Running Scared - 7/10
Doom - 4/10
Clerks II - 8/10
Pirates 2 - 7/10
Superman Returns - 8/10
Wow, you really liked
Superman Returns a lot more than I did. My review of the film:
Supermen Returns is the long awaited revival of the comic book hero to the big screen since he first arrived back in 1978. This gargantuan 2006 production finds our Superhero returning to Metropolis, the Daily Planet, and Lois Lane after an extended absence in which Superman apparently returned to Krypton to confirm the destruction of the planet of his birth. Upon his return to Metropolis, Clark Kent finds his old job back at the Daily Planet, finds out that Lex Luthor is back on the loose after five years in prison and that Lois Lane is engaged and has a child.
Director and co-writer Bryan Singer has mounted this production with a great deal of care and attention to detail. He seems to have been attempting to revive the spirit of the original 1978 film, as certain dialogue, settings, and music have been lifted and re-thought from the 1978 film (including Superman and Lois' romantic flight over Metropolis to "Can You Read My Mind?") but it all rings hollow for me because the film is lacking the primary ingredient that made the 1978 film so successful...humor.
Singer has directed this film with a totally straight face. It is dark, bleak, and humorless, the only exception to that being the deliciously campy performance from Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Taking the humor out of the story also affects its pacing giving us a long and laborious film that offers state of the art special effects but not much else.
The casting ranges from OK to completely off the mark. Brandon Routh is sincere as Clark Kent/Superman and his resemblance to the late Christopher Reeve doesn't exactly work against him. Kate Bosworth is bland and unconvincing as Lois Lane...the emotional spitfire that Margot Kidder created back in 78 looks better and better after this tired interpretation of the role. Frank Langella is miscast as Perry White as is Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olsen and James Marsden fails to bring any spark to the proceedings as Richard White, Perry's nephew and Lois' fiancée. Even the normally charismatic Parker Posey fails to liven the proceedings as Luthor's new mistress, Kitty.
I also found it hard to accept the fact that Lois could fall in love with anyone else, much less have a child with him. The whole idea of Lois falling in love with another man works against the entire legend of these two characters and may be at the crux of why this this movie doesn't work.