Ethan Switch - Sunday, 2 July 2006
Endless rides over concrete sleepers and time just melts into a piece of toast fallen on the buttered side. Eight into six and the taste for the end of days bites hard with no recourse for remorse. End all; expirations aplenty.
Opening release weekend for Superman Returns. Long years gone since Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder last on the silver screen. Reeve since six feet under. Brandon Routh now in the titular role with Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane and Kevin Spacey as the ever maniacal and always ingenious Lex Luthor.
Greater Union George Street Cinemas. Where many line up at the box office leaving only a few to take toward the candy stand to buy their tickets. With no scanner at the concessions, time evens out with the length of the line against the wait.
Thursday proves to open with a crowd fully and fairly in tune with itself. A sense of calm and relaxation in the late afternoon audience. Reactions are quick and sharp, back into the awe of it all within seconds.
Amazingly enough, not a single ring tone violates the air. Apparently every one of these patrons knowing how to schedule a block of time before picking up a bottle of milk or reorientation themselves with their surroundings.
Making up for this absence, the cinema doors open and shut loudly, thudding with a regularity of a new batch of diuretics hitting an athlete fresh.
Sydney performs its task superbly as the on location back drop for Metropolis, the city of everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Certain street signs take a bit of time on screen, reinforcing their presence with a bit of imposition.
Friday is a sheer bloat of open thoughts and muttering gasps. Revelations and the fall out of on-screen events shooting from their lips down an ear full of honey. Nothing escapes this mob, constant in relaying information back to themselves and the people around them.
Foreshadowing fears nothing in terms of being missed. Scores of mumbling outdoing each other in attempts at helping one another reinforce movements on screen. It's watching and listening an audience learning the ropes for the very first time in their lives.
Far from reservations to hold Thursday back, their guffaws and out and out laughter is raucous and a little on an extreme stretch. However, one person manages to answer his mobile as another fetches for a few seconds for an old fashioned ding a ling.
One day and already the fabric starts to fray like the new cape never does.
John William's "Superman Theme" opens the film and drives a sink-hole directly into the heart. Its very nature coursing through an overwhelming sense of hope and positivity like few other themes are capable of. Superman returns and there is no doubt that he is here for the good of humanity despite his alien heritage.
Superman Returns is an emotional adventure, focusing largely on the relationships between Superman and Clark Kent's various networks. The many saves and rescues, while visually brilliant and seamless into the overall shot, isn't as significant as the uncomfortable silences and knowing looks.
Spacey's eyes exude and evilness like no other incarnation of Lex Luthor yet. His agenda is largely once again for power from knowledge and Superman appears only to be a means to an end for him.
Out of step with regards to fashion, Lois' rather high waist business suit pants look more like retirement wear than for the commanding and hard nosed journalist she is. Still can't spell.
Glorious majesty alongside mild mannerliness with such ease. Duality of the roles proves to be no sweat, Routh, for all intents and purposes, is both Superman and Clark Kent.