Peregrine

Today, my wife and I decided to get out of the house and take in a movie. We saw the new Superman film, “Superman Returns.” (Ed. It now looks like the site is being redirected to http://supermanreturns.warnerbros.com/ and the new site now requires Flash 8 to view anything.)

I would recommend this movie to any movie-goers out there. It was thouroughly entertaining, had a really good story that fits into the Superman universe just right and even fits with the older films, and the cast really can act.

Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Excellent. I can’t think of anyone else who could have filled Gene Hackman’s shoes better. I’ve liked everything I’ve seen Spacey do and he still continues to impress with his range and talent.

Brandon Routh plays Clark Kent/Superman. He looked a little young for the part in the ads I had seen. If anything, this was the one thing I was concerned with going into the theater. But, that concern faded after only a couple of scenes (he didn’t interact much in the first scene, so it was hard to gauge at that point). He did an excellent job as the Man of Steel and absolutely on the money as Clark Kent. His voice even has some of the qualities of the late, great Christopher Reeve’s which, in my mind, help sell the character and the actor.

Kate Bosworth plays Lois Lane. In this story, the character of Lois has evolved quite a bit in the five years that Superman was absent. During the film, I had this feeling like something was missing from this character. It wasn’t until after the movie that I realized as I thought back on it that her character was 100% accurate and that Bosworth had played it perfectly. Sometimes, it was like Margot Kidder coached her.

Great performances were turned in by Frank Langella as Perry White and James Marsden as Richard White.

I don’t want to give anything away, so I won’t. I’ll simply sum up with this:

Superman Returns gets a 9 out of 10 in my book (which will only have one film at 10, ever). It’s a must see and with some of the very impressive shots in the film, you will want to see it first on the silver screen.

Tonight, my wife and I went to see a movie. We didn’t know what we were going to see before we got to the theater. We decided on the third installment in the Mission: Impossible series of films.

It was good. Charlotte & I both liked it. Some of the “plot twists” were completely predictable to me (I don’t know about her, I learned to not wreck it for her by asking, “Have you figured it out already, too?”), but I still enjoyed learning the details.

The only thing that bothered me was that it felt like the story ended a little too soon. I thought there were a couple of threads left hanging that shouldn’t have been left behind like that. They are not elements that hint at another movie or even seem to try to make a point. However, I won’t spoil the film for those of you who have yet to see it. I’ll say just this: the one big unanswered question at the end of the film is not on this list; I was not bothered by that at all. In fact, I thought it was a bit fun to never know.

So, I would say that if you enjoyed the first two movies, then it’s a good bet you’ll go for the third. There are a couple of great scenes that you really want to see on the big screen at least once, but not so many as in the first two films. However, if you felt that M:I2 was not as good as the original, then I think you’ll be pleased with M:I3; it brings things back up, though I still feel that the first film was the best of the three (so far).