After suffering a near fatal dose of cinematic Kryptonite, a.k.a. bad sequels, the man in the blue tights and red cape is back on the big screen in Warner Bros.’ Superman Returns, a film that promises to do for the franchise what Warner’s Batman Begins did for the Dark Knight’s cinematic career. Expect a number of your co-workers to call in sick today since the film opened with late-night screenings that drew crowds of DC Comics fans and other moviegoers hungry for a good summer popcorn flick.
Directed by Bryan Singer (X-Men, X-2: X-Men United, The Usual Suspects), Superman Returns stars newcomer Brandon Routh as the title character, created for the comics pages by Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster in 1939. In the film, the last son of Krypton returns to Earth after a mysterious absence of several years to find that the world he protected and the woman he loved have learned to get along without him. Meanwhile, old nemesis Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is up to his old tricks and launches a scheme that will send our hero on an epic journey of redemption.
The script was penned by the writing team of Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty, who also wrote X2: X-Men United and Singer’s upcoming Logan’s Run remake. Dougherty studied animation at N.Y.U under Oscar winner John Canemaker and worked as an animator on such shows as Blue’s Clues and Little Bill, in addition to making his own animated shorts.
As it rolls out in conventional theaters, Superman Returns also flies into IMAX venues, where 20 minutes of it are presented in stereoscopic 3D. During select sequences of the film, a visual cue designed by Singer will tell viewers when they should put on and remove their IMAX 3D glasses. This may be the best way to view some of he film’s many visual effects, which were provided by an army of artists at Sony Pictures Imageworks, Framestore CFC, The Orphanage, Rhythm & Hues, Frantic Films Pixel Liberation Front, Digital Neural Axis, New Deal Studios Inc., Rising Sun Pictures, Lola Visual Effects and Photon VFX.
The film has been receiving mostly good reviews, though Roger Ebert and critics for The L.A. Times and New York Times suggest staying away. But those downward-pointing thumbs will no doubt bounce off the Man of Steel like so much heavy artillery as the movie is sure to rake in plenty of the green stuff during the long holiday weekend. Warner Bros. will then face tough competition from Disney the following weekend when Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest opens on July 7.
For a behind-the-scenes look Superman Returns‘ visual effects work and a chat with screenwriter Michael Dougherty, pick up the July issue of Animation Magazine, available at Barnes & Noble locations and other fine booksellers.
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