NATIONAL HOLIDAY Happy Independence From The British Day Everyone!
It's rare that Chelsey gets a day off during the week, so we wanted to make the most of this one. Yesterday we headed to Gurnee Mills (a huge half-outlet mall/half-mall mall) and spent the better part of Independence Day out there. We decided to see two films while there: Cars and Superman Returns. I liked both movies, even though they were quite different. Cars once again shows Pixar employs amazingly talented and funny writers and animators. At some points I was actually struck by how detailed the animation could be... even though the over-all feel of the movie was "cartoony," some of the animations of the cars, specifically the Portia, are amazingly realistic (i.e. headlights, logos, her whole backside [which, in one scene, they show the white 'backing up' lights when "Sally" goes in reverse... so cute and clever]). I guess that's a good way to describe Pixar films: where cute meets clever.
Superman Returns is a different story. Part-homage, part-new story, Superman Returns is a step in the right direction for the franchise. It seems like Hollywood has been more fascinated with Superman than any other super hero, and we've seen almost every angle of it: Superman love Lois/Lois loves Superman/Lex Luther is evil/Kryptonite can kill Superman/and Clark Kent is a bumbling goof (a good cover even if the glasses don't fool anyone). But, FINALLY, we see some actual movement forward in the franchise! In this movie, scientist found the remains of Superman's home planet and he has just gotten back from a five-year pilgrimage to his home planet of Krypton to see if there was anything left. When he "Returns" to Earth (the name of the movie!) he finds that Lois has a son and a fiancee named Richard (played by James Marsden, who seems destined to play the guy in Comic Book movies who has the girl [Lois or Jean Grey] even though the audience wants the other guy to get her [Supe or Wolverine]). It's almost a shame, then, that as the movie progresses, the plot breaks back down to it's root elements of Lois loving Superman and vice versa/Luther being evil/and Kryptonite being able to kill Superman. Routh actually plays a good Superman and Clark... and there were times when he was Clark that I swore I was Christopher Reeves (Routh's Clark is good). What is also very good about this movie are the special effects: they've added some sound to his flight... it sounds like a sonic boom when he flies faster; they really spent special attention to how his cape reacts to flight (I also like the new costume... it's more practical looking than previous Supermen--looks like something a person could actually fly in [if people could actually fly]); and I know for a fact that there were a few shots of Routh that were CG but looked pretty good--the last flight, for instance, I'm almost positive was CG even though they zoomed in on his face. Regardless, this was a serviceable movie for the franchise.
Can I just take the time, again, to contend that the James Bond series could learn a lot from the Batman franchise? Go back to his roots!!! Come on! I'm done.
Chelse and I had a great, and huge, meal at Max and Ermas for lunch... watched the two movies, then came back into Chicago and spent the night putting together (I kid you not) a Lego Batmobile. It's sweet. Maybe I'll even take a picture of it.... cause it's awesome. ROCK! INDEPENDENCE!