I don't know why I still feel the need to defend this movie, but I guess I'm just looking for some fairness in reporting more than anything else.
Only 6 movies have ever broken $50 million on July 4th weekend, and Superman Returns did it with $52.6 million (and it didn't even star Will Smith, like most of the others on this list), coming in 3rd place. I'm not sure if people just wanted to see Warner Bros. lose due to the over $300 million they spent on making and marketing this thing, but it's definitely not the bomb that people are making it out to be. Competition is about to get brutal, however, with Pirates 2 about to come out.
On the flipside, people are GUSHING about how amazing the box office performance was for The Devil Wears Prada, and yet it was only the 15th best of this year, beaten by such HUGE hits (not) as Big Momma's House 2 and Inside Man, neither of which ended up breaking $100 million. In fact, Superman Returns' initial 5 day total ($84.7 million) almost outgrossed Inside Man's entire domestic take ($88.4 million). Plus, Prada will have much tougher competition than Momma and Inside Man had, with Pirates 2 and My Super Ex-Girlfriend about to come out.
So, great counter-marketing on Fox's behalf, but please everyone... get a grip.
Superman Returns is a great movie. Thanks for defending it. I'm trying to make all my friends to watch it. Mr. Singer must be recognized for his good work.
Posted by: Mauricio Ribeiro da Fonseca | July 18, 2006 at 10:10 AM
Superman Returns is really one of my favorites and i'd say that Singer really is one of the best director in action movies. The story is just so cool!! the action and romance parts are really realistic!!!
Posted by: Eiko Carol | July 19, 2006 at 05:20 PM
Hi Craig. Please keep defending Superman for us. I loved the movie (have seen it 4 times so far), and am desperate for sequels. Superman is definitely my kind of hero (I loved Christopher Reeve and the original Superman movie too.) I am desperate for sequels and want Bryan Singer to make them. (In spite of my last name, we are not related and I've never met him.)
I've written some comments about the movie, and wanted to share them. You might find them over the top, over long, or even incomprehensible. This is just how I get when something really moves me deeply, and it's the best I can do. Feel free to delete.
Thanks again for defending Superman. Here are my comments:
Last week, I purchased the "Superman Returns" soundtrack, and have listened to it daily with a treadmill thundering under my feet ever since. Viewing the movie four times, I loved it more each time. However, listening to the awesome soundtrack has illuminated my vision, telling me more about the movie and rendering it profound. John Ottman stands on John Williams’ shoulders, but what artist doesn’t stand on many shoulders? Crafting the new score without Williams’ Superman themes would have required massive arrogance. Instead, Ottman rejuvenates Williams’ themes, adding dimensions encompassing Heaven and Hell in the cosmic space of the new score.
Ottman’s thug themes remind me of Leonard Bernstein’s bad boys in "West Side Story," but they’ve now grown to full scale demons. Listening to their themes clashing with Superman’s themes, I hear angels and insects. Visually, Lex Luther’s dark-crystal world, a paradise lost, is surely chaos built of Milton’s “dark materials.” Attacking Kal-el, Luther and his gang echo a "West Side Story" street fight, but Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luther has the seductively brilliant sparkle and vengeful arrogance of Milton’s supreme fallen angel. He stands apart casting “baleful eyes” on his “horrid crew” who pummel Superman, and they appear as if “rolling in the fiery gulf” of invisible flames and visible darkness in Milton’s Hell. Brutal hurling sends Kal-el’s fetal form rolling and colliding sharply against rocks. The wing-like cape curling around his tumbling body evokes car-struck birds and demon-tossed angels. Meanwhile, musical light fights dark on a cosmic scale: from deepest voice, percussion and brass to angelic vocals, woodwind and harp, a full spectrum of musical sounds joins the battle. During “Not Like a Train Set,” one eerily deep female voice, reminiscent of a grieving Lothlorien Elf, renders just two notes for one of my favorite musical moments. The battle of stressful sounds rages on in a contemporary mode recalling the music of Philip Glass. Superman’s villains, enemies of our time, flourish in this musical setting.
Furthermore, musical resonance with "West Side Story" refers indirectly to Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet." In the film, Superman stands happily transfixed, his x-ray gaze following a Lois Lane warmly wrapped in golden light as she ascends via elevator to the Daily Planet’s roof. Accompanying music levitates me with her. Subliminally and humorously, Superman may be musing that his lady love is flying, and they are not so different after all. On another level, he is Romeo, and Juliet is headed for the balcony.
All goodness flows from love, and Superman embodies love in the epic struggle. Therefore, it is important that we fall in love with Superman and what he represents: the love story and the battle epic are inseparable. If we fall in love with goodness (Superman), we can take our power from the source of light (sun), bringing active compassion into our world. "Superman Returns" does accomplish this task for us. We do fall in love with goodness, and we are invested with power for good.
In addition, I have no problem contemplating a Christ-like Kal-el floating for several beats before he plummets. Why rush forward to a plot point, thereby obscuring the transcendent moment? Contemplation and transcendence are peak experiences we can recover from this movie. I have no problem with a Christ-like figure sacrificing more than once either—if we were to bear the pain of sacrifice once, would we do it again? The archetypal redeemer who dies and rises again has been around since the dawn of agricultural society: the plant dies, and the seed rises again to feed us. The archetype’s spiritual truth exists beyond organized religion’s expressions of it. A movie like "Superman Returns" triumphs by liberating the truth from partisan stains and trappings. Similarly, while we hope that truth and justice are the American way, it would be best if truth and justice were the way of the world.
Superman Returns engenders hope, and the persistence of hope together with expectation of grace is our only fail-safe antidote for the soul-destroying state of our times. Movie-makers are magicians. Boys and girls at play, they make us believe a man can not only fly, but may take external control of a renegade jet with his bare hands: it’s great. At some point in the creative process, higher consciousness breaks in, adopting the elements of play for its own purpose. Magicians give us art then. John Ottman, Bryan Singer, writers, actors, and everyone else who worked on Superman Returns have given us art: all we need do is open ourselves to its effects.
Note to Warner Brothers: don’t waste the gifts of Brandon Routh, Bryan Singer and company on materialistic grounds. Back the sequel—for goodness’ sake.
Posted by: d singer | July 20, 2006 at 08:31 AM
ummm.... okay...
(sound of crickets chirping)
Posted by: Craig Beilinson | July 20, 2006 at 09:27 AM