Man of Stale?

Note to critics: stop bashing the Superman movie!

I'm tired of hearing the words "stale," "hokey" or "fails to thrill." It's just not that bad of a movie. I think it's the perfect combination of modernizing the storyline and appearance with homage paid to the history, the characters and (yes) the actors that brought Superman from the pages of a comic book to human form and personality. Fer chissakes, are we expected to pretend that there hasn't already been 4 Superman movies?

(Actually, we're just pretending that there's only been two. Subliminal messages are placed throughout the film to convince you three and four never existed.)

Brandon Routh isn't Christopher Reeve, but it's eerie how close he comes (especially considering some of the other (unfortunate) choices being tossed around during the long development period). The character of Lois is a bit too composed for my taste...I like her a little ditzy and flustered, it's part of her charm and why Superman falls for her, but Kate Bosworth does play a good '50's femme fatale and her performance is certainly passable. Kevin Spacey played Lex Luthor just fine (does anyone else feel that he got this role solely based on his 30-second appearance in the third Austin Powers movie, because half the time I was expecting him to raise his pinky to his mouth). And James Marsden does a great job playing the third wheel...<ahem>, I mean husband of Lois, despite the fact that his character probably won't be included past the next sequel (and there's so much groundwork laid for sequels, Bryan Singer must have wet his pants every day making this movie).

So anyway, I liked the movie. I liked it a whole lot better than I've liked either of the two Spiderman movies (they of course showed the trailer for the third installment), but not as much as Batman Returns. Just MHO.

PS. I know, I KNOW! I haven't posted anything lately...I've been busy. And um, lazy. Not L-A-Z-Y, but I haven't felt like writing during my off time (I've read like, six books over the past three weeks though). But I'm back on it now. Expect back posts, vacation and otherwise, soon!