Brandon Routh as Clark Kent/Superman
Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane
Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor
Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olsen
Frank Langella as Perry White
Parker Posey as Kitty Kowalski
Eva Marie Saint as Martha Kent
Marlon Brando as Jor-El [archive footage]
Director- Bryan Singer
Writers- Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris, Bryan Singer. Superman Returns (2006): I like this
movie, but there's just one problem: The guy they got to play
Superman looks all of 12. He's not a bad actor, but he looks way
too young to be Superman. If they were making a Superboy movie,
he'd be top contender, but Superman? Uh, uh. Especially
since this movie is about an older, experienced Superman. They
should have at least cast a man in his thirties, or they could have
made Brandon look more buff...something is needed. But that's why
the movie did "sort of okay" at the box office and wasn't the
tremendous blockbuster spectacular everyone was expecting. I also
thought Kate Bosworth was too young to play a thirty-something Lois
Lane.
It seems Warner Bros. wants to bury this movie under
the rug, pretend it doesn't exist, and reboot the Superman movie
franchise. I think that's a bit harsh. This was a really
good movie except for the casting of Superman, himself. And it
wasn't even terrible casting, just misguided. I thought Kevin
Spacey as Lex Luthor was AWESOME! I'm not a huge Kevin Spacey fan
by any measure, but he's improved over the years, and his role as Lex
Luthor is proof. He does justice to the role practically invented
by his predecessor Gene Hackman. He acts enough like Hackman's
Lex Luthor to give us what we expect to see, while putting enough of
his own personality in it to make him a fresh character. Great
job, Kevin!
The movie itself gives us all the grand spectacle
and epic storytelling we've come to expect in a Superman movie. I
even like the basic idea of the movie. Superman has been away for
a long time (5 years) and returns to Earth. Things have changed,
and not for the better. His true love Lois Lane has a young son
and a fiance. Lex Luthor is out of prison and causing serious
trouble again. The world is in worse shape than when Superman
left it and he feels bad about that. Superman has a whole mess of
super problems to work out!
"Superman Returns" is a loose sequel to the
Christopher Reeve "Superman" films. Director Bryan Singer has
publicly stated that this movie follows up on "Superman" (1978) and
"Superman II" (1980), but entirely ignores "Superman III" (1983) and
"Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" (1987). Perhaps it would have
been wise to acknowledge Superman III and IV, as those movies are also
well-liked. What I think is silly is that they still acknowledge
Marlon Brando's performance as Jor-El in the original "Superman" movie,
but rewrote that Clark Kent's adoptive mother Martha is still
alive. Singer and the writers just kind of followed what they
wanted to in the first two Superman movies, and did what they wanted to
the rest of the way. And why was Lex Luthor completely bald in
this movie instead of partially bald? How do they explain
that? It was actually a good thing, though, as I prefer Lex
Luthor to be entirely bald; most people do. The point is that
this isn't an entirely faithful follow-up to the classic "Superman"
films of the 1970s-80s.
This movie is worth watching. It's a fun
superhero movie with a new idea that's never before been tried on
Superman.
Alternate
Titles
For
This Film:
Red Sun [US; fake working title]
Superman V [US; working title]
Superman Reborn [US; working title]
Fun Facts:
During the tournament's early fight scenes, the
screen layout and announcer's voice are taken directly from the video
game.
The volleyball scene referenced the spinoff game,
"Dead or Alive XTreme Beach Volleyball". Even the ball in the
movie is replicated from the one in the game.
In the film, Natassia Malthe's hair is
purple. On the back of the DVD cover, it is blonde.
Brian J. White's character has a very distinctive
little bit of black hair on his mostly-bald head. On the front of
the DVD cover, he is pictured entirely bald.
In the movie, Christie is said to be a thief and
assassin. In the games, Christie was ONLY an assassin.
In the movie, Christie's last name is
Allen. This was never revealed in the previous games.
In the movie, Christie's hair is blonde. In
the games, Christie's hair is white.
In the games, Helena was an opera singer and of
French nationality. Neither one of these is addressed in the
movie.
Bayman is a loyal bodyguard to Donovan in this
movie. In the games, Bayman wants to kill Donovan for trying to
kill him first.
This movie was made to be the first in a trilogy,
but it's rather poor box office and DVD sales performance forced the
producers to abort the sequels.
This movie was made on a budget of 21 million
dollars (USD) and made a total of only 7 million dollars (USD).
Production of this movie took only a little over
two months (May-July, 2005). That's pretty speedy, considering
how elaborate this film was made.