You Want Superman Revamp? [Also the Man of Steel (2013) thread]

in the sequel america will deal with the influence of bloomsberg types (Batman) and koch brothers types (Luthor)

Superman is also not necessarily all-powerful! Even the original movies dialed him substantially down from how out of control he'd gotten in the Silver Age, and John Byrne's Man of Steel series rebooting the character in the 80s followed up on that - more 'super duper tough' than 'invulnerable,' etc. Recall that he originally couldn't even fly - he leaps tall buildings in a single bound. So there are lots of ways to take the character that aren't necessarily God On Earth. I think the immigrant story is very rich with possibilities, and if taken seriously could be a great way to make the character relevant: America has a lot of immigrants these days after all. Do him as an immigrant who does struggle, play up the ways people might misunderstand him or find him threatening. You don't want to turn him into Spider-Man or the X-Men in the "hated and feared" sense... but certainly there'd be something to the idea of a guy who comes here as a child, is equally not-at-home in American culture as in his Kryptonian fortress, who is trying really hard to do the things he's been told are right and yet still gets misunderstanding and shade thrown his way.

I do agree that this could be tough to square with the messianic quality which certainly is part of the character's appeal: it's nice to think we have a guardian and a savior, but neither of those seem to make for flawed, complex, relatable characters. Potentially a better movie could be about ordinary people in a world where there is a Superman, but alternately you could say that the pathos of Superman is in his effort and his faith. If he's Jesus, it's Jesus at the moment of questioning what God is setting him up for. This is why the Flaming Lips go for the moment when something is too heavy for Superman to lift - we know without a doubt that he absolutely is trying his best and it is breaking his heart that he is failing. Oddly enough this is his closest connection to humble Spider-Man, whose most famous scenes revolve around the very same thing: trying to save Gwen, lifting up that pile of machinery with all the water streaming down, or in the movies, trying to save everybody on the train when Doc Ock is attacking. This is the kind of stuff that should slot into a Superman movie very easily, with Pa Kent standing in for Uncle Ben and some slight shifts in motive.

A totally different hook might be to do what the Fantastic Four films should have done and failed to do, and make it a brain-melting Grant Morrison sci-fi thing; Superman is one of the superheroes who can go on impossible quests to the centers of stars or between molecules and not have it seem like a weird graft. This would require actual imagination in the film-making though, to call upon CGI for something other than smashing up skyscrapers and alien robot guys or w/e.

lots of interesting possibilities in dr. c's post.

Even tho it made no sense and was a redundant device to sell toys, I always liked the design of Superman's punching rocket jet thing. How do you take three of the most superficial and easily graspable qualities of Superman and put those into a vehicle? You make it blue, fly really fast, and(this is the best part) give it really big fists for punching.

I have no problem with more Marvel Studios superhero films, as long as they focus on character and/or do the genre-within-genre thing that IM3 and Winter Soldier pulled off

I like the part of this movie where superman is trying to fly up to the spaceship and it's really hard and he can't do it for like 2 minutes but then he goes "rawrrr" and does it

Totally agree w dr c supes scifi angle, kal el as neil degrasse tyson

dr casino otm re superman = jesus, but jesus questioning his purpose. that for me is the appeal of superman. it's not what he can do with his powers so much as his powers giving him a false sense of self

Would love a film about Supes retiring from crimefighting and becoming host of The Late Show

I guess I can accept Superman being boring in the way that for me Super Mario World is also boring.

comic book stories feature absurd, inexplicable things (like a guy who can stop power locomotives)

these things totally happen in The King Canute Crowd and Who Will Cut My Hair and Minnie's 3rd Love

Super Mario World is also boring.

Out.

When's the last time you played it?

3 and 64 both much better but i mean, yoshi

the one thing that sticks in my mind is the ending, when Zod is shooting his heat blast at the family, and it is inching closer and closer to them, all while struggling in a headlock with Superman. physically it just wouldn't work like that, the heat blasts would be flying all over the wall. as it is Zod would have to stay stationary and veeeerrry slooowly turn his head towards the family, at fractions of an inch.

movie was full of dumb stuff but that was like cartoon logic.

Henry Cavill sucks

WHY DON'T YOU SAY IT TO MY COMPLETELY NORMAL FACE

https://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/justice-league-henry-cavills-mouth-superman.jpg

This week's episode of Legends of Tomorrow sees Brandon Routh grow a moustache for spurious trivial plot reasons then try and disguise it for most of the episode by holding bits of paper in front of his face.

lol for real?

https://comicbook.com/dc/amp/2018/12/04/henry-cavill-mustache-brandon-routh-legends-tomorrow/

I should also point out Legends of Tomorrow is absolutely killing it this season.

heh, that's good

brandon routh really deserved a better shot at superman than superman returns :(

Ha, I look forward to seeing that when we catch up on the DC shows (halfway through last season so that's only collectively like...um, 100 episodes...jesus). I like him but he is such a dork on Legends that it's difficult to remember he was ever Superman.

I should also point out Legends of Tomorrow is absolutely killing it this season.

Couldn't agree more. The writers and actors are hitting a perfect tone of light and serious, and obviously having fun with plots requiring going undercover at Woodstock and at a summer camp. Best of the Berlanti crowd, by far.

Can i skip the earlier seasons and just start this one then?

Given that I've seen everything up to about a year ago and still strain my brain trying to remember how certain pieces wound up arrayed across the board in this particular arrangement, I'd go with 'no'. Although it's also total froth of no real consequence, so I might also go with 'yes'.

i could just dive right in, like i used to read comics!

Well, sure! I guess, yes, that approach probably isn't advisable for general audiences, but for life-long comic fans it's probably like sinking into a warm bath.

(If only they would occasionally have a '*See Arrow Season 4, Episode 15' text box pop up, the experience would be complete.)

https://news.avclub.com/ray-cyborg-fisher-now-refusing-to-be-in-any-movies-ma-1845970504?

This was not a good movie. But Superman learning to fly was fun, and I appreciated not being asked to laugh every thirty seconds.

It's possible that my low expectations helped out. I didn't even mind Superman shouting "noooo" while disappearing into skull-quicksand.

still nothing that tops Superman destroying dick bar patron's semi-truck off-screen and then chucking it on top of a telephone pole and nobody questioning it, like sometimes you find shoes on top of telephone poles, sometimes you find wrecked semi-trucks, nothing to see here folks

i was genuinely surprised by how great this movie was and will be arguing about it forever i guess

I'm on Brad's side, I find a lot of the criticism of this movie weird, as if Superman specifically is a sacrosanct character that can only be portrayed one way.

i just had a problem with Snyder's directorial style and storytelling.

Superman "killing" someone didn't really bother me so much. he should kill more people IMO

This is really good on that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Cy_Qlh7VM

i did appreciate that the action sequences that looked like handheld footage from a natural disaster. And Superman and Zod punching each other at Mach 3. And Jor-El was great. There was a lot to like, I just didn't think the end worked at all.