Superman Returns
The wife and I got to watch Superman Returns tonight, courtesy of free tickets her mom won and passed to us. Apparently everyone at this screening had won free tickets courtesy of Calvin Klein, so we had to sit through every single Calvin Klein ad there was before the movie started - a small price to pay for a free movie!
I have to say it brought back good memories: the original Superman was perhaps the first movie I remember watching (the other one was The Deer Hunter - which I remember being particularly disturbed by, what with the Russian Roulette and all). I would have been 5.
It's not the same, of course - it's now "truth, justice and all those things" rather than the American way, and if this new Superman seems more ... hesitant, and less certain of his heroism than Christopher Reeves', it's because we live in an age that's less certain of heroism.
But it was wonderful to sit in that cinema and hear the triumphant soundtrack again, which surely must be one of the great movie anthems of our time. Come to think of it, both those first movies from my childhood had one thing in common - great music by someone called John Williams, though confusingly it was two different people with the same name.
I have to say it brought back good memories: the original Superman was perhaps the first movie I remember watching (the other one was The Deer Hunter - which I remember being particularly disturbed by, what with the Russian Roulette and all). I would have been 5.
It's not the same, of course - it's now "truth, justice and all those things" rather than the American way, and if this new Superman seems more ... hesitant, and less certain of his heroism than Christopher Reeves', it's because we live in an age that's less certain of heroism.
But it was wonderful to sit in that cinema and hear the triumphant soundtrack again, which surely must be one of the great movie anthems of our time. Come to think of it, both those first movies from my childhood had one thing in common - great music by someone called John Williams, though confusingly it was two different people with the same name.
Comments
Given that it had to live in the shadow of the previous Superman films, and that Brendan Routh had to live in the shadow of Christopher Reeve, the movie managed to tread a fine line between carrying on the somewhat innocent sensibility of the original films and a more modern, balanced treatment.
Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor is excellent - but it also reminded me of how good Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor was in its own way.
My favourite shot of the movie was the street level looking up at Superman zooming down the street. Whoosh! wow!