LOOK, UP IN THE SKY!!!

From AICN, "I'm one of those 'long time readers, first time reviewers" type-o guys. But i thought i would send one in, and see if ya wanted to use it, if ya like. I live just outside Toronto and there is a small film festival going on. To be honest, i dont even know what else is IN the festival right now, but being an enormous Superman fan, i could not pass up the opportunity to see the Superman Documentry 'LOOK, UP IN THE SKY". I saw it tonight, and let me tell you, every Superman fan MUST see this film! The guy who introduced the movie said we were the first to see it, which was great!

The is really nothing new or revealing in, or about this, but rather just a great look at the history of the character from conception, to every other media Superman has touched from comics, to radio shows, to tv, movies and marketing.

The opening montage alone, was worth admission, just to see all the clips from just about every movie and tv version of Superman we have seen, including SUPERMAN RETURNS.

The film is packed with interviews from actors such as Noel Niell, Jack Larson, Margot Kidder, Annette O'Toole (who has a GREAT little story about the first time she saw Chris Reeve in the Superman suit - just awesome!), Dean Cain and even Mark Hamill. Actually, even small interview clips of Gene Simmons (credited as 'musician/comic book fan') were present. Also great interviews with comic writers/creators Gail Simon, Stan Lee (can anyone say the word 'supa'hero' cooler than him? i think not) and many more i momentarily forget. Not to mention, great interviews with Richard Donner, Ilyan Salkind, Bryan Singer, and John Peters, who amazingly enough, said he NOW knows he was wrong about the Superman movie he wanted to make years prior. He said something like 'What i wanted to do was wrong, i envisioned more of a sci-fi story and wasen't thinking about the human nature of the character. They (bryan singer & co.) have done it right". That was cool to hear.

They showed clips from all the incarnations of Superman on the big and small screen, even showing 2 things i am glad i saw, but i know will give me nightmares for years to come : the first was small clips from the musical stage play (which i believe they said ABC televised a version) which was basically the Superman-version of the Star Wars Holiday Special. It was a truely horrible horrible experience. Everyone in the theater was laughing so hard, but i know we will all cry about it later when we wake up from our night-terrors. The second horrible thing we saw was a clip of a pilot for a show that, thankfully, never made it to air. It was a show only a couple years after the death of George Reeves called 'SuperPup'. It was a live action show, which had little-people wearing dog and animal costumes, and the mouths moved on the giantic dog-heads when they talked and it was basically the equivelant to eye-and-ear-rape. Funny, unbelievably! Horrible? Fucking right! There was a reason it never made it to air! (...and disguised as mild -mannered reporter, Bark Bent...."). Yikes.

They also touched on the failure of the Superman movies, and the failure of Supergirl. Had a nice chunk dedicated to Chris Reeve, including his Smallville stint. Finally, the showed some great, if small clips from Superman Returns. Some of them were things we have seen from trailers and other sources like the comic-con footage that found it's way onto the net, but some other clips...unbelievable. Nothing spoiler-y, so no worries. But seeing Clark flying up through an elevator shaft, changing into Superman was amazing. Finally seeing Brandon Routh talking for more then one line as Clark Kent was astounding. Totally channeling Reeve, but not to the point of an imitation. Even the clips they showed of Kate Bosworth, who, admittedly i am iffy on, because she is only 22 and i was unsure of how she would pull off Lois...gave me hope. What i saw looked great. There were some great little interviews with Kate and Brandon and Bryan.

Oh ya, and also a couple snippets with Christoper Reeve's mom which were great. There is more that i am sure i am forgetting, but overall it was awesome. It ran for just a bit under 2 hours, but honestly, i could have watched another 2 hours. Any Superman fan will love this.

I heard it will come out on dvd around the release date of Superman Returns, but am unsure of this. I will be a must-buy dvd for sure."