Batutta
Major Contributor
I thought the movie was flat as well. The first forty five minutes. Boring as hell. Just flat, unfunny and unintersting. The next hour, pretty decent. About thirty minutes when some actual jeopardy was going on in the story, it was pretty good. But I was never bowled over by anything in this film. I place the majority of the blame on the screenwriters. They suck. Those two dudes also wrote X2 and I had the same problems with that as I had with this. The story lacked dimension and complexity. The script for X2 and Superman Returns both had this lazy, lackluster pacing to them. Way too linear and schematic. But my biggest complaint is that the film lacks personality, a quality Superman 1 had in spades. The dialogue in Supes 1 had a wit and verve to it. The scenes had energy and humor. Too many scenes in this film had a flat, uninspired tone, as if the actors were just going through the motions. Also, I think they leaned a bit too heavily on the previous movies, not thinking they had to get us reinvested in the characters, but with new actors in the roles I think that was a mistake. I found Superman/Clark and Lois Lane to be kind of dull and uninteresting for most of the film. The actors were fine, although twenty other actresses could have played Lois just as well, they just didn't give them enough good scenes and lines to deliver. That's the overall. Then there are just some logic questions the movie glosses over. I mean, Superman and Clark show up at exactly the same time and no one notices. Some ace reporters they got there at the Daily Planet. This was also a problem that was easily solvable. They should have had Clark show up first and bide his time, maybe waiting for six months before reappearing as Superman. He could finally be spurred into action by a huge event like the shuttle accident. Anyway, this is nitpicking. I just thought the film was so-so. All the elements were there for greatness, a solid actor playing Superman, an ideal actor playing Lex, a talented director, but those two screenwriters bungled it, delvering a lame, tepid screenplay. I also wasn't nuts about the look of the film. The real locations in Superman 1 helped sell the fantasy for me and too much of this had a fake, backlot glossiness to it. Personally, I had more fun watching X3. Dumb, yeah, but at least it wasn't boring.
) and I've gotten very acquainted with the comic book Lex Luthor and Superman. This goofy Lex Luthor and overly shy Superman just didn't really do it for me. However, Superman is a character that can be done in so many different ways (ie. Movie Superman vs. Cartoon Superman vs. Comic Book Superman), so the movies don't have to be like the comics or cartoons.
