Superman Returns

[matt35mm]

I was a bit surprised to discover that this is getting really great reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.  There aren't that many reviews, but they're pretty much all very enthusiastic.

[MacGuffin]

3-D gives "Superman" added depth in Imax
 
Bryan Singer was gushing about some in-your-face Smallville corn. "Look at that! Oh, look at the corn." The director of "Superman Returns," wearing plastic 3-D glasses, was sitting in an empty Imax theater at Universal City a few days ago where he saw his own movie in an unexpected way.

"Superman Returns" opens June 28 in standard-screen theaters — but there's a version with 20 minutes of 3-D footage that will open in more than 115 Imax theaters, making it by far the widest release in the history of those king-sized screens. It will also become the first Hollywood film to be shown at the Smithsonian Institution's Imax theater in Washington.

There's some element of surprise in all of this: Singer and his crew did not film their movie with multiple cameras (the traditional way to attain the 3-D illusion). Instead, Imax Corp. tech teams took Singer's footage and created an after-the-fact 3-D quality by adding digital "shadows" that mimic planes of depth.

Earlier this year, the Imax people sent Singer a trailer that had been 3-D-ified and he was immediately on board. Last Friday, he got his second taste with the Universal City screening of scenes such as Superman rescuing a crashing, crumbling jetliner and Clark Kent bounding through cornfields on his own Kansas homestead.

How did it look? Singer was thrilled but others attending the screening were put off by a distracting blurring effect that crops up when the action crosses the screen at high speed. Still, some sequences — such as that plummeting plane — have an undeniable gee-whiz factor. Hollywood is hoping that in the year to come that sense of wonder will keep people munching popcorn at theaters instead of joining the stay-at-home parade of DVD buyers.

Singer was clearly a fan. After the screening, he was eager to call his director pal, James Cameron, a big proponent of 3-D and Imax, to chat about the new process. Singer also talked about adding some unique footage to the Imax version — restoring some footage to the early part of the film (it showed Superman on the gutted husk of Krypton) that might be especially dramatic with the visual effect.

And how will viewers know when the 3-D scenes are on? An Imax official said there would be a visual alert flashed on screen (such as a pair of green glasses in the corner) but Singer said there's a more intuitive cue. "Pretty much when Clark Kent takes his glasses off," Singer said, "you put yours on."

[polkablues]

I'm absolutely going to see this on Imax.  It's about the only way I can make myself excited for this movie. 

I went and saw Batman Begins on the Imax screen, and it's definitely an impressive experience.  The only downside to it (besides my getting there late and having to sit way off to the side of the screen) is that all the little scratches and hairs and whatnot on the reel are VERY noticeable when projected sixty feet high.  A fly went in front of the projector a few times and made a shadow the size of a Mini Cooper.

[©brad]

all these tv spots i'm seeing are hella-spoilerful. great though.

[diggler]

saw goblet of fire on imax and it was great.

if there's one movie that should be on imax, it's superman

[Ghostboy]

Amazing. My interest in this film suddenly dropped about 90%.

Amazing. Yesterday, I ate my own words, and they were fucking delicious.

I have very little personal connection to Superman (a la RK), aside from the pair of pajamas I had from the age of 6 to8. And I fucking loved this movie. I shed many a tear. Bryan Singer, I love you.

[modage]

best...news....ever.  i've got my tix for tues at 10.

[Pubrick]

aside from the pair of pajamas I had from the age of 6 to8.

hahah, man my biggest connection to superman is actually a comic i was reading around the same age, actually i was 6 it's one of my earliest memories. anyway it was in spanish and the deal is that superman is going into outer space and something bad happens cos he's in an astronaut suit and his FACE BURNS UP! i got really scared and i cried. now i'm not sure if it was superman who burned up, but the image is seared in my memory..

[RegularKarate]

Great, GB...

I have been pso psyched about this movie, but my excitement has tripled today after reading all the great reviews then coming here and seeing that you liked it.

[pete]

I was obsessed when I was a little kid.  I loved the movies and the cartoon series.  Had a yellow pajama with the superman logo on it. 
I adopted a strayed cat that stayed in my apartment when I was 6.  the cat ran away the weekend after.  I named her Clark.  But then realized that Clark was a human name, so I changed her name to Meow Meow Clark.

[Ravi]

You could have named her Clark Kat.  Or Lois Feline.  Or Lex Luth-purr.

[pete]

I did not speak English back then. 

[Gamblour.]

Pros:
Parker Posey
James Marsden learning how to act
The kid didn't have many lines

Cons:
Fell asleep
Kate Bosworth = bland
No lines for Kumar

Winner:
Kevin Motherfuckin Spacey

[modage]

mostly loved it.  routh is great.  lois needs bangs.  lex's stuff could've been stronger.  i could probably get pretty nit picky with it, but overall its pretty great.

[grand theft sparrow]

It exceeded my expectations.  I could have sat there watching for another 30 minutes.  Even the little things that bugged me were still utilized as well as possible. 

Kate Bosworth (who does indeed need bangs) lacked Margot Kidder's sass but she was good enough to make me forget that she's 14 years old. 

Parker Posey's one moment to shine redeemed her being a low-rent Miss Teschmacher for the rest of the movie. 

I'm sure that ALL of Kal Penn's dialogue was Otis-esque and ended up on the cutting room floor, because they wouldn't have made as big of a deal of him signing on to do it if he was only just there to be the "hey, THAT guy!" in the movie (a la Simon Pegg in Mission: Impossible III). 

I HATE when they put kids in movies like this but this time it worked.  The kid was neither syrupy-sweet cute nor charmingly precocious.  He was just a regular douchebag kid, nothing special about him.  Though the piano playing was irritating.

Spacey.

And I take back every snide remark I've made about Brandon "Who the fuck is Brandon Routh?" Routh.  He is the second coming of Christopher Reeve.

Pretty outstanding.  Might have even liked it more than Batman Begins.