of him.

Definitely worth the price of admission.