In Theaters: Pirates: Dead Man's Chest

Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley all return for the second installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest. This time around Depp and the gang are on the hunt for the heart of Davy Jones played very well by British Veteran Bill Nighy.
The film is making mega bucks and rightfully so, it’s a loose fun summer movie that delivers. All is not well in the Caribbean though, the film feels very long because there are some scenes in the film that look like they were thrown in so we could see Depp prance around some more. Speaking of Depp, his performance was just as good as the first film even though he wears on you about half way through the movie. I enjoyed him but he comes across like that annoying Uncle that is fun for the first half of the party but you can’t wait for him to leave…and come back.
The film leans heavily on the first, in other words if you didn’t see the first film you may be a little bit lost. The writers must have realized this because there are some scenes that seem to go out of the way to explain what happened the first time around.
Even though the plot is a little contrived and the film is 30 minutes too long ( for no reason) I still enjoyed the Dead Man’s Chest and can’t wait to see the next one.

In Theaters: Superman Returns

Superman has been away, kind of on a retreat to find is former plant, Krypton. He heard that scientists found that his planet was in fact in tact and he takes off for a little homecoming. Superman Returns starts when the man of steel returns to Earth to find things a little different since he left. Lois Lane has a child (but no husband) and has won a Pulitzer Prize for an article titled “Why We Don’t Need Superman”. Not exactly a warm welcome for the world’s savior but nonetheless he is back. Once Superman storms back on the scene with a dramatic aerial rescue he is back to his old ways. Saving the city (and the world) and fighting evil. Evil once again is in the form of a recently paroled Lex Luthor, and this time Luthor is going to change the world, literally.
Bryan Singer (XMen 1&2) directs this 154-minute adventure with a sensitivity not always seen in super hero movies. In fact, one of the criticisms of the movie is that Superman isn’t super at all. He is too sensitive, too introspective and too smitten with Lois Lane to be a true super hero. I didn’t see him anymore smitten with Lois than Spiderman is with his love interest. Both are real life figures with real life problems, that have been thrust into the role of saving the planet. If Superman stuck to the comic book it would be a little to whimsical for today’s sophisticated audiences.
New comer Brandon Routh plays the title role well but he looks ( and acts ) better suited to play Clark Kent and let someone else put on the tights and cape. Routh is almost too boyish to be believable as a super hero but in the long run he doesn’t take away from the film at all. Spacey is at his usual level playing Lex Luthor, while Gene Hackman defined the role in Superman 1&2, Spacey carries the weight admirably. Kate Bosworth’s Lois Lane is the only disappointment for me. She didn’t have the intensity or tenacity that Margot Kidder pulled off effortlessly in the original films, at time Bosworth seemed to be reading her lines of a sheet of paper, maybe she was.
Superman Returns is the super hero movie of the summer, it was fun and exciting in parts and is a good film for the fun summer movie going audience.