Review Detail

I didn't care much for Superman Returns when I saw it in the theaters. Man of Steel was considerably worse, as the batmanization of supes seemed both unnecessary and tonally wrong.

The latter film was so disappointing that it revised my opinion of Superman Returns. Underneath the crappy crap, Returns has strengths—some channeling of Christopher Reeve's charm, set design with an art deco flavor, a sense of awe here and there.

Tomahawk flushed away some of the crap, thereby creating a very watchable version. The first half of the fanedit was masterful in pulling me into an alternate-reality version of Superman '78. I fucking felt the magic. I wish the second half could have been like that, but it felt too similar to the theatrical product, could have used some streamlining. (Digression/for example—never did like the scene of Lois pulling supes out of the depths, since the guy weighs a ton or so.)

Still, I like this fanedit, as it gives me a really nice way to enjoy the C. Reeve + J. Williams vibe outside of actually watching a C. Reeve film. And now that we know it's possible to suck all charm out of a supes blockbuster, I appreciate even more the work Tomahawk put into recovering what turns out to be a much better film than the studio put out.

Enjoyjoy: 8+ pelvic aerothrusts