Superman Returns (2-Disc Special Edition) (DVD)

Whew, I made it through the film again and it only took me four tries. I am sorry but I just wasn't able to get into this film in the theater and at home I fell asleep three times trying again. I thought it was too long, lacking action, had a terrible love story and was just overall boring considering the two hour and 34 minute runtime. A lot more has to happen in 154 minutes for me to spend that much time watching a film. A lot more than happened here for sure.

Superman Returns begins with a world without Superman, he has returned to his home world of Krypton to find it destroyed and has now come back to Earth, what is now his only home. Unfortunately for Superman, in his absence he missed his court date and super-villain, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), is allowed to go free just in time to bilk some poor old broad out of a ton of money, which is used to finance his evil empire. Luthor's vision? A new land mass made of crystals, which is entirely inhabitable, filled with dead fish and a dash of Kryptonite just to ward off any helpful superheroes. Sorry, Luthor is a bit smarter than this isn't he? How about aiming some missiles at the San Andreas Fault and sending half of California into the ocean and owning the other half? Oh, is that implausible? It isn't any more ridiculous than growing new land is it? Silly me, I guess what worked in 1978 won't work now.

The asinine plotline and the unbelievably flat love story really make this movie a bust, but I will say this two-disc special edition comes equipped with a rather cool feature length five part documentary on disc two. This bad boy covers every inch of Superman Returns, and it does make watching the film a little more enjoyable, but not so much that it is tolerable. You will go behind-the-scenes to see the casting process, the costuming, the set designing, the special effects, the shooting of the film, the fun Kevin Spacey had playing Lex Luthor and his suped up golf cart and then the final touches of shooting the film. Also be sure to watch the credits on part five as they feature a blooper reel and end with a little line-reading mess up by Marlon Brando from way back when...

On top of that there are eleven deleted scenes, some of which are a little bit of extra story pieces that you might be interested in and then there is the "Resurrecting Jor-El" featurette which looks at the process Rhythm & Hues went through to bring Marlon Brando back to the big screen using previously unused footage from Richard Donner's 1978 Superman. You can actually check this little bit out online in a smaller QuickTime version right here.

I think this DVD is fantastic for those that enjoyed the movie. The video transer is excellent, and so is the audio as it takes full advantage of your system's surround sound. However, I am not a fan of Superman Returns and when it comes to Superman movies I will be plugging in the 1978 version before I revisit this one.