Superman Returns Is A Rote Rehash of Past Superman Movies

Oh, what a puzzle Superman Returns is.

Describing how Superman Returns goes awry makes one sound like they're just contradicting themselves. At once, Returns is a film that's too dour but also too goofy. It's got too little action for long stretches but what action we do get is pretty uninvolving. It's slavishly devoted to the original Christoper Reeve Superman films (complete with recreating the final shot of Superman II) yet struggles to understand what actually made those classic movies work. While those grievances may all sound like vague paradoxes, they're also all true. Superman Returns strives to be the kind of epic movie event that soars above all other blockbusters. Instead, it just falls to Earth. Hard.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Revved This Franchise Up

In hindsight, one particularly fascinating part about the Fast & Furious series is how, unlike most mega-blockbuster franchises, its initial films weren't all that great. The Fast and the Furious, the very first title in the saga, becoming a sleeper box office hit way above anyone's expectations showed that it clearly struck a chord with viewers. To boot, the importance of the original feature being one of the few American movies at the dawn of the 21st-century to star people of color cannot be underestimated, particularly when exploring how and why this series managed to resonate so storngly with audiences in the first place. But much like the DC Extended Universe or the Star Trek and Harry Potter movies, Fast & Furious didn't really hit its stride until its sequels came along.

An Aggravatingly Generic Execution Of An Equally Generic Story Leaves The Devil Wears Prada Stumbling

Looking back on The Devil Wears Prada, it feels like some kind of scrapbook chronicling the pivotal career turning points for the many actors who starred in it. For Anne Hathaway, it cemented her as a person who could headline a financially lucrative movie that didn't have Princess Diaries in the title, something she's been able to prove again and again over the years. Meanwhile, Emily Blunt got put on the radar with her work here while veteran character actor Stanley Tucci got easily his biggest gig yet that was followed by an Oscar nomination and memorable performances in movies ranging from Best Picture winner Spotlight to Captain America: The First Avenger. And a little-known figure Meryl Streep achieved her biggest movie ever at the domestic box office at the time.