The New Superman Movie .... Sucks

That takes me back to Chris Reeves' Superman film. I was already unhappy and when Lex Luthor came on like a refugee from the Batman TV series, I got up and went home.

If you don't need any adherence to the established Superman story and can be satisfied with special effects alone, then it's the movie for you. Never mind about Superman being a reporter or fighting street crime, let's get right to the supervillains and big explosions.

Street crime is so 20th century.

That's interesting. I saw it and liked it a lot. But I'm also a big believer in moving on from the original character incarnations and reinventing them for a new generation.

[spoilers]

I liked the fact that Lois recognized Clark as Superman because anything else just makes Lois look dumb. It's hard enough to believe that the general population doesn't recognize Superman as Clark, but it's always been absolutely preposterous to think that the woman who's in love with him doesn't. So that's an improvement.

And I thought the fact that Superman had to kill Zod was brilliant. It makes this film a perfect bookend to The Dark Knight film. In The Dark Knight Batman is seen as someone who will kill, when in fact he won't. Superman has always been seen as someone who won't kill, but he did. I think it's great fractured symmetry for both characters and it will give the writers (of the inevitable sequels) something meaty to play against.

I do get a little tired however of all the CGI fights when everyone is basically invincible. Nobody ever gets the upper hand unless it's a necessary plot point. Fighting prowess or strength never factor into those fights so they are pretty useless. But they still need to make lots of money and 17 year old boys still buy tickets, so I understand why they do that.

An excellent observation which applies to a good many movies.

...beneath the notice of a demi-god.


Forgo the movie, and read Red Son, instead.

[spoilers]
I think if Superman is willing to dispense justice without appeal to a merely human legal authority, he isn't Superman anymore, he's just an invincible vigilante type hero. The Superman of comics is insanely principled. That is one of his weaknesses, one that is taken advantage of by vilians and is made fun of by other heros in the DC world with different motives. Superman had a morality, a series of guidelines by which he operated, that were an essential part of his character. If you are as close to a god as possible, what is it that constrains you to act in the public interest? The conflict between what reality demands of Superman and his moral belief system is what half of the Superman story is about. I saw none of that in this movie. I guess in the next movie Lex Luthor will find Kryponite and Superman will just hit him with a boulder from a mile out. Short movie but drone strikes only klll bad guys and some collateral damage is acceptable. They never even explored why Superman does what he does other than a ghost told him to. For all practical purposes, he could be an invincible Spiderman or Iron Man. Why didn't Superman just play in the NFL for a while? Why not work for the NSA intercepting phone records if he wants to be where the action is? Isn't covering mundane stories for the Planet 40 hours a week going to get in the way of his Superhero work? How can he justify that? Why did he do anything he did in the movie? What makes him tick compared to other movie superheros? Whatever it is, not covered here. I love character reboots, but you have to know what is core to the character and what is just backstory. I think this movie missed the essential core. Here is where Batman got it really right. Whoever wrote that script did enough research to understand the essential core of the Batman character, the schizophrenia and guilt at the heart of the character that shapes every action. As long as that is present you can change and update the backstory and it's the same guy. I think that is missing here and no amount of random CGI violence makes up for it.

I think the very best reboot I've ever seen was the 2000 Disney version of Tarzan. If you've read the original ERB Tarzan, you know that a true to the book version could never be made today. The book is casually racist and sexist and completley ignorant of jungle fauna. Still there is something in the book about a man using his strength and wits to survive in a hostile environment that is amazingly compelling. The Disney version captured every single core strength of the original character while completely rewriting the story. They changed the villian, the apes, the relationships between all the characters (animal and human) and yet still nailed the original story. That's how you do it. Anyone know if Tarzan is on Netflix?

Or perhaps Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow.

That's a very interesting perspective. Thanks for sharing it. But does it still apply when the justice being dispensed is against another Demi-god from Krypton?

I'm going to try to locate the Tarzan movie you mentioned, I'm not sure I've ever seen it.

This kind of stuff is what makes Red Son so great. What if Superman, the quintessential American Hero, had landed in the USSR?

I read a synopsis of it and it looks great. The one I recommended is a fantasy end of the Superman story. Lois Lane, the last person to ever see Superman is interviewed about the events leading up to Superman leaving. In the story, a bunch of major characters die and Superman realizes that Mxyzptlk is responsible for everything that happened. As Superman is trying to capture him permanently, he accidentally kills him, sending him into such emotional turmoil that he gives up all his powers and walks out into the artic wastes.

That's the answer to the question about one near god killing another. Superman felt that was so wrong that he had to give up his powers as a result.

Read the book first to fully appreciate what Disney did with it. (Free online at the link.)

I have yet to see it.



[Spoilers]
That came out in an earlier movie, right??
Something about the "galactic stupidity" of Lois Lane ??
Glasses on; glasses off ????? Yes?




I thawt he already started that with Margot Kidder, right ??

It's an awfully low bar to say you have to beat the Clooney Batman.

I am fed up of watching super man movies. I don't like them anymore..!

I'm not surprised that you are after seeing this movie. A minimum prerequisite for a movie version of a famous, legendary story is that it follows the main points of the story. In this movie, almost the whole of the Superman story was ignored in favor of stuff blowing up. You didn't see the Kents discovering the spaceship. Superman didn't work at the Daily Planet. Lois knew Superman was Clark Kent from the beginning. Superman didn't fight street crime. The movie went directly to super-villains and explosions. It was very disrespectful of the source material.

I am phenomenally impressed that you remembered this thread from seven years ago! It was also fun to go back and read my comments from back then. That video was pretty much right on the mark with my thoughts (although it certainly made a much better case).

A simple case of where the tag search engine worked when I needed it.