Reviews

This movie is so poorly written that its just a non event until the special effects start kicking in. The characters are dull, the story is miserable, and the acting is amateurish. Its not until the world starts going to poop courtesy of some awesome graphics, that the movie takes off from imminent ruin just like in the plot. Then the slow miserable story continues to unfold with some fantastic in between special effects to impress us with. The action sequences are probably the most far fetched ever in movie history, but this wouldn't be so bad if the story was fun, but it isn't. At the end of the film when we see the kind of people who were saved, I was left thinking that I would have rather have been left to perish. Who'd want to be a part of that community who survived? There's so much boring irrelevant movie in this movie that I'm sure the editors could have hacked an hour off of it. If this had been a B movie with low budget SFX, I think it would be one of the worst movies ever made. I'm not kidding. However it is salvaged by a roller coaster ride of some of the most impressive effects I've seen in a movie.

I believe the greatest mistake was made by the Salkinds, by attempting to make two huge movies at the same time. It would have been like making star wars and empire strikes back at the same time. Nevertheless, Donner did a hell of Job to try and pull it off, and superman the Movie is a classic that I grew up with as a kid. However, a lot of Donner's S II footage looks a little tired to me. Lois lane jumping out the window was silly, and some of the action fight scenes in metropolis were dreadful. It looks to me as if the Salkinds actually had no choice but to bring in someone fresh to replace a drained Donner struggling to find creative Ideas to complete the project. If Donner was allowed to concentrate on one movie at a time, I think S II would have been better than lester's version. On the commentary, Donner came across as still being very bitter, and he didn't give Lester any credit at all for what were some great scenes that improved the movie no end compared to Donner's. I think Donner was exhausted and frustrated, and you could tell that his movie was suffering. That being said, it is still a Donner / Lester movie, and much of Donner's work makes S II what it is. Both Directors combined made a great film, and if Brando's scenes were included in the theatrical version, it would be a completed movie where both directors must share the credit. The Salkinds had the money but no movie making sense. We have Lester's Version, and Donner's patched up version, and now we need the ultimate version with the best of both movies, but I'm afraid, apart from the Brando scenes, and a few others, it will mostly be the original theatrical release. Lester deserves more credit for injecting some fresh direction into a movie that we can now see was struggling.

For those who have no trouble detaching their minds from reality, this is a really charming story. However, its almost impossible to take seriously. Alice Evans must have read the script and laughed. A beautiful ambitious woman with a chipper personality, lives with her parents, works with her parents, and the highlight of the week is to go to an old peoples church with her parents. She has no life and yet she likes it like that. That's just ridiculous. She has a boyfriend who's a schmuck, and is rarely ever around. Then all of a sudden this military guy on leave comes into town with soap opera looks. He's a good man, polite, hardworking, kind thoughtful, and charming. It's like he was born with stars and stripes tattooed on his ass. John Newton didn't really have to do much acting, he looked miserable through the whole movie, as if he was thinking, how on earth are people supposed to believe this stuff? Everyone hero worships him because he is basically every prospective mother in law's fantasy son in law. Alice Evans must have thought he was too good to be true, as I guess every woman on the planet would think so. You can almost tell that Newton wanted to scream out a cuss word and go and get drunk, just do something to make us see he is a normal guy. The music is really strange in places too, it reminded me of laurel and hardy a little bit. Even when the mood changes, the music tinkles away in the background without changing. With all that being said, this film's not too bad.

I love the original superman movie, and this carries on where the last one left off. I've got the Donner cut as well but the original is the best. If they put brando's scenes in the theatrical Lester version, then that would be the ultimate version for me. The three villains steal the show in this movie to be honest, particularly the pretentious power hungry Zod. They fly around having a great time wrecking everything while superman is trying to get Lois into his love shack of solitude. The scenes between Lois and superman/Clark are a bit slow and boring. The entire film is building up to the climactic battle in metropolis between superman and the three krypton lunatics who are hell bent on making him kneel. The dialogue is atrocious, but for some reason it all works because the movie isn't trying to be serious. Zod is so happy to see superman at last, he proudly says, "Son of Jor el, we were beginning to think you were a coward", "I'm not a coward, Zod", "then die as you deserve to". Ha ha! Great harmless fun that's far superior to the dreadful "superman returns".

I must say that I'm a huge fan of the 70's superman films with Christopher Reeve. I was only a kid when these movies came out. I couldn't wait to see the new movie but afterwards I was totally gutted. There's something about the magic of the original movies that just isn't in the new one. Brandon Routh looked great as Superman but he had no personality and charm. He always looked too depressed to care to be superman. Christopher reeve's Clark Kent was dorky but charming, Brandon's was just dorky. Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane was a total disaster. She was way to serious. The flirty mischievous cheeky nature of Margot kidder's Lois lane was totally gone. The old films had a great mixture of comedy and seriousness, but the new one is just serious and depressing. Spacey as Lex Luthor was a good, but he could have been less serious as well. The idea of superman having a kid sucked, and now we'll have to put up with him in future sequels. The SFX were awesome, particularly with the plane crash, and it was great to hear the old Andy williams score.

I tried to like this movie but it just isn't likable. I hope they swap Kate Bosworth for someone more lively in the sequels. And I hope they work on Routh's personality.

Yes it is very long (so is the book) and involved, and the movie did not follow the book as much as i'd wished. Its definitely not the sort of film to watch after a hard days work or you'll be snoring before the ring leaves the shire. This is what i call a Sunday afternoon movie where you can really sit/lay back and get into the story and characters. I thought Frodo's Character was not handled too well in all the movies. The early parts where he's in the shire having fun with his buddies is closest to the Frodo of the books. He undergoes a massive psychological change as soon as he learns about the ring which comes across as way too dramatic. I thought Sam's Character was handled really well in all the movies. The characters of Merry & Pipin were not portrayed well at all in TFOTR but towards the end of TTT i thought they were getting the balance right with their clowning around and seriousness. They just came across as irresponsible idiots in the first half of the movie trilogy. Gandalf was portrayed very well. Aragorn wasn't bad but in the book he is far more sophisticated and noble than he is in the film. Overall, i like the movie version, i can adapt my mind to it and enjoy the SFX, action and scenery. 8/10