2006 Movie News Archives

Superman Returns

June 21, 2006: “Superman Returns” - Should I Take My Kid?

A Family Friendly Mini-Review (Spoiler Free)

By Barry Freiman

"Superman Returns" is sure to have a strong nostalgic component to it - parents who were kids in 1978 will want to bring their own kids now in a natural attempt to, in the words of Jor-El, Superman's father, in the 1978 original: "see my life through your eyes".

With a PG-13 rating in the States, some parents are sure to be confused as to whether this living comic book is appropriate for their children. As the single non-custodial parent of a 13-year old girl, I do plan to share the experience of seeing this movie with my child. But if she were five years younger, I'd be less inclined to bring her to experience the movie in a theater as opposed to a DVD where I could skip certain chapters.

The best advice I think I can offer is, if you have a young child who wants to see the movie, you should see it first because only you can properly evaluate whether he or she can handle it emotionally.

The issue isn't language or sexually suggestive scenes, it's violence. I know children are largely desensitized to movie violence and video game violence but I do think there is at least one scene in the movie that is probably at least as intense as Lois Lane's grisly suffocation in 1978's "Superman: The Movie". I would think that the average child under the age of seven could become upset and need some reassurance.

As in the first "Superman" movie, one American cuss word is half-uttered but that's pretty much it in terms of questionable language.

Sexual situations don't arise but I suspect some out there might be troubled by Lois being involved with one man and still in love with another, or a child being involved but not being raised by a married man and woman. However, adopted children and children of divorce will probably feel a particular kinship to certain relationships in the film.

Should you decide to keep Junior from seeing the movie, you have options other than a month of a nagging, crying, screaming, won't-take-no-for-an-answer child. Warner Home Video today released direct-to-DVD a kid-oriented all-new Superman animated movie called "Superman: Brainiac Attacks". The video's target audience is definitely younger viewers - say between the age who'd watch "Krypto: The Superdog" and the age who'd watch "Teen Titans". While the look of the video adheres to the old "Superman: The Animated Series" and there's some voices returning, it exists completely outside of that continuity. Kids will like the comedy and the action and the limited violence isn't very intense.



2006 Movie News

Listed below are all the Movie News items archived for 2006 organized into various categories:

“Superman Returns” Movie News:

Christopher Reeve Movie News: Hollywoodland (George Reeves) Movie News: Direct-to-DVD Animated Movie News: Other Movie News:

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