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Haven't accomplished much today, meant to write this morning but vaccumed and played that Fate videogame instead. Also went to the movie Superman Returns, which I'm not sure would make sense to anyone who had not seen the first two films. It sort of takes it for granted that you have and in some ways acts as a homage to the earlier ones and in others is a sequel or continuance of those first two films. If you did not like the first two Superman films, don't bother seeing this one, if you did like them, you may enjoy this one. Kate Bosworth and Routh are no Margot Kidder and Chris Reeves, but they get the job done more or less. I did miss Kidder and Reeves sense of play and sense of humor. Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey on the other hand do a good job of taking on the roles that had been played by Gene Hackman and I can't remember the other actress' name, she reminds me of Terri Garr. In fact, Spacey may have stolen the film as a chilling yet charismatically intelligent Lex Luther. Frank Lagenella who plays the Chief has little to do and James Marsden, who plays Richard White, Lois' new boyfriend walks around looking pretty. The film has very little dialogue in it - mostly action sequences and visuals. Beautiful in places. I enjoyed it for what it was. But can't say it's memorable. It just scratched my itch, made me happy, let me escape a bit on sweaty Saturday afternoon.

Oh, the trailer for Spiderman 3 is gripping. Apparently the next Spidey is going to well take on the villian Venom, which for anyone who is familar with the comics, is an interesting idea. It also deals with something I was thinking about today - that evil lies inside us all, our worst enemies, I think, are ourselves. Not other people. But us. That was to an extent the themes that Joss Whedon tackled in the last seasons of Buffy, Angel and the film Serenity. Not an easy theme to play around with, mostly, because, I think, most people would rather attack the externalized evil then look inwards and deal with an internal one. That and the fact that introspection? Takes guts. After all, what do you do if you don't like what you see?

Why the World Needs Superman...

I have a weakness for superhero films. Also fantasy films and science fiction action films.
Have seen all the Superman films, including the horror show that was Superman IV, which may be the only film I walked out of, although I came close to walking out of Van Helsing (which gave me a headache) and Star Trek - The Final Frontire. Yes, some weaknesses you pay for.

In some respects Superman Returns may be the most intelligent and introspective of the films. Not to mention the most realistic. While it lacks some of the campy fun and humor of the first two, it actually does haunt you a bit several hours later - which the first two did not.

The subject heading of this post is taken directly from Lois Lane's blank computer screen where she struggles to write an article that counters the one she wins the Pulitzer for - "Why the World Does Not Need Superman".

Superman, for those who aren't up on their comic book action heros or aren't, ahem, comic book geeks, specifically action hero comic book geeks, was created in 1938 by two Jewish boys, Joe Shuster and Jerome Siegel, who "imbued him with the power of a hundred men, of a distant world, and of the full measure of their bespectacled adolescent hopefulness and desperation." (Taken from The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon.) Michael Chabon in his fictional novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which is a novel about two Jewish boys teaming up to write comic books during World War II, writes "Though he had been conceived originally as a newspaper hero, Superman was born in the pages of a comic book, where he thrived, and after this miraculous parturition, the form finally began to emerge from its transitional funk, and to articulate a purpose for itself in the marketplace of ten-cent dreams: to express the lust for pwoer and the gaudy sartorial taste of a race of powerless people with no leave to dress themselves. Comic books were Kid Stuff, pure and true, and they arrived at precisely the moment when kids of America began, after ten years of terrible hardship, to find their pockets burdened with the occassional superfluous dime."

It's no accident that Superman, our first superhero to appear in print, with his red white and blue tights and his amazing powers - and geeky, stuttering, bespeckled and anynonmous alter-ego - was created by two men who felt oppressed themselves. Lonely. Alienated. Outcast.

( spoilers for the film Superman Returns )