Sunday, 27 February 2011

Superman II

General Zod, Ursa and Non escape from their cling film prison in space and come to Earth. They wash up in a small town where they’re confronted by the US army.

With the nation’s media watching their every move they engage in a demonstration of their awesome powers. Having seen off flame throwers, rocket launchers and assorted army vehicles, a helicopter is called up and fires missiles at the Kryptonian trio.

The dreamily evil Ursa [Sarah Douglas] is invited by Zod to “Blow the helicopter a kiss”. This she does sending the chopper spiralling out of control and into a wooden building where it promptly explodes.

Verdict

Perhaps one needs to make allowances for era and the sophistication of the special effects, but this is a disappointing explosion.

Rather than crash into the building, the chopper appears more to dip behind it, whereupon the building explodes in a rather perfunctory manner.

Number of helicopters

1

Relevance to plot

Fine. There’s clearly a solid army presence so the appearance of a helicopter is entirely reasonable. If anything you have to wonder why there’s only one.

Artistic merit

Weak. As the sequel to a successful film there’s a somewhat threadbare feel to a lot of the film. Take for example the bin liners that Zod and the others wear throughout the film.

Exploding helicopter innovation

Possibly the first destruction of a helicopter by superhuman power.

Positives

However, poor the chopper fireball is, the scene does allow Sarah Douglas to demonstrate her deadly allure. Sidling through the film as a dominatrix diva the deadly kiss she blows the helicopter encapsulates her intoxicating evil allure.

Negatives

Sarah Douglas aside the sequence is rather dull, utterly lacking in dramatic tension.