Film: Superman Returns

[axl blaze]

looks like after Superman battles a few remnants of his long lost home planet, Krypton, he takes a 6 year leave of absence of Earth to Krypton to know once and for all if he is really that planet's last son. well, when Superman comes back not everything is cherry pie. Louis Lane is in love with someone else and the society he grew to love so much learned how to function without a superhero or "savior." what's a man of steel to do?

I think Kevin Spacey looks particularly brooding and evil as Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor. Brandon Routh plays Superman and I've heard nothing but praise, even a critic telling us "we should prepare for Routh to be our generation's Superman." which is saying something.

the director is from X-Men 1 and 2, Bryan Singer. I thought those movies were solid comic-to-movie movies and I am expecting great things. what about you?

 

[L2R]

^i feel precisely the same way, although i would've prefered it if the film was called:
Superman Returns from Uranus!

 

[wanderlust]

film: superman returns

i didnt know spacey was in this until i saw the spot on tele last night... a choice made well, indeed, indeed...

i'm going to add a poll, too

 

[psychetool]

I really just don't know if they will be able to pull it off.

 

[tambourine-man]

I sooo want this to be a great film.

I like the idea of Superman coming back to an apathetic or otherwise jaded world. I think thatcould be a really nice twist that updates the film without ruining the concept.

To be honest, I never thought Christopher Reeve was that good as Superman... he always seemed just a little bit too human - I always wanted him to be slighty alien (whatever than means) in his mannerisms and actions.

Also, his cruddy, wooden acting didn't help matters.

 

[axl blaze]

^ spot on, to all your comments

I haven't seen this yet but surely someone has? what did you think? BUMP!

 

[vibr8tor]

I saw it last night. I thought it was good, but a little over-done in a few places. I'm giving it a 4.

 

[Finder]

Spacey as Lex Luthor seems like a great decision.

 

[vibr8tor]

he did a good job with his part.

heh, wtf, I'm the only person still who has seen this? get out of the house some, people! :D

 

[poopie]

VIBBY!

i saw it last night too!

oooh...what a connection we have!

i totally dug it.

i'm not gonna critique though....but definitely 3 outta 4 stars.

 

[realm]

I saw this the day it came out, i thought it was great, just a tiny bit long but it defenitely was a very enjoyable movie. I give it 4 out of 5

 

[vibr8tor]

i'm not gonna critique though....but definitely 3 outta 4 stars.

:D what you gonna do with that last

?

 

[tambourine-man]

I saw this the day it came out, i thought it was great, just a tiny bit long but it defenitely was a very enjoyable movie. I give it 4 out of 5

Yeah, a bit long and overblown in places, but otherwise, an enjoyable way to spend a few hours. I've whited-out any possible spoilers and plot-related stuff below.

--start-->|To be honest, I was pretty much hooked as soon as the film started. The opening introduction just tied the franchise together quite nicely, from the sweeping and spectacular psychedelia of Krypton's supernova, to the suitably authentic (and slightly retro) opening credits. I also thought Brando's quotations peppering the film were a nice touch that wasn't too kitsch.

I thought the first 15 minutes of the film were quite slow and seemed to betray the pace at which the credits had set. But the space shuttle launch!!! WOW!!! I don't mind admitting that I was glad the cinema was in complete darkness, because I had a huge fucking smile on my face when he lands it in the baseball stadium. Completely corny and rah-rah nonsense... but I dunno, I haven't had a beaming smile from a popcorn film like that since I was a kid.

However... Superman as a "deadbeat dad"? That's going to take some getting used to.

I guess Superman has always suffered from the fact that he is quite a boring superhero - in as much as he has no real character flaws. The man can do no wrong, he's invulnerable, and isn't necessarily motivated by a complex inner battle against his demons or history. I suppose the film tried to rectify this somewhat by introducing the idea of an abandoned son, by introducing a slightly jaded public (although it didn't take much to overcome that cynicism), and ultimately having the superhero's life placed in the hands of that mortal public in his time of need. At the moment, I'm unsure of what the presence of a son adds to the overall story. I guess the wisdom of including that plot decision will be determined by any following sequels.

Spacey was decent enough. I thought he hammed it in certain places, but I guess that's forgivable for comic-book role. I also liked the way that the film retained that ever-so-slightly 1950's feel to the central characters and Daily Planet, yet also managing to embed that feeling into a contemporary setting. With the advances in technology since the last film, it's allowed Singer to show Metropolis as a living city, fully-fleshed out. And, well... the whole film is quite beautifully shot - including the CGI effects.

Yeah... 4 out of 5|<--end--

 

[Product X]

Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor was the best choice.I didn't know he was playing Lex Luthor until I got to the movie and realized it was him.I thought it was a very good movie.Nice little twist but the people who saw it with me called what was going to happen.The third Superman and Batman movie I heard is going to be Superman VS. Batman which would be awesome.Both actors that played Batman and Superman signed to three movies.

 

[L2R]

3/5
A nice, solid retelling (kind of) of the same old story with far too much emphasis on the lois n clarke n lois' hubby love triangle. I really don't like most love triangle stories and this is no exemption to the rule.

I would've been much more interested in seeing him cope in a cynical society.

So much more could've been done with such a runtime.

Also, some flashbacks to Supes absense would've created much more depth to the film than the single line of explanation.

 

[Shnouzerpuff]

I was completely impressed by the film. Moreso after reading about all the horrific pre-story of what it took to get it onto the big screen.

Superman V The Whole Sordid Saga tells the story of just what has been going on all of these years when Superman seemed to be nothing more than a myth.

....back when Nicholas Cage was going to be the man of steel... and Burton was on board as a director.

It is, in a word, horrific. To think that Bryan Singer could come on board the Superman project after tens of millions of dollars had already been pissed against the wind with absolutely nothing to show for it, yet somehow finish up with a quality superhero movie that public, critics and fanboys all applaud?

Well, you just have to admire the guy.

I thought the movie was fantastic and had loads of little touches which really showed that Bryan Singer cared about creating a film... as opposed to just going through the motions of making a movie - Brett Ratner style.

Little touches like how the news reporter mentioned Gotham city and how Lois Lane was protesting Superman's use to her editor..

"...While he is off saving some tart"

...which gave a subtle insight into her characters motivations. A subtlety that another director like Brett Ratner, Joel Schumacher or Michael Bay would never have employed. There are loads of these moments within the film.

As far as I am concerned, it is one of the best comic book to movie adaptions yet.




Just some quotes from the above link which tells of the abortion that was "Superman Before Singer"....

Peters demanded that Superman be stripped of his red and blue suit, arguing that the suit was "too pink, too f@ggy." WB also demanded that Superman undergo a costume change, even ordering Smith to describe the soon-to-be-trashed red and blue duds as being "‘90s-style." So Smith was forced to have Superman ditch his red and blues (which he grudgingly deemed "‘90s-style") early on in the script and switch over to the black and silver suit from the "death of" story as his permanent gear (ironically mirroring Poirier’s earlier script).

Peters also hated the FX in the 1978 Superman film with Chris Reeve, so he wanted to get rid of Superman’s ability to fly. So Smith tried to get around this by portraying Superman as a red blur while in flight, creating a sonic boom every time he took off (he took this from The Dark Knight Returns). Peters then told Smith to have Brainiac fight polar bears at the Fortress of Solitude, demanding that the film be wall-to-wall action. Smith thought it was a stupid idea, so Peters said, "Then have Brainiac fight Superman’s bodyguards!" Smith responded, "Why the hell would Superman need bodyguards?" Peters wouldn’t let up, so Smith caved in and had Brainiac fight the polar bears.

Then Peters demanded that Brainiac give Luthor a hostile space dog as a gift, arguing that the movie needed a cuddly Chewbacca character that could be turned into a toy. Then, after watching Chasing Amy, Peters liked the gay black character in the film so much that he ordered Smith to make Brainiac’s robot servant L-Ron gay, asserting that the film needed a gay R2-D2 with attitude. Then Peters demanded that Superman fight a huge spider at the end of the film, which Smith refused to do—he used a "Thanagarian Snare Beast" instead. (However, Peters did manage to recycle his spider idea and use it in Wild Wild West.)

Jesus.... there is more... so much more...

Nicolas Cage, having been fighting tooth and nail against Burton and Peters’ vision of Superman (even though he’d been putting on a happy public face about working with them), angrily demanded that he be allowed to wear the classic Superman costume and fly.

So WB relented much to Burton’s dismay, ordering up a rubber Superman suit and flying FX tests. (According to Superman CINEMA, a chintzy, Sam Jones-as-Flash Gordon-type Superman suit was dished up as well, but it went over like a lead balloon.) However, when Cage tried on the rubber suit, it looked stupid. And when they stuck a long-haired wig on him, it looked even worse. And after Burton and Gilroy were finished with their rewritten script, WB looked it over and loathed it. Even worse, all of Burton and Peters’ screwing around and causing trouble resulted in the film being budgeted somewhere between $140-190 million.

So, in April 1998, just weeks before the film was to start shooting, WB put the film on indefinite hold. By this time, about $30-40 million (including the pay-or-play contracts for Burton and Cage—$20 million for Cage, $5 million for Burton) had already been spent on the project, with nothing to show for it. [It’s well over $50 million now, given all the stupidity that occurred beyond this.]

And then Ain’t It Cool News got a hold of Abrams’ script…

…and all hell broke loose. AICN’s review by Drew "Moriarty" McWeeny blew the lid off the Peters/Abrams/McG teaming by revealing the MASSIVE changes planned for the trilogy. The details of the script were as follows:

1. Krypton doesn’t explode. Instead it’s a Naboo rip-off overrun by robot soldiers, walking war machines, and civil war (can you say, Star Wars: Episode I?). Jor-El is literally the king of Krypton and leader of the Kryptonian Senate (thus Superman is a prince), and he and Lara send Kal-El to Earth because he is "the One" whom a prophecy states will save Krypton from destruction (rip-off of The Matrix). The villains, Jor-El’s evil brother and nephew Kata-Zor and Ty-Zor, take Jor-El prisoner and send probe pods out to find and kill the baby Kal-El. 14 years later, Lara and her shell-less turtle servant Taga (shades of Jar Jar Binks) are found by Ty-Zor, and Lara gets tortured to death.

2. Superman’s costume is a living entity housed in a can, and it climbs onto him when he needs it. He first discovers it in a closet when he’s 14 (Jor-El visited Earth and picked the Kents out to be Kal-El’s new parents, leaving them his picture, some S-shield metal pieces signifying the virtues Kal-El must represent, and the costume), and the costume rips his clothes off and stuffs him into itself. So teen Clark is flying around in a suit that’s way too big for him.

3. Lex Luthor is an evil CIA agent obsessed with UFO phenomena. When Superman reveals himself to the world, Luthor demands that the government allow him to hunt Superman down and kill him. The government refuses, so Luthor allies himself with the evil Kryptonians out to kill Kal-El…because Luthor himself is an evil Kryptonian, working undercover as a human to set up an invasion of Earth!

4. All the Kryptonians get into airborne kung-fu fights straight out of The Matrix. Even Luthor gets in on the act at the end of the script.

5. An aerial kung-fu fight between Superman and Ty-Zor results in Superman being lured into a trap: Lois is drowning in a tank filled with kryptonite. (This begs the question of how there can be kryptonite when Krypton didn’t even explode, but….) Superman is given a choice: save her and die from radiation poisoning in the act, or stand by and watch her drown. So he goes in, saves her, and dies. Jor-El magically senses Superman’s death from across the galaxy, commits hara-kiri with a rock he sharpens in his prison cell, goes to Heaven, and talks Superman into coming back to life so he can fulfill the prophecy of saving Krypton from its civil war. So Superman’s soul returns to his body, and he proceeds to trash Ty-Zor and his cronies. And at the end of the film, Superman flies off in a rocket to save Krypton (which is where the second film is planned to take place).

6. A dialogue scene at The Daily Planet implies that Jimmy Olsen—a horny skirt-chaser in the comic books—is gay, as Abrams describes him as "effeminate" and Perry White rags on him for having a boyfriend.

At any rate, this script sparked a horrific backlash in which the feedback was 95% negative (very, very, very few people liked it). An Internet petition was soon set up, garnering over 12,000 signatures and angry comments to date (including outraged responses from comic book pros Mark Waid, Stan Lee, Ron Lim, Kevin Smith, Tom Sniegoski, Ian Hannin, Tom Orzechowski, Mike Allred, and Larry Hama).

Amazing how anything gets made in Hollywood huh?

 

[requieminadream]

Saw it in Imax-3D the other day, really enjoyed it. Not the best comic book movie (That goes to Sin City) nor is it the best superhero movie (That goes to Batman Beyond), but it was an entertaining popcorn flick. Great 3d effects in the imax, as well as incredible sound design. Go see it at a theater with a great sound system.

 

[little_vandal]

i had low expectations of this movie - i thought they were going to crap all over it..... until i reliased who was directing then i had hope.

i really enjoyed the movie!! my favorite part was -> at the end where all the regular types are trying to help save him but even though there wasnt much they could do (except open the blinds damnit, let the sun in!!). pulled at the heartstrings a little, which i never expected this movie to do. the opening sequence was awesome! a little dizzying though <-

4 outa 5 :D

 

[DarthMom]

nicholas cage? he would have been god awful. i would have enjoyed burton as a director though.

the kid who played sm in this one was perfect, i thought. absolutely adorable too. i would have preferred a spunkier lois, more like the character margo kidder played. i didn't really like girl.

 

[L2R]

she was a real nothing wasn't she. very much like that hideous chick in batman begins.