I saw the new Superman movie the other day. It has taken me a few days to digest the results.
Superman is iconic. It is hard to dislike a movie of his, unless the director hates the subject. I mean, as soon as they started playing the Superman march, it was impossible not to feel pumped. You watch the man of steel lifting something heavy and you feel inspired. And the director did a lot of good things. He did a good job of showing how invulnerable he is. And I give points for never shoving America into our faces. A character even asks if he still stands for truth and justice. He never asks about the “American way”. I thought that was a nice touch.
But there were problems too. I don’t want to discuss them in detail because I don’t want to spoil the movie for others. The timing was off. We take too long to see things evolve that should just end with Superman showing up. They did that well in the first movie, but in this one we see superfluous special effects. Near the end of the movie we see Superman put in a situation that I feel should have a more profound effect and lasted longer, but then it just goes away.
Lex Luthor in this day and age is supposed to be a ruthlessly evil billionaire. But since this movie is based off the original ones, he is back to being an evil real-estate agent.
The reason I bring these up is that I was similarly disappointed with X-Men United. Superman Returns was a much better movie, but I still found faults.
The question is this: As I become older, am I no longer enjoying the good superhero action movies? Do I now prefer dramas? It a frightening prospect. I can deal with my body falling apart. But if I can’t enjoy a good action movie, a certain quality of life issue rears its ugly head.