Superman Returns!

Last night was the evening of our great "Superman Returns" bash... Joe and I had been discussing and planning this shindig for months, and I have to say, it was one of the more fun parties I've thrown (or is it co-thrown? Is that even a word!?)

Anyway.

Joe made these wonderful danglies for the ceiling made out of various sizes of Superman's shield, and he hung movie posters and promotional newspapers everywhere. We decided not to cook ourselves, and instead thought about what a big midwestern dinner would look like. We zeroed in on a fried chicken feast and let the Colonel do the cookin'. We got a good bucket of chicken and some biscuits and cole slaw, and then got our own potato salad, garden salad, and pasta salad.

I made 2 Superman cakes--one of Superman himself and the other of just the shield against a yellow background. Joe perfected his recipe for "Rice Kryptonite"--rice krispy treats topped with PopRocks. We also got 2 bags of M&Ms and sorted through and put all the red, blue, and yellow ones in one bowl, and all the greens in another. The browns and oranges will be saved for our next event.

As a surprise for Joe, I organized everyone into a costume/dress up theme. It was so fun to see what everyone came up with. Heather was probably the most creative, coming as "Kryptonite" in a green suit with green glow bracelets. Trent looked fantastic in a suit as Lex Luthor, Judy made her own press badge as Lois Lane, we lent Alfie a camera to do his best Jimmy Olson, Nancy tarted herself up as Kitty Kowalski, Tim yelled at Joe all night as Perry White (and sounded sufficiently authoritative I might add!), and Steve was a very dashing Richard White in his best urbanwear. My own modest contribution was to put on some overalls and let Judy powder my hair white so I could be Ma Kent. Joe of course was Clark Kent/Superman, and put on a Superman T-shirt under his best work clothes and tie. He wandered around all night with the tie askew and shirt somewhat unbuttoned, his supershield poking out. After the movie, he pulled off the work shirt to reveal his cape.

We played a Superman trivia game, and took about 600 pictures of everyone, sadly not on my camera, but when I get the files, I will upload them for all to see! the big trivia winner was Heather, followed by Steve, followed by Judy.

Around 8:45, we called the theater and found out there were still tickets left so we could have the folks who hadn't managed to buy tickets get some. We caravaned out, only to lose Heather's car and Alfie's car, and then Trent called to say we were going the wrong way and we should follow him. Tim thus directed him to the wrong movie theater, and we all got lost and turned around. We arrived at 9:30, after the theater said not to come after that, and still got tickets. Joe reserved a whole row for us and all 9 of us were able to sit together, which was great.

The movie... Ahhh, the movie...

Well, I went in with extremely low expectations, I must confess. I didn't think I would enjoy it, as a) I had mixed emotions about a Superman other than Christopher Reeve; b) I can't stand Kevin Spacey; and c) I didn't know a thing about the plot--Joe had filled me full of pictures and effects news, but not much on plot.

I don't think I'll be giving away anything, but this COULD be considered a spoiler, I suppose, if you know absolutely nothing about the movie. I'm going to reveal the BASIC plot.

So here goes...

The basic story line is that Superman has disappeared for 5 years to figure out where he's from (Krypton) and learn what he can about his pre-Earth past. In that time, Lois Lane has moved on and is in a serious long term relationship with Perry White's nephew, Richard, and she has given birth to a son, Jason. Lex Luthor, meanwhile, is doing his level best to enact a new scheme, in part aided by Kryptonian technology, which will allow him to rule the entire world via geographic restructuring.

Apparently the guy who directed this one intends for it to be inserted in after the second Christopher Reeve movie. He was disappointed with/disgusted by the third and fourth offerings in the series and decided to create his own.

The movie runs 2 hours and 45 minutes, so you'd better be prepared to sit there a while, but honestly, no one felt like they had been there that long. The movie moves along at a real good clip and has only a couple of slow moments.

I would have to say that on a scale of 1-10, this movie, for me, was a 10. I expected boredom, and instead, at the end, I was cheering and clapping with everyone else at the cinema. I truly enjoyed it, and loathe though I may be to admit it, I am going to say that a) I will probably see it again and b) I am looking forward to the next one in 2 years. You can definitely find worse ways to kill an afternoon.

Oh, and I thought Kevin Spacey was not half bad.

So, there you have it. Superman has returned, and I am 100% into it again, as I was as a kid. I'll look forward to hearing other people's opinions as they see it!