Superman Returns: eh

Last night, I got a Tuesday treat -- M took me out to dinner and a movie. Well, the dinner was the Chinese buffet, since it was right next door to the theater, but it was still good. Gotta love $5 Tuesdays at the movie theater, too.

Anyway, we saw the new Superman movie. Being children of the '80s, we both have fond memories of the original Superman franchise -- especially the second one. (M likes to yell "Kneel before Zod!") Man, Brandon Routh looks like Chris Reeve. It's really almost creepy. Nice to look at, but not a great actor.

More thoughts on the movie:

• As much as I like and respect Kevin Spacey, I miss Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, along with his bumbling sidekick Otis. He was more fun.
  
• They tried to fit way too much into the plot of this one.
  
• While Bryan Singer stayed pretty true to the original look and feel of the franchise -- Perry White actually says "great Caesar's ghost" at one point, the soaring John Williams score starts the movie, along with the same titles, and even the Daily Planet looks the same -- I would have loved it had he gone out on a limb more and brought the character into the 21st century. Granted, Superman is more one-dimensional than, say, Batman and Spider-Man -- those dudes got ISSUES. But wouldn't it have been cool had he, while he was gone, met some other chickie? Visited other solar systems? No, he went and did what he had to do and came back. Bor-ing.
  
• I did like Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane. Less hard-edged than Margot Kidder, but still pretty damn tough while staying feminine.

You can check out other reviews of the movie here.