OK ... so The Wife had an appointment in the early evening, and then had a 2-hour conference call and she wanted The Girls out of the house, so I had to figure some amusement. Of the 3-5 "kid appropriate" movies currently out, there was some "issue" with one or another and so I suggested we go see Superman Returns, which everybody seemed to think was a good idea at the time.It certainly tells you something that both the 6-year-old and the 10-year-old thought it was boring. There were parts here and there that I rather liked, but it sure went on forever (two and a half hours) with lots of lulls inbetween the so-so F/X shots. My 10-year-old daughter was bitching because there weren't any "real fights" where Superman put the whupping on somebody ... she didn't think having Luthor and his thugs kick the shit out of the Kryptonite-weakened Superman counted as a "fight scene". While this wasn't something as drastically testosterone-free as say Fried Green Tomatos, I can certainly see why folks were labeling this as a "chick flik" ... lots of lingering shots on emotive facial expressions, and enough romantic entanglements that my daughter called it "a soap opera".
Oh, and did they waste Peta Wilson much? How depressing for her to have to be taking "table scraps" like the role as the P.R. gal on the shuttle flight! I understand she just missed getting cast as Jean Grey in the X-Men movies, and having to settle for only one major project (2003's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) since the end of "La Femme Nikita" seems to frittering away her best "face years"!
I have lots and lots and lots of questions about plot and continuity issues for the over-all mythos (I see on the IMDB message boards that Superman Returns is a follow-up to Superman 2, ignoring 3 and IV), but they're pretty much beside the point as I've not been a huge fan of the franchise and really haven't been paying too much attention. I was real sad to see Superman lose all his crystals (with the entire knowlege of his race on them), though ... maybe they'll figure out some way for him to get them back from the big green Kryptonite mountain now in orbit if they do "Superman 6: All These Loose Ends or Who's Yo Daddy?"!