Reviews

The real failure of this film isn't that it's overcomplicated in terms of plot. It is definitely overloaded with plots and subplots, characters, and various allusions to the arts. Its downfall is that it uses its central theme of media criticism as an excuse not to present its ideas coherently -- it critiques an incoherent form in an incoherent way. Pot Kettle Black.

The primary thing that keeps the film from succeeding as a whole is its constant shifts in tone. While the filmmakers might argue that they are aping/satirizing the way we get information through the media, it makes for a rotten experience at the cinema. Some scenes are sketch comedy, some are ponderous (in a good sense), there is a bit of action and bit of fun with setting of the film. Without a truly riveting lead character or other weighted focus point it falls apart -- really by the conclusion of the film it's just white noise.

The casting is meant to be part of the media critique, but it's works against the film to keep thinking, 'hey -- that's the guy from Revenge of the Nerds and Moonlighting again', and keeps you distracted from the plot and characters' relationship to the plot. When thinking of this aspect of the film AFTER viewing it's a straightforward idea -- hey the filmmakers are saying that the government is using entertainment to keep us from following the real news, man! But during the actual experience of watching the film, the casting starts one thinking of Mars Attacks or dare I say it, Cannonball Run......

The lighting was very flat, which I assume again is part of the 'fast food media' critique - but ugly is still ugly. Especially considering Donnie Darko I was expecting something worth looking at visually. There are some big IDEAS presented visually, but they are not visually interesting in a formal sense. There has to be SOMETHING for the audience to hang its hat on beyond an idea. Cinema is a sensate experience, not merely an intellectual one.

I look forward to reading about this someday in Scott Tobias's "My Year Of Flops - Redux" on the Onion AV Club....

Seriously, this is a 2 1/2 star picture that you will be guaranteed to sleep through on DVD. It is way too long, and way too slow to get going, and way too self important. The most original idea in the film involves the Superman costume, which looks pretty spiffy. The technical film-making skills on display are amazing. Which it's SUPPOSED to be, given the budget and talent involved.

The big problem: Superman is supposed to be larger than life, and heroic. Instead he gets his face rubbed in the dirt by nameless characters, spends time in the hospital, has a beer with Jimmy Olsen, has romantic/family problems well-suited to daytime TV, and thank god for the modern comic brilliance; he burps. Some of this is in service to the plot, and some of it is in an attempt to make Supes more of an everyman. It makes for a dull movie with no real sense of adventure or joy.

Longing to be human and the attendant loss of power was addressed with humor and efficiency in Superman II. These are two qualities Superman Returns would have done well to emulate, as the gravity and humorlessness of this turgid film proves inescapable. One of my favorite things about Superman is that he's not human. He is NOT one of us. He was in fact sent to help us. I'm glad that he's not conflicted about this role at least, or the film might have proved to break the three-hour barrier.

I was lucky enough to see a newly struck print of a two and a half hour version of this film just yesterday, an immaculate print, as part of a Leone film retrospective here in Austin TX. I will not give a synopsis of the plot; what's important to note is that all the Leone hallmarks are there -- brilliant production design and camera work, carefully structured narrative, epic scale -- and some of the strangest music ever created by Mr. Morricone. The leads seem miscast, particularly Rod Steiger as the accidental Mexican revolutionary, but he gives an energetic performance that the film can hang its rather large weight upon.

I saw 'Good, Bad...' and '...West' immediately before I saw this picture and it is very much from the same cloth and in the same league as those two films -- more comic, a bit flawed and crude perhaps; but really it's evidence of an artist working on a grand scale and well worth your time.

If you consider yourself a fan of Mr. Leone's, do give MGM an email and demand the DVD release of this neglected, fascinating movie

Hopefully this picture will get the home video release it deserves. The VHS version of this film is much shorter and far more confusing -- a typical case of a long movie's being shortened in hopes that it will do better business, and being ruined in the process.