Previews: Superman Returns & Click

Attached to MI:3 were a few trailers of note. Those who know me, know I'm a rabid comic book junkie dating back to pre-colonial times and I've been eagerly awaiting both X-Men: The Last Stand and Superman Returns. The X-trailer looked pretty spiffy, but I've been wary because this latest (and supposedly final) installment featured a new director, Brett Ratner (the Rush Hour movies), taking over for the previous one, Bryan Singer. Singer passed on X-3 to do, you guessed it, Superman Returns. X-Men: TLS was actually released today, and the current critical consensus is: not bad, but not as good as the first two. Lots of slick action, but none of the heart of the first two films. Being a dutiful X-Men fan I'll check it out, but most likely will wait for a cheapie theater to do so.

I geeked out over the Superman Returns trailer. The new guy Brandon Routh not only looks like Superman, he does a decent Clark as well... which to me means that the filmmakers get the duality of the character. (Much of the success of Batman Begins, imo, is that the filmmakers understood what Bruce Wayne was about as well as Batman.) If you don't understand what makes the character work, you have no business working on the character. All the iconography is dead-on from the Daily Planet to the Fortress of Solitude. And Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor? Casting doesn't get any more perfect than that. What really sold me was when I heard the familiar strains of that powerful John Williams theme. Yup, they used the same music that worked so well in the 1978 Superman film. In fact, director Bryan Singer has stated that he means this to be a direct sequel to Superman I and II, just forgetting 3 and 4 all together. Smart guy.

The trailer for Click both intrigued and appalled me. It definitely looks like one of those awful high-concept, lowest common denominator comedies. Adam Sandler has a magic remote control that allows him to control his universe. You would think he would use it to reverse time to stop the filming of "Little Nicky," but alas, no. Instead he uses it in ways that only people in movies would use it for. For example, he uses it to pause his boss so he can slap him around. (It's not that inspired of a joke, but it does win points for hiring David Hassellhoff as the boss in question, thus fulfilling a common fantasy of many viewers.) It's definitely tailored to Sandler's core audience, sports lovin', bear-drinkin' GUYS. Sandler, not totally oblivious to marketing demographics, knows who his audience is, (exhibit a: The Longest Yard), but even this seems a bit obvious. I can imagine the script development... "What do guys like... They sure do like the remote! What if it was a...magic... remote!?" This type of shameless pandering reminds you that the majority of mainstream films have become market-driven and creatively bankrupt affairs. I understand, profits are goooooood and Hollywood is merely being reactive to the kinds of things people pay money to see. But this type of thing appears particularly manipulative and condescending in a way. The joke is, of course, that the target viewer would never realize that he was being condescended to.

BUT, I hold out hope. We'll see how it fares with critics when it is released. Part of the trailer shows Sandler with his remote, using it to fast-forward through parts of his life that he doesn't like (i.e. arguments with his wife, again, fullfilling a typical male fantasy). Then, somehow, the remote starts freaking out and fast-forwarding on its own, causing Sandler to miss parts of his life that he doesn't want to miss out on. This led me to believe that Click could somehow be some sort of existential comedy in the vein of Groundhog Day, examining how the bad moments and the good moments are connected to create a full life. Maybe that's what this movie is about.

Probably not.