I broke my personal heat stress (despite A/C in my living room) by taking in "Superman Returns" yesterday afternoon (I used my Hollywood Movie Money ticket that came with Season 3 of "Lois and Clark"!).
On the whole, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit.
One major quibble, however, is that the writers seemed not capable of providing any dialogue of merit for Clark/Superman and Lois Lane.
In two scenes, Lois asked the same questions of him. In retrospect, the reasons for the questions were that he had left without saying goodbye five years ealier. So...now she feels she must ask every time he flies away if she'll be seeing him again. It just didn't have any resonance for me....the relationship between them, that is.
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Of course it does bear mentioning that Lois had Superman's child in his absence...and that child has some super abilities even at age 5. Eva Marie Saint was featured, all too briefly, as Martha Kent. Sad scene with her, though, when Superman was in ICU recovering from a major exposure to Kryptonite, she had to stand outside on the street with well-wishers because she couldn't blow his identity as Clark Kent (not that anyone would have ever believed her).
Noel Neill had a death-bed scene (left all her money to Lex Luthor, she did) and Jack Larsen had a bit as a bartender.
I found myself wishing, a few times, that they'd come up with something other than a Lex Luther, super-villain, adversary. But Kevin Spacey, when the writing was great, was totally ON as Lex and that was fun.
There are some exhilarating scenes...Superman flying...for the sheer thrill of the act itself....could have gone on twice as long as they did for my money (Hollywood Movie Money though it may have been). The overhead shots of Metropolis and the sheer speed they gave to Superman (truly faster than a speeding bullet at last) were wonderful.
I have to say that the opening action sequence is one of the most exhilarating I've ever seen....and I put my hopes higher than I'd imagined they could be. But...the rest of the film didn't quite live up to that exhilaration and didn't have an emotional connection for me. Strike that. There was one brief moment where it was truly emotinal: The end credit that read "In loving Memory of Christopher & Dana Reeve." That tore me up.
