Bryan Singer's 2006 Superman Returns got mixed reactions from the fan community. Some were upset with the lack of punching. Some thought a land development scheme was a bit underwhelming, and some just had a problem with creepy stalker Brandon Routh spying on his ex. I didn't think it was a bad movie, but I understand the criticism. It might mean something that I haven't watched since it came out. Maybe that was due to some embarrassment about my entirely untrue pronouncements about the potential success of this movie to the LA Times.
Director Singer spoke about some of the faults of the film in hindsight. He's likely looking back since he's a producer on the next Superman movie, Superman: Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder.
"I think that 'Superman Returns' was a bit nostalgic and romantic, and I don't think that was what people were expecting, especially in the summer,"
"What I had noticed is that there weren't a lot of women lining up to see a comic book movie, but they were going to line up to see 'The Devil Wears Prada,' which may have been something I wanted to address. But when you're making a movie, you're not thinking about that stuff, you're thinking, 'Wow, I want to make a romantic movie that harkens back to the Richard Donner movie that I loved so much.' And that's what I did."
"There are a bunch of movies I've made where I'm, like, 'Yuck, that was weak' or 'That could've been better,' and I can see why. But with 'Superman Returns' … If I could go back, I would have tightened the first act."
So there you have it. It wasn't perfect. Happy now?
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The problem with the film was that it was too boring.
Yes Singer was trying to harken back to the days of the Donner/Reeves films and that’s fine. I have no problem with him trying to do that. But the action scenes, which were good, were few and far between. I’m not saying that I want an entire punchfest going on with the film, but there really wasn’t that much excitement with it. At least with the Donnor films you had that emotional moments but peppered with incredible moments to think you really are watching Superman fly.
The acting was also pretty bland in my opinion as well. Everyone did what they were suppose to do but there is nothing groundbreaking about them. Kevin Spacey as Luthor could’ve been amazing but instead he just seems to be there, doing nothing much but be the stereotypical villain. Hell after the two ‘face off’ in the Fortress of Solitude, they never see each other again for the rest of the movie.
Superman Returns remains a favorite of mine. Whwn you have a character with godlike powers, the only real thing you can devolp is character. Lois Lane is unattaible. Superman will never fit. He is not one of us.
That said, the Luthor plot did feel like a retread.
Superman Returns served its purpose. I was satisfied with it, and I’m completely fine that they are rebooting the franchise completely next year.
I would say that 75% of that movie is very excellent, but that 25% that’s dumb is really, really dumb.
I still think the scene where he’s saving the plummeting plane is one of the most exhilirating scenes in any comic book movie hands down.
When the highlight of your film, the plane rescue, is 45 minutes in, the rest of the movie feels like a long letdown that never matches that initial intensity.
I’m with Dave Carr on this one. I thought it was a slghtly more adult, complicated take on the character — interesting to ME, maybe, because I don’t necessarily need to see Superman doing ‘feats of strength’ or whatever to make the movie good. That said, it certainly wasn’t a great film, just pretty good, and Dave’s also right about the Luthor plot. 😉
I would say there are three major faults with Superman Returns. 1 Lois needed to be a stronger character and needed a stronger actress to play her. 2 Lex needs to be the corporate tycoon head of Luthercorp not someone after land. 3 The kid. Hopefully the new movie will put the franchise back on track.
Not a perfect film by any means, but I love Superman Returns. Own the Blu-Ray.
I love this movie. It may have had its faults, but I will never stop loving it for what Singer says he was trying to do, which was a romantic throwback to the Donner films.
Plus I still love Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. That was amazing.
I thought that Kevin Spacey wearing a wig was genius in the first scene. I thought, “ha! Great homage to the first movie. Now that we’ve established a little character continuity, that will be the last of the dreaded bumbling, wig-headed Lex Luthor and Kevin Spacey can do what he does best and he’s…he’s…he’s…..WEARING ANOTHER WIG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” wtf?
@Neb Agreed. The plane rescue scene was awesome. If they could have repeated that excitement later in the movie, it would have been great.
The Kid was one of my favorite parts of the movie. Give Superman a kid that he will have to mentor, but one for whom he is precluded from being a “father”. That’s some powerdul, emotianlly resoa havent stuff there, especially given Kal-el own position as an orphan with two father figures.
The exection may been have fisted, but it’s a bold fresh, exciting story idea.
Here’s the other point that always sticks in my craw! The only people in the world that don’t know that Kryptonite is deadly to Superman live in Papua New Guinea and cook their dinner over a fire so thank you for the exposition Lois, but go shop your stiff acting somewhere else! Great Caesar’s ghost!!
I saw this once.
I remember liking it fine at that time, except for Lois. I thought Bosworth was completely bland and un-Lois like. There was no personality there.
The reason the movie didn’t work for me was the choice to keep it in the Christopher Reeve Superman continuity. I was looking for a new interpretation of the mythos, not a retread. Namely, I wanted Lex to be a corporate villain, not a mad scientist with an odd fascination with real estate.
And stalker Superman was creepy.
I thought this movie was BRILLIANT. The most amazing piece of crackfic/babyfic I had ever wittnessed, mostly because Singer GOT THE STUDIO TO PAY FOR IT. That is the truly brilliant part of this whole exercise. I saw it MULTIPLE times in the theater and own it on DVD. Singer GOT THE STUDIO TO PAY FOR BABYFIC. This alone makes him a brilliant, brilliant EVIL SOB in my mind. <3
@spastasmagoria The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled was Getting Warner Broz. to Pa¥ 4 Babyfi¢
Still in my top five Superhero flicks and my favorite Superman movie.
I really enjoyed the film. For me Brandon Routh is superman, absolutely perfect for the role. I didn’t mind the little set back, such the creepy ex thing(which still found funny though). @ifanboy: I just wanted to ask what did you guys thought of the whole superman searching for the kryptonians in his ship bit at he beginning?
The movie had its problems (mostly Superman’s stalking and Bosworth as Lois) but I think it’s still okay and the best of the franchise mostly because Lex is actually threatening and, for once, the writers didn’t solve problems by having Superman pull a new power out of nowhere.
@dannydanger I didn’t remember it until you mentioned it just now. I’m sure Conor liked it, and I’m sure Ron didn’t remember either.
I think Lois was miscast, but the rest of the movie was actually good. She is key and in Superman Returns they didnt get an actress with depth to carry the movie. Routh was good and Spacy was hammy, but still cool.
That’s not half of what was wrong with “Superman Lifts Things.”
I enjoyed it for what it was. I think Singer pointed out the biggest problem with it though…trying to attract every demographic. You’re not going to get a RomCom audience into a superhero movie. EVER, unless its a great movie that becomes an epic event….LOTR type level. Just make a great movie, the audience will find it.
aha thanks Josh 🙂
Ambivalent to this movie. Don’t hate it but certainly don’t like it either.
This movie is really not better than the original Superman from ’78.
It’s not even close. Even on a technical level. Acting, Sets, Costumes, Design, Direction…
The music in Superman Returns is terrible also from what I remember, the Ottman remix of the Williams’ score is particularly painful.
Basically I remember the music was bad, the super stalking was creepy, the airplane was fantastic, and some kind of floating continent. Is that about right?
Superman doesn’t have to punch something in order to be interesting. It just blew feeble fanboy minds that Supes didn’t wail on anything. Learn more about the character before you start crying about how much the movie sucked. I’m sure you guys will love Snyder’s dumbing down of the character.
@josh @dannydanger I have no opinion on it either way.
It had it’s moments but to me it felt like Singer had Donner’s film on a tv next to his directors chair the entire time. Constantly referencing the old material and having an homage to a scene from the original every ten minutes killed me. I’ve come to like Routh in his other work (like last season on Chuck) but here he was simply being told to do a Reeve-impersonation. Heck, I think about 50% of his dialogue was taken word for word from the original. And I felt Spacey was completely wasted doing a Hackman impersonation. This should have been a fresh reboot (ex. Batman Begins).
I have the movie in my DVD collection. But I don’t think I ever have any intention of going out of my way to watch it again any time soon.
I love Superman. I loved Superman: The Movie. Superman Returns…I didn’t hate it but there wasn’t much for me to go on. I remember being so underwhelmed in the theatre when I saw it. I think my biggest problem was the kid. It was so unecessary and then they played it so cautiously. They hinted and hinted and we’re left to assume it from what Lois whispers to Clark in the hospital and from what Clark says to Jason in his room. But, geez, talk about packpeddling!
As someone who holds the Richard Donner Superman as one of the best movies from my childhood (the other being Tim Burton’s Batman), I loved this movie. I feel that Brandon Routh was a “spot on” pick if you were choosing to continue where Christopher Reeve left off. I think that Singer did an awesome job – even with the crappy “down and out, Lex Luthor, screwing old women” story. Supes has never just been about fist-to-face action. Clark Kent is always looking to fit in and never quite does. And bringing Clark back after years away from Earth was a great start. As much as I have loved Snyder’s other work, I am skeptical of what he will do with our Supes.
Now I will agree. I liked Routh. I don’t like whatever the hell they were doing with his hair. It looked SOOO bad. It looked like the action figure and costumes they were selling later. But Routh himself was very good and earnest. I wish he would have stayed on.
Problem is, that costume wasn’t very good. It had a very artificial, plastic-y look. I wish he would’ve been given a better Superman suit.
He said himself he romanticized the Donner films and tried to hard. this created an uneven film. that being said i like superman returns. if he would have just made his own film it would have been much better.
Look Superman Returns was in all cases, a tribute. It was not by any means really a franchise restart. They meant for it to be one, but there are so many references to the Donner movies that not really that much of the film was pure imagination from Singer. Now I still love the movie. I consider the Superman Trilogy to be Superman (1978), Superman II: Richard Donner Cut, & Superman Returns, b/c in all fairness, Returns crushed 3 & 4, just completely demolished them & made me never want to watch 3 & 4 ever again after watching Returns (especially Superman 4 which is very much like the Batman & Robin of the Superman franchise). I am very excited now for the Man of Steel to come out b/c now it seems to be a real Batman Begins type of movie for Superman & that is just what Superman needs right now, to have a great director (Sucker Punch otherwise) in Snyder develop an overlapping trilogy of films into one cohesive, awesome, epic story like Nolan did with Batman. Now I know that is pushing it a bit, but there is a lot of potential for Snyder to really pull it off. Personally, I think that they should go the Iron Man route & have Zod be the 1st villain & have Brainiac in the second (with maybe Metallo or whomever) & then reveal Luthor in the third when he was in the background of all three & have the ultimate payoff!
I have an unabashed love for this movie. I take shit for it all the time but I will defend it until my last breath. Call it a guilty pleasure.
I always liked this movie, i guess my only two problems were that it was shot with too much of a retro feel and they somehow made kate bosworth look unattractive, but these are nitpicks
I enjoyed the movie. Could it of been better? Sure, apple pie can be better too, just add ice cream. My point is, everyone just relax and watch the shuttle / airplane scene in that movie. And you’ll get all excited and tingly all over. That scene is one of my top 10 favorites scenes of all-time….
I think another problem with the film is the fact that Singer wanted to connect it to the Donner movies. We might like those films, but I think at that point we had a new generation of fans (I’m really talking about kids here mostly) that probably never saw those yet. So instead of giving us a newer take on the character the film just feels like ‘Superman V’ then ‘Superman Returns’.
Which again there is nothing really wrong with that. But considering at the same time we got a new take on Batman and his universe, then that’s probably where Singer should’ve went too.
I have said many times for many reasons that this was just not a very good movie and that’s as close to a creator apologizing for a mistake as it gets.
Which I think speaks for itself.
But hey some people enjoyed Batman and Robin.
To each his own.
I was hyped up when this movie came out. Went to see it in IMAX, first show I could. I was really disappointed by the time it was over. There were good points, like the plane scene and the “bullet to the eye” shot. The bad points REALLY outweighed the good for me. Spacey could have been a great Luthor, but is saddled by a script that makes him a slave to the same boring land scheme used in the original. The whole kid thing is repugnant. To me, Supes is the gold standard of DC. He’s not a one-night stand guy, much less a one night stand before you leave the planet for five years. He’s (supposed to be) better than that. It is supposed to be Truth, Justice and the American Way, not Truth, Justice and Limited Parental Visitation. Supes stalking his kid at the end was the last straw for me.
In fact, this movie is so poor, it even crossed companies to hurt a Marvel movie – X3. I can’t help but think that if Marsden wasn’t in Superman Returns, Cyclops might have survived.
@ericmci: Then you never listened to the ‘Batman and Robin’ commentary where Schumacher apologizes for 2hrs. Great stuff!
Blaming the dismal failure that this movie was on the time of year it came out, is like saying a shit sandwich would taste better in the evening and not for breakfast. The movie sucked Bryan.
they still shudda letim do a sequel…
I’ll always remember the plane rescue fondly. I really felt like I was watching Superman for the first time. I was almost giddy.
The film is visually stunning. Singer has a great eye. But the overall approach was just redundant when it should’ve been progressive.
This is a nice proffesional quote. We all knew he wanted to write a love letter to Donner with this. But I’ve been saying since it came out that this was a woman’s Superman flick, so it’s nice to get some validation for that personally.
I make no apologies or feel no guilt for liking this movie. Routh is perfect for supes and it is a crying shame he won’t be reprising the role. I agree with SpiderTitan in that this movie fits perfectly as no. 3 in the trilogy (although I do love superman 3). I like that Singer concentrated on character development rather than resorting to the easy option of a souless action flick. I’m looking forward to the Snyder reboot and am sure he’ll do an amazing job (he hasn’t disappointed me yet (although I haven’t seen the owl one)).
its a good movies that lacks that action to be the commerical sucess they wanted. it made more money then batman begins, they wanted more.
The bad points of the movie have always outweighed the good to me. I just did not want to see something paying homage to the first two. And I really did not want to see Routh or Spacey doing imitations.
But it is good to get somewhat of an explanation for what he was trying to do.
Also, it’s hard for me to buy Superman putting the moves on Lois on the roof of the Daily Planet while her fiance and who at the time he believed to be their son. Not a Superman thing to do. The only way the series could have continued would be to kill Marsden in the second film because a) Lois was going to end up with Superman and b) his son wasn’t really his son. That just doesn’t sound like a Superman plot.
I really do like this movie, but I will admit that I showed it to a friend a while back and was slightly embarassed about gushing over it for weeks prior. As everyone has pointed out, there’s good and bad in this flick. I think that, like the X-Men franchise, Singer’s run on Superman needed a sequel to really amp up the story, but at the end of the day this was a farewell to the old franchise. I say, bring on the new shit!
That said, the plane scene was definitely one of those movie magic moments. I still get chills.
Seriously, when is Bryan Singer going to apologize for making a significant portion of the movie into a love letter to model trains?
Superman Returns was a beautifully filmed and acted movie in search of a plot. When Lex’s plot finally gets going in the last bit it becomes a really compelling movie. But from the plane crash to Lex firing the missile it is just boring as all hell, even it if still is acted really well.
Imagine if Singer got to do his sequel? It would have to be one hell of a sequel to wash the taste of Superman Returns out of the public consciousness.
There would have been a lot to have cleaned up, though. The New Krypton island, having to deal with Lex probably coming back and the kid. That whole mess with the kid probably would have never ended. Even if they tried to change it around like Lois found him (kind of like the Kents finding Clark) or he’s Zod’s son, it would still be a mess.
Superman Returns isn’t bad, but let it be the shining example of how a tribute can be nice if done in small quantities. It’s not something you should base your entire film around.
Just tell a good Superman story. He doesn’t need angst, he doesn’t always need to solve his problems with his fists, but he is a superhero and needs a physical challenge.
I’m so cautious with how Snyder is going to do that I’m afraid Superman Returns will look like The Matrix in comparison.
It was near NEAR perfect for me. It was better than Quest for Peace & Superman III so in my opinion that means it is an A- or B+ movie.
Holds breath for the British actor Superman in 2012.
Matthew
The action sequence with the plane and bullet shot at Supes eye was all that was good about this film, saw it again only a few days ago and it’s reminiscent of what Lucas did with Star Wars Episodes 1 -3, too much fluff and bad acting for my liking.
The new reboot better be fresh and edgy for the sake of one of the greatest superheros of all time. Will be very hard to beat Donner’s films.
I thought the whole broken family thing with Superman, Lois, the kid and step dad was an attempt to update “truth, justice and the americian way” to a more contemperary but still totally valid reflection on life today. I liked it
Of course it sucked, it’s DC!
This was a great superman: the motion picture, i was just hoping for wrath of khan.
I really liked the film, thought it was great, overall.
I felt like they needed to be more inventive with the denoument; “Superman lifts something heavy” just isn’t enough for the climactic scene of the movie. And sure, a continent is reeeeeeeeally heavy, but it’s still not enough.
I thought Bosworth didn’t pull off Lois very well. She was far too angsty, she wasn’t the sparkplug that Lois needs to be.
But I thought the plane rescue was great, I thought Spacey’s Luthor was amazing, and I really don’t have a problem with the kid. Made perfect sense in terms of the story.
So… not my favourite Superman film, but I enjoyed it a lot. Great to see someone try to do something interesting with Superman. It shouldn’t be such a rare event, but it is.
I liked the film fine and I thought the casting was fine as well. The thing with the kid however; it was neat for an elseworlds type story but not in the film it only confusses the kids and new comers. I hate that we are doing another reboot again it just does not need to be done maybe; a quick origin and then onto today. I love Luthor as much as everyone else but Supes has plenty of rogues he can pull from for a franchise movie base. Start with Mr. Myxylplx and work your way around to Bizzaro, Brainiac, Doomsday, etc…… Save Darkseid for the Justice League of America film along with Starro.
Oh well; it was a good film and we could have gone on from there.
K
To me, Bryan Singer will always be the guy who made the first great Marvel superhero movie and then followed it up with an even better one.
From the way anyone who likes it seems to repeat the same one scene
“plane rescue”
Sounds like with some editing it would make a great short film.
What makes the action sequences in this (The Plane, and the bad guy fight) less special for me, is that I paid for a ticket and treats, as well as sat thru the rest of the film, to see them.