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The movie is only about a week and a half old, so hopefully I can persuade or disuade some of you from seeing it. First I’ll talk about the movie in general, then about the “Imax Experience.”

To understand the movie you have to get the general picture: Superman (Brandon Routh) left Earth 5 years ago when scienests thought that his home planet Krypton might not have been destroyed. But it was. So he comes back, and everything has changed. Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth,) his former - pretty much girlfriend who knew his true idenity - has moved on. She has gotten married, had a son, and written an award-winning article called “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman.” Ouch.

Meanwhile, his arch-enemy, Lex Luther (Kevin Spacey) has gotten out of jail and is trying to do something evil. Why did he get out of jail so fast? The primary witness, Superman wasn’t there. So he’s back and he has to deal with the new situation with Lois and her husband, who although you want to hate is a very nice guy. Oh - and then there’s the whole evil plot thing.

I saw the original Superman and Superman 2 which were pretty good, but the effects - I guess they were good for back then, but by today’s standards they were horrible. The CGI in Superman Returns, though is just plain amazing. It’s probably the best special effects I’ve ever seen. But that’s not a huge deal, because it’s the most recent summer blockbuster I’ve ever seen. The Spiderman films still have a sense of reality to them, he’s hanging from webs, while Superman just kind of can fly and float. They do a really good job of making him flying look realistic, but not fake.

Although the set-up for the story is good, the playout of it doesn’t really work that well. They never really do resolve the whole thing with Lois’s husband. The action really dominates the movie more than the story or characters.
Brandon Ruth’s acting is pretty much an imitation of Christopher Reeves’. I mean, he has some nice little touches here and there, but it’s pretty much the same as Reeves. I guess that if he had made it his own people would just say “He’s not what I know Superman as” so I can give him some credit there.

Kevin Spacey does a pretty good job. He’s funny, but he’s just a little bit out of sync with the rest of the movie. He’s to cartoonish, to bold and funny. Kate Bosworth, on the other hand is probably the best out of everyone. She acts very realistically throughout the movie, and does some pretty good acting towards the huge and sad event near the end.

The director, Bryan Singer does have some nice things in there. The way he films the beginning and some of the rest of the movie is midly stylistic. He has some nice shots and some cool camera angles, especially in the action scenes.

And of course, the music. Bryan Singer said he would only do this movie if he could use the original Superman theme composed by no other than John Williams. Although Williams didn’t compose the score for this movie, his themes are used throughout, bringing you back to the originals.

And last but not least: T H E 3 D I M A X E X P E R I E N C E. It was pretty cool. The 3D was just an advertising gimmick, a mere 20 minutes of the movie were actually 3D. Hey - it was pretty cool - a lot better than those blue and red paper things they used for Spy Kids 3. In addition, all 3 (!) trailers in the beginning were in 3D which was pretty nice. But you shouldn’t go to the Imax version for the 3D, even though it’s pretty cool when it does happen. Instead, you should go for the H U G E screen and the B O O M I N G sound effects. Overall, worth the extra $5 if there’s an Imax theater near you, and the seats are great because there is like a whole foot of space between each row of seats. Did I mention the huge screen?

So overall, Superman Returns is an action-packed, story slacked, CGI hacked, and super-fat summer blockbuster. With some nice things here and there. But still, it’s nothing compared to the Spiderman films.

8/10

Spiderman 2, the sequel to the summer hit: Spiderman 1. Is it up to par with the first one? Or is it down the drain pipe? We’ll see then, won’t we?

After Spiderman 1, many people were very excited about the second one. So was I. I remember seeing it in theaters. The movie has much of the same things as in 1, but it is slightly different. There is plot and story, but it’s not as character driven as the first one.

Spiderman 2 picks up pretty much where the first one left off, it’s a few years later but not much as changed - he’s still the wall-crawling, web-flinging, tight-wearing, New-York-flying superhero that we all know and love. And he still loves Mary Jane, who he is now friends with. But he wants to be MORE than friends, but knows that he can’t because, hey - Spiderman has quite a few enemies. In addition, on of his idols, (or more, Peter’s) the scientist Otto Octavious has just found a new energy source and is about to test it. But something goes wrong, and the arms that were attached to his back to help him with the new energy source (basically a mini sun) become so smart that they take over him, and now this man will stop at nothing to get the test back up and running again. He becomes Spiderman’s newest enemy. Meanwhile, Spiderman feels conflicted. His powers go away sometimes (”ouch” is right) and he is finding it difficult to deal with his double life. So that’s the scene in Spiderman 2, a pretty complex story, but a good one.

This sequel has much of the same things as the orinal Spiderman, but it misses some other thing. For one, it’s not as much character driven, it’s a little bit more loose on the plot line. There are much more action scenes that are, as in the first one, very well played out, but they don’t have as much to do with the story as in the first one. I mean, it’s still a great and enjoyable movie, but hey - it’s a sequel.

The acting is equal to that of Spiderman 1, and the new actor, Alfred Molina who plays Otto Octavious does a very good job in his role. But a note on Octavious: He has nothing to do with the overall story of Spiderman. I mean, it’s really the same thing as with the Green Goblin, a genius scientist’s science overpowers him and takes control of him. It’s the same theme, and I think that it’s an interesting one, but it repeats two movies in a row.

So although Spiderman 2 is a fantastic movie, an amazing sequel, and very well done, it misses some of the subtle things that Spiderman 1 had. Still, it’s a great movie, so I’ll only take half a point off for it:

8.5/10