So Friday night "the gang" (including Brew!) got together for Superman Returns at the Arena Grand. The Arena Grand is always the place to be for taking big groups to opening night/weekend, and it's all because of two beautiful words: Reserved Seating. While it's definitely not always worth the extra $4 (or whatever it is), in these cases it's MORE than worth it -- you show up 10 minutes before the show starts, no waiting in line or stressing, you walk in, there are your seats together and waiting for you. Thanks to Hutch we were smack-dab in the front and center of the balcony.As for the movie, well I think Dave's Long Box summed it up pretty well:
Honestly, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I thought it ran kind of long, exacerbated by the fact that some parts were played pretty slow, but Routh made a GREAT Superman, looking and sounding almost creepily like Christopher Reeve, and Kevin Spacey was a freaking AWESOME Lex Luthor. Kate Bosworth was OK as Lois, but enh, it was passable. Jimmy Olsen was particularly well cast also. The story wasn't quite sure whether it wanted to focus more on Lex's plot or on all the drama associated with Superman being away and returning after so long.
Superman Returns is better than Batman Returns, but not as good as Batman Begins. It's also not as good as X-Men 2, but it is better than The Fantastic Four and is about a third as good as both Superman and Superman II combined. It's not up there with Blade, but it's twice as good as Daredevil and five times as good as Catwoman. It would take all the combined good parts of Elektra, Batman and Robin, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze to equal half of Superman Returns, but Superman Returns would have to be twice as rad to equal The Incredibles or Spider-Man 2. Having said that, I'd say it was a little better than X-Men 3 and four times as good as Superman III and IV (separately.) It's no Swamp Thing, though.
Saturday night Amy & I made it down to Schiller to see Actor's Theater doing The Complete Works Of Shakespeare (Abridged). I'm very excited that this made it into this season's Shakespeare in the park - I've been dying to see it for years, and it was well worth the wait. The three man cast did a great job, especially the guy who played all the female parts - his falsetto was particularly amusing, and the random puking on the crowd was a good touch as well. I'd say my favorite parts were Romeo & Juliet, Titus Andronicus, and of course the whole second act with it's multiple takes on Hamlet. There's a chance we may make it down this weekend to see it again, that's how good it was.
Gotta run, going to see Red, White & Boom! tonight! Should be a great time, as always.
