I think Superman is the best superhero. I’m not a comic book fan, and I don’t watch cartoons, but I’ve seen all the movies and TV show. (Well, I only watched the first five seasons of Smallville, but can you blame me?) But honestly when I saw the previews for this movie my first thought was, “Not another Superman movie!” Really, weren’t there enough?
The answer, for the record, is a decided, “NO!”
I got this on DVD from a Redbox, thinking it wouldn’t add much to the Superman Legacy. Wow, was I ever wrong.
This movie was awesome! It was described to me as a “darker Superman” in the same sense that the modern trend is for dark heroes, but that doesn’t really explain what they did here.
First, they began on Krypton with Superman’s parents. They added a whole cultural and political backstory to that planet which, by extension, added dimension to Genreal Zod (who has heretofore been a, ‘BWAHAHA!” sort of bad guy).
Second, they decided to heck with the idea of Lois Lane being brilliant and feisty in every way except the ability to see through a pair of glasses. This was hands down the best version of Lois Lane I’ve ever seen, and I don’t care that they didn’t stay true to her. She was what she should have been, instead of what she was shackled into being by long tradition.
Third, they took Clark on a different sort of journey in which, instead of starting up at the Daily planet, he spends over a decade of his life going from place to place, taking odd jobs, changing his name, and basically coming to terms with his identity. I wasn’t sure what I thought about this part at first but by the end I was totally sold into it. It made sense, and it made him more of a person.
Fourth, the ACTION was superb! Usually Superman manages to leave his cities intact when he fights, but someone must have thought to themselves, “How would the physics of that work?” because seriously, when gods start fighting, mortals get trampled. The destruction left in the wake of the fighting between Superman and General Zod upped the ante on the Superman experience.
And yet… fifth, somehow the humans in this show came across as more than lovable pets that Superman protected. Maybe I’m overstating how it’s been before, but there was something in this movie that made me feel like the human characters were more praoctive. Humans are even instrumental in eventually solving this crisis.
This movie would have been perfect if Superman had really jumped instead of flown. I almost thought they were going there at first… that his ability to fly was simply a matter of him extending his strength into a super jump… but then he hovered. Ah well, can’t have everything.
If you haven’t seen this movie yet, what are you waiting for? GO on, get it!