Movie Review: Superman

Due to the hype and the comments on talk shows about the new movie "Superman", I was surprised at just how bad this movie is. There is no evidence of a coherent sequential story anywhere in these two hours. The characters fly in and out of scenes, with no explanation as to who they are or what they are doing in this badly written screenplay. This is another screenplay that should have had about 5 more re-writes, but this takes too long, and costs the studio money.

In this story, Lois Lane is currently involved with Superman, so there is no mystery about who Clark Kent really is or the ongoing ridiculous "taking eyeglasses off and on" as a major disguise for a superhero. The Superman outfit is nothing new, with tights and red underwear, which, since the beginning of this superhero icon in 1938, one would think would have mutated into a less humiliating outfilt for the actor to wear after so many years.

For this latest Superman film, there are other superheroes, including: Green Lantern, played by Nathan Fillion, Mister Terrific, played by Edi Gathego, Metamorpho, played by Anthony Carrigan, Harkgirl, in a very small part played by Isabela Merced, and The Engineer, played by Maria Gabriela de Faria. Except Green Lantern and Mister Terrific, it is hard to understand why most of the other characters are in this movie, with parts this small.

This movie stars newcomer David Corenswet as Superman, who is well cast and believable as the new Superman and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, who is also very good in her role. Unfortunately, the love story between the two is not nearly strong enough, with one exception: an argument during an interview between the two at the beginning of this movie that I thought was well acted. Nicholas Hoult plays the evil Lex Luthor, in a role that I thought was about on a par with Gene Hackman, who played this role in the films that starred Christopher Reeve, starting in 1978.

The rest of this story is all about action scenes, fight scenes, and frequent appearances of an AI dog that jumps on people every time he appears in a scene - not funny enough to save this mostly bad movie. One unique aspect about this new Superman version is how badly and how often Superman is beaten up, which, given the many fans of this superhero and children in the audience, is yet another problem with this film.

Rotten Tomatoes has too high ratings of 82% I can only attribute to favors and payoffs, because this movie is at best 60%, only for some of the insane action scenes. I rate this new Superman movie a disappointing pass, bad enough to potentially hurt the possibility of a sequel.