Superman Returns

So I finally went to watch Superman Returns last night with a friend of mine. For the most part, I enjoyed the movie a lot, although I made the mistake of allowing myself to anticipate it a bit too much so it probably didn't have a chance to live up to what I was hoping for completely. Having said that, there was far more about the movie I liked than didn't.

I thought Brandon Routh did a fine job as the new Superman, obviously having to fill big shoes following the larger-than-life story of Christopher Reeve, and Routh is undoubtedly hotter than Reeve was (though he still falls short of Tom Welling of Smallville by quite a distance). Kevin Spacey fits the Lex Luthor role perfectly, and Parker Posey is awesome as always. I also was happy to see the handsome Kal Penn (of the hilarious Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle), who will be starring in next year's [yay!] sequel Harold and Kumar Go to Amsterdam.

One thing that was great about Superman Returns is how often it paid tribute to the original Superman movies. The first instance of this is in the opening credits, which of course uses John Williams' theme, but also includes the titles in the same style as the 1978 original, updated to impressively show off modern computer technology. Marlon Brando posthumously makes an appearance as Superman's father Jor-El, via archive footage from the original. And there are wonderful dialogue tributes to the original movies, including Superman's statement after rescuing the plane near the start of the movie in which he says [directly quoting from the 1978 movie in which Superman rescues Lois Lane from a helicopter], "I hope none of this has put you off flying. Statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel."

Special effects in movies keep getting more and more impressive, and this movie takes full advantage of the technology available. Consequently, it is yet another movie this summer that is worth seeing on the big screen (there is even an IMAX version of the movie that includes 20 minutes of 3D footage, but I have not had the chance to see that yet).