We just got in from a visit to the cinema to see “Superman Returns”. In many ways this evening was all about being a child again. W picked me up from work, we went out to a restaurant where she filled me up with pizza, fizzy drinks and chocolate cake, and then we went to “the pictures”.
(I know, I know… nobody calls it “the pictures” any more)
So what did I think of the movie? You have to understand here that I am the biggest “big kid” I know, and love escapist movies. I also love comic books (although bizarrely I only own one or two). I am a huge fan of the first Superman movie, so this one had to be very good to even compare.
I loved it. I really, really loved it. The first time Brandon Routh appears as Clarke Kent, with his wonky glasses and lopsided smile, you will be taken aback. If Brandon were a stick of rock, it would have “Christopher Reeve” written all the way through it. Actually, maybe that’s unfair. In the way Reeve played a just, righteous, friendly, warm, “human” character, so is this modern take by Routh - only he adds a new twist. Superman is not happy.
Marlon Brando’s voice reminds us again in this movie “you are not alone - you will never be alone”, and yet at times this Superman finds himself more alone than ever before. Lois Lane got married. The world survived without “The Man of Steel”. And some people who he once loved - and maybe still does - aren’t that happy so see him back.
It’s a great movie that plays to the increasingly frequent ploy of entertaining the children, but also providing a subtext that the adults will enjoy too. It goes without saying that the “set pieces” are superb, exciting, edge of the seat stuff, and that this time you really do believe a man can fly.