Superman Returns
 

Being that I missed out on the creation of the official Spidey thread, I'll take on this one. While there isn't much footage besides the teaser trailer, I'll need a bit more to be sold on this film. But talk about the flick here. :)

http://supermanreturns.warnerbros.com/

Can someone tell me how Superman visits the remains of Krypton, a planet that had exploded.

I guess there's planetary debris, but ... really. What's there to visit?

Is Lex Luthor still going to be somebody I can't take seriously? I really like his recent cartoon portrayal over anything I've seen in the films.

It all starts out with scientists "discovering" a new planet which ends up to be the remains of Krypton. Kal-El leaves to not only see if there are any survivors or villains like Zod.

Lex Luthor won't be the wig wearing slightly goofy Lex Gene Hackman portrayed. They'll be some humour from the character but more of a sadistic kind that falls inline with Pre-Crisis Luthor.

Waiting rather impatiently for this movie to come out. It's about time they finally got the movie off the ground, what with the fiasco regarding Tim Burton and Nicholas Cage (LOL)....

From what I've heard so far, the story seems pretty interesting: Supes disappears for several years and returns to find that the human race has gotten on pretty fine without him. Lois seems to have moved on as well. How does he find his place in this new world, get back into Lois' life (awkward!!) and just what is Lex upto?

Heh, I just wanna see him fly!! Should be awesome, what with the new technology available today - a far cry from Christopher Reeve's awkward wire stunts.


:cheers:

Who are you kidding, pretty much anything out of the DC Animated Series' of the last decade beats the shit out of the comic book movies. I loved Batman Begins, but even it doesn't hold up to Batman: The Animated Series (although it is close I'll admit). Batman, JLA and Teen Titans all kick ass, and Superman is pretty good too.

- WraithTwo -

Can you take Kevin Spacey seriously?

I'm excited to see how Metallo looks in the film. He's had quite a number of differen variations throughout the years. He is who Superman fights in the movie, correct? Or is that just the video game version?

I think that's just for the video game, well he's one of the major villains he has to fight. For the movie, I think the main bad guy will be just Lex Luthor.


:cheers:

I was just wondering what Supes will actually fight in the movie, if anything. Lex is a great villain, but he can't take a superman punch to the face. Either way I'm sure it will be good.

in the first movie he didn't fight anybody as far as a slug fest. instead he had to deal with luthor's crazy plan to drop the san andreas fault into the ocean.

I belive this movie will be one of the best movies of this year, even X3.
We've all seen what Bryan Singer can do, a good X1 and a amazing X2.
I'm just sad we'll have to wait untill the middle of the year to watch this movie, at least there's Xmen 3 in may.

Even though I'm not a huge Superman fan (I've only seen the animated series and films, never read the comics), I have to say that I'm really excited for this movie. I'm hoping this film will revitalize the Superman film franchise, just as the Batman film series was saved by Batman Begins. The teaser trailer was one of the best trailers I've seen in a long time.

This will be one of the most anticipating movie of the year. Its cool to know that Routh will play 3 roles as in Kal-El, Clark Kent, and Superman. I'll post some pics soon after I finish my work ;)

Why the hell wouldn't Routh play Superman, Kal-El, and Clark Kent? They are all the same person.

However, more like Tom Welling.

Of course he will. The film isn't any of that Smallville or John Byrne nonsense but draws more from the Pre-Crisis/Silver Age era.

I'm a little cautious about how this movie could turn out, given the long pothole-filled road it had to travel down in order to reach it's current state.

Don't believe me? See the full story here

Or for a shorter (and more funny/entertaining version), see what Kevin Smith had to say when he was commissioned to write a draft for Superman V

Other links of interest:

• Concept Art
• Kevin Smith's draft from 1997

I'm a big Superman fan, and I really hope they do a good job in with this movie... but I'm not setting my expectations too high, because I don't want to be massively disappointed.

Citing an internet forum as evidence is akin to asking a 5 year old what he thinks of international relations during the Regan administration.

You just bury yourself deeper with that Kevin Smith garbage

Hmm, someone's a bit tetchy today ;) I've been noticing alot of your posts in this sub-forum since the restoration have been filled with blanket heavy cynicism, hence why I'm not too bothered ^___~

In any case, I used the link to the other forum because the post there did a good job in summarising details of the events that I've been following, and I saw no reason to reinvent the wheel (frankly I couldn't be arsed re-summarising everything as I have better things to do with my life... and I mean, would you look at how long that thing is? These events backtrack into the last millenium).

As for the Kevin Smith Q&A segment, I put that in more for the fact that I actually found him to be quite funny in it, and I thought other comic book fans would gain similar enjoyment from it. Plus I generally prefer the health benefits of humour over development of gallstones anyday

People are saying that Singer's current version of Superman is shaping up to be just as bad as the canned versions. Is that even a surprise.

Burton's version sounds crazy, but it would probably have been good regardless. Although the Supermobile sounds idiotic. The score by Elfman would blow the John Williams score away, though. No joke.

It's stupid not to base the new movie on the events of Superman's death. Singer's version is just a rehash with wannabe comic nerd elements. Visiting the remains of a planet that exploded doesn't work, sorry.

Would you get off that exploded planet bit.

Well, wait a minute. The internet has taught us nothing if not "Buyer Beware". Case in point - Megalith. Now he came along before the crash and stuck his finger up all our asses with the news that AintItCoolNews has it confirmed that Jack Black will play Kyle Rayner in the Green Lantern movie.

The next week Jack Black, his agent and D*C told everyone that it was bullshit. There was no GL movie. Theres been 5 or 6 scripts opted for the last decade but none of them were worth note.

I'm cynical because I've seen this "dog and pony show" before. The internet is quick to denounce what it disagrees with but is quick to support something if majority rules. That doesn't hold any water with me.

And for the record - John Williams is now the second most nominated man in Oscar history (and I believe tied for second in living ((composer)) Oscar wins with John Barry? but beaten by Alan Menken) and what does Danny Elfman have? A shitty narrowly redundant career in which he hates himself and what he does. Elfman is a hack, a has been and someone who continues to cash in on his former (admittedly excellent) glory days before Tim Burton movies became cliches of themselves.

John Williams = 45, Danny Elfman = 3

Yeah, but Lehah, Danny's done ok for himself considering he's had no formal musical training.

He's rocked out with his kick ass band, oingo boingo, done some memorable soundtracks, and he did get an academy award nod for the score for Good Will Hunting. On top of it all he's married to bridget fonda and she's hot.

Vangelis can't read sheet and he has an Oscar.

And Cong Su has an Oscar for 2 mins of music in "The Last Emperor." I think you might be putting a little too much faith in the tin ears of Oscar voters, since their choices of Vangelis and Santaolalla over Williams are totally indefensible. The Academy just doesn't like Elfman very much, since they think he doesn't write his own music.

Still, while we're on the topic of composers, I'm curious what your opinion on John Ottman is, since he'll be the one actually writing the score and adapting Williams' material.

I have no clue where your jump in logic about "they think he doesn't write his own music" comes from. If they thought that, they obviously wouldn't have nominated him.

But it may explain why he heavily sucks when he doesn't have a good orchestrator. Or can the internet finally admit that Shirley Walker had more to do with why Batman is a classic score?

Ottman is very hit or miss. I love some of his stuff (Apt Pupil, Fantastic Four, Usual Suspects) and don't care for others (X2). I was talking to him late last year and he has a lot of worries about doing this movie because it's doubly hard - not only is it John Williams's theme but Ottman is a HUGE fan of Williams. He's very fanboyish when it comes to certain scores from the 70s and 80s.

Three Six Mafia is my rebuttal to the idea of using Oscar nominations as a gauge of a composer's worth.

I'll wait and see what the movie looks like when further details come out, but I'm not holding my breath. I don't consider the Christ figure overtures in the teaser trailer to be a good sign. Unless they're doing a funky take on the Death and Return story, which we know they're not, it suggests they're just abusing the source material for the sake of pandering to the Passion demographic.

Well, let us not forget that Superman was created by two Jews.

For anybody that's interested, Soundtrack.net has a feature on the scoring sessions for this flick. It seems that John Williams' brother was in the studio orchestra, and John himself was invited to attend, but declined. It also notes which old themes are going to be reused.

There are a few reasons why I probably won't go see this Superman. First of all, I can understand Brian Singer wanting to take a break from X-3 and work on Logan's Run or some other film, but then he finds out that they are wanting a director for Superman and he basically says, F**k you X-3, I'm doing Superman. I don't know, it just seems like a betrayal to me, like if Peter Jackson directed the first two LOTR and then said out of the blue, You know what? Screw Frodo, I'm directing Harry Potter. It's like the same genera just a little bit of a different plot.

Also, Kim Basinger as Lois Lane? I'd still have preferred someone that was an actual brunette to play the role (I've seen pictures of her as Lois Lane, and to me, she looks like a horrible Lois Lane, no offense to anyone who is a fan of Basinger's work).

However, the person playing as Lex Luthor seems interesting. I don't know about Brandon playing Superman. It looks like they were trying really hard to find someone that looked like the kid of Dean Cain and Christopher Reeves (then again, I have only seen one or two pictures of him as Superman).

Are you smoking rock? Kate Bosworth is playing Lois.

The person playing Lex Luthor? I didn't think Kevin Spacey was just some random no-name. He should do a fine job, methinks. Probably the best part casted outside Rosenbaum.

I'm glad this was bumped up since the theatrical trailer was posted online today:
Direct Link-HD 480p

Thoughts?

LoL, oh my god. What is this, a fan trailer. I knew it all along. Bryan Singer ruined Superman.

Most of the CG just sucked. Will you look at the Fortress of Solitude. Fortress of Plastic. Also, Kevin Spacey's acting was somehow not impressive.

That actually looked pretty badass. BR looks to be doing a convincing job. Spacey will probably make the movie gold. Special effects looked most impressive. June can't come soon enough.

Wow, that looked great. I think this movie is going to be badass. Spacey as Luthor? Come on, that's unbeatable.

That made my jaw drop a few times. Well, I was excited to see this movie since it was announced, but now that excitement has tripled. It's looking great so far. I can't wait for June!

Note to self: Nyquil + Posting = WTH?

A very impressive Luthor indeed.

Yeah come to think of it weren't you impressed by the movie The Island?


Anyway I thought the trailer looked pretty sweet and having Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor gets an A+ in my book.

Wow it definitly looks awesome, Brandon as Clark looks and acts so damn much like Reeves did. The action and special effects look promising, 1 more month!

OUCH.

Thats the only bit of casting I wish was undone. They hire Frank Langella but have him play Perry White? If there was ever a man to play Lex Luthor, it's him!

Is it just me or did the trailer have some of Ottman's score in it, in particular the first time the "March" is heard....?

Anyways I enjoyed the trailer and have high hopes for the film, even more so after watching the trailer and Coca-Cola ad. :)

Routh is a fantastic Superman... At first, I wished they had cast Tom Welling from Smallville, but he's too much of a pretty boy. He's fantastic in Smallville, but for the movie, Routh is the man.

The trailer was sick. On the whole, the special effects look awesome (the plane shots look a bit hokey, but I'm not about to make any sweeping judgments about the film based on those slight blemishes). Plus, I like Lex Luthor's character under Spacey. He's maniacal yet doesn't take himself too seriously. What Singer said about melding a more serious Luthor with just a touch of campy one was right. Anyway, I'm pumped for June 30.

It looks pretty nice visually, but I'm unmoved by it.

This movie is pretty much gonna great. I have faith in Routh as Clark/Supes for the character :) Btw, love the ending of the trailer ;)

The latest trailer has actually set my mind a little more at ease for some reason. I think this is mainly because I can actually see Routh pulling off a good job at taking on the role of Superman. While Reeve's shoes will be difficult to fill, from the trailer it seems Routh both sounds and looks the part.

The flight scenes looked incredibly nice but those were only like 3 scenes.
I'm a little confused though. Superman returns is suppose to be after the original reeves movies or is it its own thing?
The movie looks more promising that I originaly thought but I'm still not interested. I think a better louis lane could have gotten the role though ~_~

It's a continuation of the Reeves movies, although I think there will be probably be quite a bit of "origin" retelling. So, yeah, officially this one is Superman V

In this movie, Superman has supposedly left earth for an unspecified period of time, and when he returns he has to rediscover his place in the new world which has learnt to manage without him.

Personally, I would have ideally preferred that they do what Batman:Begins did and start from scratch (especially since Superman III and IV were just... well... awful :p )... But it looks like they've put alot of work into making sure this new movie will be a solid work (and it's about time... they've travelled through a very rocky road all the way back since ~1997 or so in order to get to where they are now with this new film)... So I'm cautiously optimistic :D

http://ffmedia.ign.com/filmforce/ima...6031801760.jpg well here is the poster, found it on IGN

That's beastin'.

Did Alex Ross draw that.

He almost looks as if he is about to destroy earth lol

That's an awesome poster, although I wish he had more of a barrel chest. He looks a bit too scrawny and emo.

I think the fact that not too much is being said about the plot of the movie means that Warner Bros. is trying to sell this thing just from the name. "Ooh, it's Superman. He's back in theaters! You like an American icon, right?" What little I do know of the plot , I don't like.

Baby mama drama = win =p

"YOU'RE BALD!"

It's kinda funny how they're supposedly jumping off the point where Supes banged Lois when he became human for a short time in Superman II. They're hinting at the idea that the kid is actually his, and that he's flown away leaving a preggo lois back on earth. I guess Singer has completely forgotten that they made two other Superman movies after the 2nd one. They both sucked, but still. I think they should've just started from the beginning and did a complete retelling of the origin story.

Agree with you on that since WB already has a sequel in mind which'll most likely end up a trilogy.

The UK trailer is now online:
http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbol/uk/mo...rf3_qt_500.mov

It's much better than the domestic trailer IMO and will most likely be the second trailer that's supposed to be attached with X-Men: The Last Stand when it opens.

Wow that was badass, the last part was funny lol.

Is is just me, or are a lot of the promotional photos putting emphasis on weird stuff. For example: Look at the pic of Superman standing in Simo's sig. He's tipped back slightly and the S on his chest has a glare on is and is slightly out of view. But his hips are pushed forward seeming to draw attention to his crotch. I just don't get it. The S on his chest (which should be huge) should be the primary focus of the shot instead of his package.

That trailer was way more cool. Hahaha, a bullet in the eye. Geeze. Then it was like, BAM! The S!

Just heard about the $300 million budget. WTF?!?! Aside from Kevin Spacey, where is the money going? Does this film have a $250 million FX budget or something?

Its you.

My guess is special effects. If you go to bluetights.net you can check out video journals of the production of the movie. They developed a lot of new stuff for flying rigs that probably cost a fortune. In addition, I think they pretty much built an entire airplane just for the movie.

If you count the cost of everything... including the costs of all the crap back when Tim Burton and Kevin Smith were attached to the project ages ago, it could very well be considered the most expensive movie ever made.

What is this, Elitism Returns.

Leave me out of your little sex-fight, okay.

This Supes is far too skinny, that's all I can say. It's especially jarring when I've been watching the animated Superman for so many years.

http://www.geocities.com/super-mark/animated2.jpg

I know his strength is innate, but if you spend so many years lifting cars and buildings, you'd think he'd still get a bodybuilder physique.

But it's effortless to him. It's like you lifting a gallon of milk.

I've seen plenty of occasions where he's lifting something that qualifies as "heavy" to him, based on his grimacing expressions and whatnot. Super or not, I'm sure the guy gets a good workout once the day is over.

Yeah but where are you gonna find someone that BIG and LOOKS like superman/clark kent and can ACT? It's not that easy hehe

That's true Freddy. I'm hoping that this Brandon Routh guy can act the part really well. Cause if he can't...and he doesn't even look the part... ugh. At least we can bet that Spacey will be awesome. And Kate Bosworth is nice to look at.

Not really anticipating this movie at all but I just wanted to say that Christopher Reeves wasn't 'built' or 'muscled' at all and he still had the part.

When does this come out? I'm in some serious anticipation here.

The film doesn't have a $300 million budget. That was just some hyperbole caused by an Australian paper that reported on the budget without a source which US trades picked up on andh couldn't tell the difference between their currency and exchange rate compared to the AUD. The actual budget is around the $185 million mark.

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/5393/bts0984ds.jpg

http://img438.imageshack.us/img438/33/superhr6et.jpg

How much bigger does the guy have to be then?

June 30th in the US. :)

There are currently 4 TV spots airing in the US at the moment so here are direct links to all 4:
#1
#2
#3
#4

Eh, not big enough Simo. I want him to look like this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...gdom-come1.jpg

fat? =p

So it's ONLY the 4th-most-expensive movie ever made?!?!?! :)

(Titanic, King Kong, Spiderman 2, am I right?)

But yeah, the Burton/Smith leftovers probably didn't help the budget.

And what's with the flying rig thing? Shouldn't they be doing this with green screens and computers? :)

mrman1, you should definitely check out the flying rig machine. From what I remember, it's completely green to go with the green screen shots.

http://www.bluetights.net/bulletin_list.php

I think it's video journal No.10

Dumb question:

Why not use wires like every other Hong Kong director? :)

They do. Afterall the "flying" team is the same company and people who were responsible for the "Super Burly Brawl" and other flying antics from The Matrix Revolutions/Reloaded. With the original Superman movie they only had a 2 axis flying rig so that Chris Reeve could move forward and backwards for the flying scenes along with a single pole he'd rest on for the green screen stuff.

With Superman Returns they're not only using a 3 axis wire rigging system that allows Brandon Routh to move forward, backwards, side to side but also bank like a fighter jet to one side or simulate the impact of a missile that causes Superman to tumble backwards and repositioning himself and moving forward. They've also got another rig which Routh rests on that can move 360 degrees compared to the old "pole on a stick" from the original movie. While the 2 rigs were mainly used for green screen stuff they also disassembled and used the wire rigging setup on location for stuff like the young Clark Kent from a grain silo into the cornfields, running through them and then jumping out and over the rest of the field.

So while the film does have a fair share of green screen/CGI work in it they're also using as much practical effects as possible be it for flying or displaying Superman's powers. :)

Anywho, TV spot #5 is online:
http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbmo...vspot5_500.mov

The best spot released thus far and here's a link to a low res version of the second domestic trailer currently playing with X-Men: The Last Stand:
http://rapidshare.de/files/21489168/...turns.avi.html

There's no need for an ultra strong person to play Superman, Routh is strong but not a giant. All that is left is someone asking for Schwarzenegger to play Superman. This role isn't all about the physics, the person playing it should be not only Superman but Clark Kent as well. An ultra strogn person might look good as Superman but could feel weird as Clark Kent.

I belive Routh is good for the job, strong but not huge.

Just to throw a little more at the "look right for the part" debate, check this out. All the Superman's through the years.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/621...rision38er.jpg

Routh is the fucking spitting image of Reeve.

and Dean Cain looks like a knob. Believe it or not!

I said that as well when i picked up the latest Wizard Magazine!

After seeing this picture it is indeniable. Even that curly thing on their hair is the same.

Yahoo now has a hi res Quicktime version of the third trailer that's currently playing before X-Men: The Last Stand up:
http://mp3content01.bcst.yahoo.com/b...0/25379541.mov

The official site also relaunched with a Flash intro that sounds like it features some of John Ottman's score but I'm not certain. The site has a ton of new content though:
http://supermanreturns.warnerbros.com/

Speaking of Ottman's score, Soundtrack.net will have a "First Listen" feature up on Thursday for the Superman Returns soundtrack. Warner Bros. also announced today that they've pushed the release date up by 2 days from June 30th to Wednesday, June 28th. :)

It's said that the running time is 150 minutes.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/su...ws.php?id=4314

This is how long X3 should have been.

That's after 20 minutes of the film being cut too which seems to be more of Kal-El's journey back to Krypton but luckily it'll be recut back into the film for the DVD release complete with original music.

...Speaking of which, Soundtrack.net's preview for the soundtrack is now up!
http://www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=196

Servers are slow, to be expected, at the moment though so in the meantime you can read Soundtrack.net's positive review for the score here:
http://www.soundtrack.net/soundtracks/database/?id=4335

Also the film isn't opening on June 28th but rather on Tuesday, June 27th at 10pm. :biggrin:

Just a heads up but both Fandango & MovieTickets.com now have tickets available for the 10pm June 27th first screenings of Superman Returns. I'm hoping to catch the 10:10pm showing in my area but I'm torn over to see it on the regular screen first and then IMAX the following weekend or vise versa...:eyebrow:

Here's a link to the 1 minute of "Exclusive" footage that aired on MTV during the 'Movie Awards' last night:
LINK-Server is kind of slow
YouTube Link

TV Spot #6 also debuted last night too:
SendSpace Link

Press screenings for the film also happened last night and while some are on embargo until the film's release, a few are starting to pop online starting with Jeffrey Wells' thoughts on the film:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/archi...w_superman.php
IMAX it is then. :biggrin:

Here's one positive review from The Boston Herald:
http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/stephenSchaefer/
Comics Continuum's post about the screening:
http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stori...6/08/index.htm
Also on Monday A&E will be airing the Bryan Singer/Kevin Burns Superman documentary "Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman" at 8pm EST, 7pm Central. :)

Wheres my Superman Returns score, internet? :(

I second this.

No luck from Darko then? :(

John Ottman working on the score was the big question mark I had about the film given how much of John Williams work would be used or not and then some of the articles about Ottman using only the score from Solaris as a temp for what they shot every day and the rough cut.

That said, I'm happy with what I heard on Soundtrack.net.

Solaris is a strange pick. X2 was tempt tracked with Empire Strikes Back and Wrath Of Kahn and look how that disc turned out. I have much faith in the man

Man even with me being used to the Smallville actors, this is going to be great. A little weird at times because of the former reason, but I can't wait regardless.

Few more reviews for your enjoyment with the first being the full review from Jeffrey Wells:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/archi...e_babyblue.php
Another positive spoiler free mini-review from LatinoReview:
http://latinoreview.com/news.php?id=636
Positive review from Kaboose but it contains a few spoilers:
http://entertainment.kaboose.com/pag...n-returns.html
Spoiler free positive review from IESB.net:
http://www.iesb.net/warnerbros2006/061006.php
Review on Dark Horizons:
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news06/060612e.php
That's about it for the reviews so far. It's not like I've just selected all the positive ones either as every review published has been overly positive about the film with the only "negatives" popping up at JoBlo.com from people who never even attended the screening.

I want to discuss the music.
Did anyone else get goosebumps when the 'Leaving Home' motif exploded out of nowhere in the short preview on Soundtrack.net? That was awesome. That alone has nearly convinced me to purchase this score.

Oh shi....I'm giddy with excitement! I only hope I can get work off to go see the IMAX. What's that about only 20 minutes of footage being converted to IMAX format? Why not the whole movie?

Same here and the "Love Theme/March" in the last track 'Reprise/Fly Away'. Although I got giddy just hearing some of Ottman's 'Main Titles' and hearing how crisp and clear it was, I mean the last time I saw Superman on the big screen and first heard march and John Williams music was back in 1988 at the ol' drive-in which had Superman and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace showing back to back.

I'm really liking what I've heard so far from the score and I've currently got it preordered at Wal-Mart.com given they like break street dates and all. Speaking of the soundtrack though, here are some more clips to make LeHah angry:
http://www.rhino.com/store/ProductDe...o?Number=77654

...OR if you'd rather hear the full "Main Titles" while watching it be conducted then you download the following video:
T.O.O F.U.C.K.I.N.G C.O.O.L

3D? Because the opportunity came too late during post-production and to convert all of the film into 3D would of meant missing the original June 30th release date. Either way I'm pumped for the film and I've got IMAX 3D tickets for Saturday, July 1st at 11:30am (it was the earliest I could get to see the film given how busy I'll be with work).

God that video was awesome. I heard that Williams was invited to attend the scoring session. Anyone know why he declined (I'm assuming schedule conflict)?

I've had the score for almost a week now. Why would I be angry?

Well in your last post you didn't have it and were quite frustrated that you didn't have it yet

So what's your impression of the score? I'm hoping to snag a copy later tonight if all goes well, and if my source actually does have it.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jyns40

I uploaded Track 2 - Memories for all you lowly people

Excellent. Downloading now and thanks alot.

So now I've got "Main Titles" and "Memories", I've just got to find the rest of the album.

Fun:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y229/eea76/nice.jpg

Ouch... I'm surprised you can fill your main drive that full. Good luck.

LeHah is there any chance you could upload Track #13 "Saving The World", please?

I have the rest of the score but I'm just missing that track. :(

Really? I'd read that this was supposed to take place after Superman II (while disregarding III and IV, which I'm happy about LOL). However, I didn't know they were taking that angle... I thought the kid was supposed to be her boyfriend's. I guess it would be a big shock to Lois because she did have her memory "wiped," so she has no idea she slept with Superman.

Brain... hurts... lol.

I myself don't really like the idea of Superman having a kid with Lois, as I think that it takes away from his character overall, but I will see how they treat it in the movie. Hopefully well...

Granted that III and IV sucked balls compared to the first two films... I don't understand creating some weird screwed up continuity. Why not just start fresh with an origin story like they did with Batman, or if they're going continue from where the old flicks left off why not include all of them?

Yes Superman III was pretty much crap and IV was one of the worst movies ever. III was so dumb... Superman fights a fucking computer and Richard Pryor... ugh... dumb.

Yeah, I agree with you - starting fresh certainly worked for Batman Begins, and it would be a great introduction to kids as to what Superman is all about (if they don't know already, which would be suprising). It actually does look like they're going to explain his origin story a little (with flashbacks), but I guess Singer liked the first 2 movies and felt it that this movie could work as an alternate "Superman III." Hopefully it'll make some sort of sense... I'm just not thrilled with the idea of Superman being the father of Lois' kid. Moviegoers who haven't seen Superman II aren't going to know that she slept with him, so yeah, it doesn't really make sense to follow that storyline. :-/

The origin story for Superman has been retold so many times over the years, I mean who doesn't know where Superman came from or the whole general background? It'd also be pretty much redundant at this time given the WB's Smallville which again tells of Superman origins and the story of young Clark Kent discovering his powers while on the road to becoming Superman.

Using the Richard Donner film though as a jump off point as some "vague history" just comes from that it's pretty much THE Superman film that audiences remember even today. I mean whenever Superman is featured or parodied in shows like Family Guy or SNL it's always the Donner film from the Fortress of Solitude to General Zod and the 2 Kryptonian criminals along with The Phantom Zone.

Pretty much why they're not referenced or associated with Superman Returns. SIII & IV pretty much disregarded the events in Superman I & II anyways so it's not like they added anything significant to the franchise or universe. I can understand how the "vague history" thing can be confusing but hopefully it works in 'Returns. I guess we'll find out in less than 2 weeks. :)

In the meantime you can check out 13 minutes of behind the scenes "B-Roll" footage over at IESB:
Right Click & Download

The site also has 11short clips from the film too, no real spoilers:
LINK

Slightly related but there's an all new Superman: The Animated Series 90 minute feature on Cartoon Network right now.

I like the soundtrack. Track #3 Rough Flight is pretty awesome. If the movie turns out to be half as cool as those 11 clips were, I'll be much happy time.

Marlon Brando reprises his role of Jor El in Superman Returns.

......................SAY WHAT ?

No black magic there :

http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbmo...r_el_large.mov

:EDIT: why did I call him Brandon anyway.

here's a quick illustration inspired by the upcoming movie. Although Im sticking with the brighter motif. :) hope you like!

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/8523/superman1ln.jpg

Not that it's a hueg deal, but there's no "n" in his name.

That was a cool little video, thanks for the link. I hope there are more featurettes like that on the DVD.

Heck, Brando even has his own action figure now:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3..._boot/d7_1.jpg

Here's a link to a low res capture of HBO's "First Look" which aired last night:
YSI LINK

Couple of more reviews...

Newsweek
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13389957/site/newsweek
Variety
http://www.variety.com/VE1117930841.html


TIME Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...5367-2,00.html
The Hollywood Reporter
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr..._id=1002689933
Screen Daily
http://www.screendaily.com/story.asp?storyid=26703
Harry Knowles at Ain't It Cool News
http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=23635
Finally here's a negative review from Newsarama...
http://www.newsarama.com/movies/Supe...an_Review.html
.....Of course the review kind of goes shitsville when calling upon Michael Rosenbaum as a better choice for Lex Luthor and wishing Tom Welling had been cast as Superman later on in the review and this...
Uh huh. A show that pisses on the established mythos on a weekly basis that also lifts plenty of elements from the Donner film and universe. :eyebrow:

Due to all the positive reviews Warner Bros. has taken up an ad in all national papers to promote the positive buzz:
http://supermanhomepage.com/images/s...wspaper-ad.jpg

Leave it to the rabid incessant comic book geeks to find fault. :)

Too bad he is right about the Smallville comment. Truth. One cannot deny it after seeing what they have done in five seasons. Pure brilliance on their tight scripts in terms of the actors playing their characters to a T and story.

I like how people randomly say that smallville pisses on the mythos all the time like they think they know what they are talking about. But whatever.

I have to agree with you there.

I've been following Superman from silver age comics, and the "superboy" comics in those days never made any sense. Smallville is really an accurate portrayal of Clark growing up in 2000. The work they did with the meteor strike being the cause of Lex's hair loss, his on-off relationship with Lana, the tragedy in the Luthor family that drives Lex to madness... All these things make more sense than the comics ever did.

For instance, it was always "known" that the reason Lex had no hair was because of Superman. But how did that happen? I remember hearing a rumor of a high school lab experiment which sounds ridiculous. Never was a good explanation for this "idea" given until Smallville. Also, gaining powers slowly and having confusion about them also makes more sense then the comic "baby boy flying".

Smallville does do away with the whole "Superboy in Smallville gains experience to go Metropolis" and focuses on Clark learning to build character which is what Superman needs in Metropolis. Makes much more sense. It also has some other oddities like Lois Lane showing up, and Jor-El on Earth, but these are pretty minor points to be whining about.

Why are you talking about things you obviously have no interest in or knowledge of, Dayvon?
http://superman.ws/tales2/howluthormetsuperboy/?page=6
This was the story before 1986. In 1986, a writer changed it so Lex lost his hair in adulthood as a result of natural baldness. "lol metor shower" is not a better explanation.

Superman is a fucking alien with unknown biology. How does one make more sense than the other? Christ, you're dumb.

And it was already done in 1986.

Jor-El and the Kryptonian shit has been the nexus of the plot for seasons. It's not a minor point.

Wow... You've got some Superman = serious business going on. Calm down and let me have an opinion.

Yes, I do think that that comic you reference is a VERY lame way for the Superman/Lex feud to begin. Very lame. It makes Lex as just a ungrateful prick. Smallville makes it indirectly Supes' fault which seems like a less of a stretch and more of a blanket guilty by association. That seems more like the Lex concept than the former, and less boring than natural baldness.

I do think slowly gaining powers makes more sense. If you aren't taught, how do you know how or that you can do something? It should be a clumsy learning process, not a unconcious doing. Secondly, it also fits with the ideas of Superman "charging" under the yellow sun. The longer he is exposed the more power he has. Check Supes' return from space in (EDIT) Superman #32, as well as death of superman series.

I didn't say it was minor "in the story", but a minor thing to gripe about. And when has any offshoot ever been 100% faithful? And secondly, I'm currently watching through the Smallville series for the first time and am only at the end of the third season... Take a chill pill.

I've watched a few of the clips, and it seems to be completely devoid of the epicness that should come with the Superman character.

Well, you always have been a bit cynical.... I'm sure they are holding back a bit. The Xmen3 trailer wasn't epic enough?

More of a "Why the fuck are you even talking."

Which is what Lex is. He's supposed to be an arrogant human in contrast with the alien with humility. Lex likes being Superboy's buddy because it makes him feel special, but when he fucks up, he can't admit that he made a mistake. Lex's arrogance is the driving force of that story and shows what a miserable person Lex truly is.
So does the comic page you were supposed to read. "Not only that--The gas fumes made my hair fall out! I'm bald!"

Babies certainly aren't taught to crawl, yet they do so; I'm not sure why you're placing limitations on an alien baby, anyway.

His "charging" capability has been modified. Before 1986, it was instantaneous. You're using examples from after 1986.

Maybe if you'd stop talking about things you don't know shit about.

@ Interrobang

Obviously, you are quite upset about not only Smallville, but at some of the ways DC has changed Superman over the years. I was born in '82, and I really don't care a heck of a whole lot about THE ENTIRE Superman story dating back to the 30's. It's an idea, a myth, that grows and changes with time, which is why I stated that I think Smallville is a outstanding show that follows the Superman "myth" and fits well in 2000's.

If you can't deal with different ideas of the Superman story, then stop caring, and read what you want over and over.

And I'm talking 'cause I (like most people) have liked Superman over the years, bought his comics, and generally kept up on the comics as they have progressed over the years. I havent had access or information on many of the comics you want to reference, because I havent read them, don't own them, and haven't studied Superman. I ENJOY the story of Superman, told, re-told, tweaked and re-told. You should learn to do the same. And stop sounding so bloody emo.

You're also a worthless fucking troll. Shut the fuck up, small-dick.

Very well said. Superman and Lex are two opposites - Clark grew up on a farm in a small town and amounted to being the ubermensch of humanity - while Lex is seen as a powerful man of the people, he's actually just a damned criminal jerk.

That not even my fucking point, Dayvon. I don't give a shit about how Smallville or Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths is different than Pre-Crisis Superman.

No, you're just an idiot with worthless opinions. It'd be better if you just said that you were some douche that liked Smallville. That would have been barely noticeable on my radar. However, you felt the need to go further and prove that Smallville was somehow superior than the comics and you failed at it by not knowing what the fuck you were talking about.

I didn't say Smallville was superior to the comics. You assumed that.

Secondly, I haven't even finished watching the whole series, and no I am not "some douche that liked Smallville" and comes in here saying he knows stuff about Superman. You assumed that. I started to watch the series a few weeks ago. I have liked and collected 80's-now superman comics for years.

I think that Smallville is great. I think that the comics are great. I don't think one is better than the other. I think that some things in Smallville are better ideas then in the comics, but I also think that some things in Smallville are worse than the comics... But why does it have to be a big deal? I ENJOY and like both. Do you?

You've been doing alot of assuming and flexing of your e-penis knowledge of Superman, all the while being demeaning, condescending, and an outright ass-wipe. Why don't you just let other people enjoy entertainment, and you can keep you self-righteous prick behavior to yourself.

Irrelevant.

It's not about enjoying things, you dense dolt. It's about you saying stupid stuff to justify your conclusions about how Smallville is better* than the comics. You are acting as if you are knowledgeable when you aren't.

*No, I don't give a shit about your semantics.

Who do you think you are, some police to point out someone's lack of extensive knowledge about a fictional character's many iterations? I didn't say stupid stuff; I said what I like, why I like it, and referenced the things in comparison. That is a well-thought out opinion... The problem is you just don't agree with it, and you can't get over that or leave it alone.

Child.

You're scrapping the bottom of the barrel now. "Child"? "Knowledge police"?

Do you still have no refution for the fact that you don't know shit but still pretend to?

I already conceded you "know more" about Superman's extensive history. But that is not the point anymore. That may be what you are trying to prove, but why? Just to boost your ego?

Superman is a story I have enjoyed and liked for many years. I casually make some comments about what I like in Smallville better than somethings in the comics and you procede to bash me and jump all over me. What gives?

I'm not pretending to be the uber-know-it-all on Superman. I don't care to be either. You can have that, but try being a little more considerate next time. AND WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO HAVE A CONVERSATION INSTEAD OF A PISSING MATCH.

Being nice to stupid people isn't really the rule here, Dayvon.

Telling me to be nicer still doesn't excuse the fact that you're criticizing things you don't have the prerequisite experience to.

Myself, I never got into Smallville at all due to many reasons. I never liked the "it's a small world" feel of it, where Superman knows almost all of his major characters before he goes to Metropolis.

I never liked the idea that Clark not only knew Lex when he was young, but that he was friends with him.

I never liked the fact that they changed his whole history as a child, that he wasn't the trod-upon "geek" of the town, as well as in Metropolis. In Smallville he is more the "cool kid" who is liked and has many friends. It makes Superman less than he truely is to me. Superman is supposed to be as noble and honorable as he is despite being the lesser liked kid on the block, that he always had to hold his powers in check so as not to show himself to the world. In Smallville he seems to do it all the time, and it makes him far less of a Superman to me.

One question, if Clark were to go to Metropolis in Smallville, would he be the nerdy, underappreciated geek he was in the comics, or would he be the cool new guy who's fun to be around just to make him more "hip" with the times?

I'm hoping the movie is not as campy as the show, and that Routh can fill Reeves shoes at being Clark Kent. That'll tell me if it's a good movie or not.

You know the nerd geeky guy with glassses is an act when he goes to Metropolis for good. He was not the COOL KID for most of the smallville 5 seasons to let you know. I don't know where you got that from. He is always holding back to not show himself to the world and hence why he was the outsider in his school outside of his VERY FEW friends. And the guy was and still is in constant misery on the show becuase he is holding back.

You won't like the Lex/Clark friend thing if you don't see the downhill progression throughout the whole show, OF COURSE.

So your opinions bear very little weight, for the most part.

Actually, contrary to your beliefs, my opinions matter much to me, since they are you know, MY OPINIONS.

From the episodes that I saw, he was not the picked on, nerdy, bullied kid that he was in the comic. He had girls chasing after him, he was liked by other kids and for the most part, had a completely different attitude than the normal Clark Kent.

As far as misery, I saw him more as whiney/angsty that he couldn't use his powers, more so from the Kent's direction. In the comics he took it more in stride, and wasn't a little bitch about it. He was in control of his emotions, and his powers.

The Lex/Clark thing shouldn't be in the show. I don't agree with it as it stinks of "small world" syndrome, just to include a character people know as an antagonist for Superman to "fight", rather than write a good story about the iconic hero growing up and dealing with real-world problems. It's much like the Elektra movie all over again.

Wow, Kevin Spacey looks so awesome in that trailer. Now I'm looking forward to this movie.

Lord, I thought his general history as a child was pretty much untold, which is why Smallville made a show about it to begin with. I guess I am wrong though.

There are classic Superboy comics that are very different from Smallville. Most of these comics are however, about 25+ years old. So unless you collect or read/find old comics, you wouldn't know anyway.

Since the Superman story reinvention in the 80's, there hasn't been THAT much written about Superman in the pre-Metropolis time. That is why Smallville seems to fill Superman comic history (but really doesn't because the comic and show DONT correlate accurately).

I purposely kept myself from watching Smallville in the beginning because I thought it was some gay retelling of the Superboy story made by the WB for teenage girls. And in a way I was right. But last nov. dec. i decided to watch an episode because they were showing the Superman Returns trailer during the episode and I was hooked. The way this season ended was pretty cool. The phantom zone and everything. Yes there are many difference between Smallvile and the Superboy comics and even the 80's Superboy tv series that I barely remember. But it's still a well written show. It brings Superman to an audience that normally wouldn't give a shit about the big boy scout in blue. That being said, I still like the comics more. I hope the movie is as good as I think it looks. I see a little more bit of the epic part than some people see but I may be biased towards Singer's style and his nod to Donner's film. I'm going to hold most of my judgement though until the movie actually comes out on the screen and we can all watch it. Hell it's gotta be better than Superman II, which used to be my favorite of the supes movies until I started watching it just a few minutes ago.

I'm also going to start checking more of John Ottman's stuff out now that I've heard the soundtrack.

Funny ziggy, when the season 5 finale was the worst finale of the whole show in my opinion (bad script). Season 5 had the potential to be absolutely amazing as it was through the first 12 episodes, but it kind of fell off to just good after that. 4 was the worst season, but did have great episodes within it. Seasons 1-3 were just overall great. You just have to ignore the occasional bad script.

Much as I'm enjoying the SR score, I wish he'd get more opportunities for real creativity again (see also: ELFMAN). Things like Lake Placid and Fantasy Island were why I decided to follow Ottman's work in the first place.

some of the last episodes were indeed crappy. I hate they killed off his dad. I've watched all of season 4 and 5 but haven't had a chance yet to catch up on 1,2 and 3. I see whatever episode comes on HDnet at night on Mondays (i think that's when it's on) but because i cancelled my netflix membership it's been a little harder to catch up. i'd like to actually buy season 1 and just start there but i'm too cheap. The main thing I don't care for is how Lois is already in the mix. God yes she's hotter than the chick that plays Lana but it's messing with the superman story a bit much for my tastes. Granted it's working but its just weird to me.

The one where you know who is killed is not at the end of the season 5 and that one was actually one of the best eps of the whole series. It was 5.12. And I would take Lana over Lois anyday of the week.

Well Lehah he is half right, about the Spacey/Rosenbaum thing. Can't say for sure until I see the movie of course.

I'm not a huge expert on Superman (again, my only exposure was TAS and the Reeves films), but it seems to me that Spacey's trying to create his own version of Luthor. He might try to retain some of Hackman's campiness, but he's also adding a layer of borderline-psychotic-menace (lol) to the part. Kind of a mixture of both, I guess, which I think is perfect.

I was never able to get into Smallville. *shrug*

Pretty much saying the actors do not put memorable performances in.

The reviews are quite positive so far. 88% on RottenTomatoes. Have to wait for Ebert's review, but i'm sure he will give it a thumbs up.

I can't wait for Wednesday.

Smallville is an interesting series. Clark is excellent, but Lana is a pathetic character. Introducing Louis into the series was great as she is infinitely hotter than Lana. Just wish the show wasn't so generic.

First US showings are Tuesday 6-27 @ 10pm nationwide.

*already there*

Bought my tickets this afternoon, i mean last night, hell whenever it was, it's all frakin' confusing when you wake up to go to the bathroom and notice the carpet in front of your bathroom is all wet, then realize your toliet is broken. spent the last hour trying to get all the water up. hope i don't have to replace the carpet.

OH Doody!

I got to screen the movie on Saturday night, since my theatre is having a promo screening on Monday. I thought the movie was fantastic. If you were a fan of the first two, then you'll love this one. I didn't think the movie was too long at all.

Double Post:
BTW: I think that review above gives away way too much, and spoils the fun.

One random internet entry from an unlinked source review does not undo any movie.

It's from "FOX411" and written by some guy called Roger Friedman. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,200698,00.html

He writes celebrity gossip shit, so I'm loath to take his opinion seriously.

Reviews are merely opinions from people we don't really know, so we can't really judge them to our own likes & tastes.

I'm going into this movie with high hopes; after all, Singer ditched X3 for this, and it seems to be a labor of love from him, so hopefully it pays off.

I have to admit though, when the teaser trailer was released, I had goosebumps all over when I saw it. Just hearing Marlon Brando's speech, the John Williams score, and the shots of Smallville and the Daily Planet all hit me in an emotional way. I felt like a little kid in a comics shop; it all just seemed prefect.

I plan on seeing it at the local theatre opening night, then go watch it in IMAX 3D over the weekend.

Good times :biggrin:

Jesus Christ - and this guy posted his opinion? What ever happened to good taste or intelligence?

He never really ditched X-Men 3 though. Bryan and his writers were more than willing to jump onboard and finish the X-Trilogy and even agreed to a writing stint on Ultimate X-Men to help bridge the time before pre-production began on X3.
The problems came with 20th Century Fox when they wouldn't negotiate a deal to have Singer direct the film which led to the director trying to renegotiate a deal to direct the film for the next 12 months after X2 had been released. While this was happening Singer pursued other projects such as Sc-Fi Channel's "Triangle" miniseries along with Dean Devlin and then moved onto Warner Bros' remake of "Logan's Run".

It was sometime in 2004 when Singer, along with X2 writers Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty, was working on pre-production for Logan's Run as well as throwing around ideas for X-Men 3 when Warner Bros. contacted him about the possibility of working on a new Superman film after McG left the project. Singer agreed to meet with Alan Horn and co at WB about the film and threw together a basic premise with Harris and Dougherty that told a Superman story that was more of a "return" plot rather than an origin story while using the original 1978 Richard Donner film as some "vague history" for the new film. Warner Bros. loved the pitch and agreed for Singer to direct with all the necessary budget and time he needed, Singer then brought over pretty much all of the X2/Logan's Run crew and began work on Superman Returns in Sydney, Australia.

The rest is well...history. Reportedly Fox were so pissed off for Singer "jumping ship", despite failing to sign him up a year after X2 had been released worldwide, that they had Bryan Singer thrown off the Fox lot....only to have to have him let back on because he was currently directing the pilot episode of "House M.D"....a Fox TV show.

That's not the worst offender...
http://worldfilm.about.com/od/indepe...nvsgitmo_2.htm

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/fi...ew.asp?ID=2327
:eyebrow:

Anyways....So anyone else going to one of the 10pm showings tomorrow night? :)

I really dislike watching movies at night. Maybe its just me, but I much prefer going to movies in the morning to avoid large crowds and get the cheapest prices.

Thats the dumbest fucking review Ive read in ages. Worse than the fucker who wrote into Ebert and accused George Lucas of being anti-Bush for opening Revenge Of The Sith in the middle of the week.

WTF...really?

That review though came from RottenTomatoes' which unfortunately recognises and tallies that review, and then some, with the rest of critic reviews which the majority have been overwhelmingly positive anyways.

I guess Ebert & Roeper will be covering the film in this Sunday's show.

Generally I like to go to the primetime showings with a big crowd because usually it can heighten the overall experience, especially if the audience is really buzzed for the film.

Thanks for giving that little piece of history there, Simo. Very much aprpeciated.

And I am hoping to hit the 10pm show tomorrow night as well. Only thing that annoys me is most of the time when there are premieres, most of the middle school/high school kids flood in and make all kinds of rude noises and crap like that throughout the show. In that sense, an IMAX showing would be more preferable, as it usually weeds out the kiddies.

Still hoping to see it tomorrow though; though I'm gonna try to find an obscure theatre to go to so that there will be a minimum of pre-pubescent teens in the vicinity.

10pm showing here I come. I'm going to be completely gay and wear a button up and a tie tomorrow to work, with one of my superman t-shirts under it. i'm sure there will be at least one or two moments during the day (due to the fact that we're in the middle of a phone switch conversion) where I can scream "this looks like a job for Superman and run through the hall way with my shirt halfway unbuttoned showing the S for everyone to see. Maybe they'll send me home again like that time I had my nervous breakdown at work and started screaming and crying at a guy because he asked me to change his password. That would rock!

Me and a friend are going tomorrow @ 10pm. Hopefully the theatre we are going to won't be too full. It is the best theatre I know for good sound and awesome picture.

Any word on the trailers before the show?

The biggest one is the Spider-Man 3 teaser but it won't be shown with IMAX prints unfortunately but the IMAX version does have new trailers for Ant Bully and Happy Feet. Aside from that I'm not sure what other trailers will be playing...

What the hell does releasing a movie in the middle of the week have to do with being anti-Bush? Does he think all movies must be released on fridays and nothing else or something?

People ducking out of work en masse affected the economical stability of the nation or something.

Also - your goddamned girlfriend is fat. Tell her to stop eating all that cake and all those Honda Accords so you can find the TV remote in her disgusting, sore-pocked fat rolls.

Whoa! I did not see that one coming when catching up on this thread!

WolfDemon is somehow dating Amy-Chan. I'm sure you remember the drama we had with her a while back.

I fail to see what my girlfriend has to do with Superman or anti-Bush stuff, but whatever. :(

Just got back from the 10PM first viewing of Superman Returns at my local theater with my dad (first ones in!) and all I have got to say HOLY CRAP.

I can easily call it my new favorite movie of all time.

Sarmoti, please do tell...how was the picture quality on this sucker?

This was supposed to be the first movie to utilize the Panavision Genesis camera, which is supposed to be the most advanced HD camera out there. So I'm hoping that there should be a noticible jump in PQ over previous films. And I can imagine that a movie with such CG effects and use of colors should definitely show off the Genesis' capabilities.

Well, the clarity of the film's imagery was incredible. Everything was absolutely clean.

Too bad the movie sucked.

On a more happy note, though, I am now banned from this thread.

It was worth the wait. Easily the best blockbuster of the year. Will have to see it again soon to soak it all in. Probably will go again tomorrow night. Better than Batman Begins by a long shot. X2 doesn't hold a candle. And just think, one day we might see a Superman who can't be harmed by Kryptonite. Unless he develops an allergic reation with age.

The little kid was cool too.

That is highly doubtful. Since Batman is my favorite superhero I doubt Superman will be able to take him down. Seriously, Begins is the best superhero movie ever. Spider-Man 2 is a close second.

I will be seeing Returns in a few hours here.

:cough: Phantom :cough:

I don't what that means.

Anyway, Ebert gave Returns two stars. Said it's characters were badly miscast and the action scenes were lackluster. He also said there was a lack of logic in the characters actions.

Well, I will see for myself in a bit.

It means he thinks The Phantom is the best super hero movie or something like that.

Anyway I'm seeing this friday with an old friend from high school. Hopefully its as good as it looks.

I have never seen that movie. Is it worse than this? Btw, I haven't seen this one either.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...man_poster.jpg

A lot of people dislike the Phantom for reasons I will never understand. It's written by the guy who did Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, directed by the guy who did Lonesome Dove and Quigly Down Under. Has Treat Williams, Billy Zane, Catherine Zeta Jones, Christy Swanson, Patrick McGoohan.

Its a superhero version of Indiana Jones. Its not only FANTASTIC and campy but its completely honorable to its roots more so than any other comic book movie.

Here's my review of Superman Returns copied from my journal -

Fuck what Megalith said. Superman Returns was awesome. This movie gets my vote for movie of the summer so far. Everything about it was fantastic... Well, almost everything. Here are the few flaws-

- Brandon Routh simply isn't Christopher Reeve. He pulls off a fantastic Clark Kent, on par with Reeve, but he can't do Superman like the man himself. However, he is a great replacement.

- Margot Kidder never really thrilled me as Lois Lane, and Kate Bosworth didn't do anything for me either. So, like the previous installments, a lame Lane.

- Some continuity errors and plot holes between Superman 2 and this one. Spoilers-



That's really it in terms of flaws. There's one big story twist I didn't see coming that I'm a bit shaky on-



Other than that, this movie is fantastic. It doesn't reach the levels of Batman Begins, but then again, I don't think any movie will for a long time. The only movie that has a shot at Batman's throne is Spider Man 3, and even that has some inherit flaws that it won't touch from Batman (Tobey Maguire as Spider Man. He does a great Peter Parker, but his Spider Man is basically Parker in a suit. No thanks!). Then again, we ARE getting Ghost Rider in February...

I was throughly impressed with everything this movie had to offer. Plenty of throwbacks to the originals, great performances (especially Spacey, GIANT improvement over Hackman), amazing effects, great cinematography, everything. It's everything a blockbuster should be.

Superman Returns - 9/10

I wouldn't put too much sense on what either of them have to say, they gave Ocean's 12 two thumbs up. :lolsign:

Well, it was a good movie. Not as great as Batman Begins, or Spider-Man 2 but as a comic book movie it is amoung the cream of the crop.

Cons
-Cheese; lots and lots of cheese, romantic fluff, bad dialogue, stupid plot and some lame characters
-Only one good action scene; the airplane scene is the only action scene that excited me
-No real point or purpose
- lame ending

Pros
-Excellent opening
-Excellent score
-Excellent visuals; no one has ever flown like this before
-One well done and exciting action scene

The problem with Superman is that he has no flaws. You never worry about him not completing his tasks. He does what he does and he is unstoppable. If they make another one, they really need some villian to kick his ass a little; maybe Bizarro.
http://www.cornerstorecomics.com/ima...h2_bizarro.jpg

I would have much preferred the kid not be Supermans. The story would have worked a bit better that way. Yeah, I'm nitpicking but I really hate romantic garbage in movies like this.

Overall, I agree with everything said in Ebert's review.

7.5 out of 10 (Very Good)

That's also one of the appeals of the character too. Not that he can't be physically hurt but when the shit really hits the fan, he'll be there to save the day just like Batman in Batman Begins when he dives over to The Narrows to stop Ra's al Ghul and the monorail or Spider-Man and the cable car in the first film. Of course we know they'll succeed but we're not concerned with their personal safety but "What if they don't succeed and save them in time?" and hoping they do.

Cheers for the unmarked spoiler by the way.

It's common knowledge that the kid was Supermans. Go read Ebert's review he spells it out quite clearly. I thought it would have worked better if he wasn't. A lot of cheese would have been taken out that way.

"What if they don't succeed and save them in time?" I was hoping that he actually would fail to save them. It would have been a better movie that way.

At the end of Superman II, I thought Superman does some sort of bizarre "brain drain" on her and she suddenly forgets everything that had happened (her sleeping with Superman, Superman = Clark, etc). It was a really lame cop-out at the end of that film, but it does "explain" why she wouldn't remember those things.

The events of Superman II don't need spoiler tags. At the end of the movie he kisses her and it's so overwhelming for her or whatever, that she somehow forgets everything. Then shit Superman III comes out and Clark heads back to Smallville and sees Lana Lang.... but nevermind those other Superman movies, cause Superman Returns is the REAL Superman III. How silly.

Watching it in IMAX 3D made the movie even more worthwhile. Overall, it wasn't halfbad. It was surprisingly pretty decent.

I mostly agree with Sprouticus. The movie was good and even great at some points. The one thing that disappoints me some is that it is a great movie for a fan of Superman...

But for people that aren't a fan, it seems to me that it is just okay. I was hoping this movie would be incredible for fans and non-fans, and I don't think that is quite the case with Returns.

That said, I enjoyed the movie alot. I feel like the performances were good. I liked Routh. Bosworth wasn't bad, I like her on screen more than Kidder. The screenplay was good, but could have used more grit, more intense/memorable moments of dialog. For instance, you can tell by the acting what Lois and Supes are thinking, but for the most part they never vocalize it and that really hinders the character realization.

The Panavision camera was great. I didn't notice a lower quality of picture than film, it might even be a bit better. If anything, I feel like the digital shots combined with the CG better than any other movie. The green screen shots were some of the best green screen shots I've ever seen.

Overall, go check out the movie. And BTW, I think the stuff in this thread about "the kid" should be in spoiler tags. I had no idea of this and that added alot to the movie for a pay off at the end.

I ended up seeing this last night. I didn't have high or low, if any, expectations for the movie. I thought it was a fairly good movie, nothing groundbreaking, but nothing too incredibly shitty that would make me regret seeing it.

I didn't think the acting was spectacular, nor the dialogue, but there were some good scenes.

One little thing I enjoyed was the fact that Ottman used not only the original theme, but also cues from a couple of other of Williams' original score. I don't know, almost like an homage to the original legacy. I was half expecting a Bosworth voiceover reading "Can You Read My Mind?"

One bad thing about it was several points of horrible CG. Oh man, it got pretty bad on the Superman flying action scenes and on the close shots of him flying slowly past and the camera panning.

At any rate, I'd recommend going to see this. It's an entertaining summer flick. It's no Batman Begins, but it's good nonetheless. It certainly has its good and bad points, but then again, so does every film, I suppose.

Pretty good movie. I enjoyed from beginning to end.

But I made the mistake of going at the 10pm show on Tuesday and boy was that a mistake. Nothing worse than a huundred of teenage punks laughing like idiots and a seepy moron who had to snore during the entire movie.

Now I am reminded why I love bittorent.

I thought it was a bit slow and a bit long, but I liked it. I like the themes in the film, and I spotted more than a couple metaphors that tickled me.

I couldn't watch that one scene without thinking "RIIIIIIDGE RACER!"

What is the music that is playing at the end of the superman june trailer...?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5p-rB7htxs&search=Superman%20Returns%20new%20trailer

I just listened to the soundtrack again and I did not here that piece of music. There is a piece that I like a lot that was played throughout the teaser trailer and that is not on the soundtrack either.

Could somebody possible make it into an mp3 file...? From 1.22 or something...

Well, the music in the first teaser trailer is from the original Superman soundtrack - "The Planet Krypton." I absolutely love that theme.

Thanks a lot man. I was wondering where that was at.

(off to download)

I saw this movie this afternoon, and I have to say, it was terrible. My biggest problem is that it doesn't retain any of the kitsch that made the original movies entertaining. The acting was bad, the plot was laughable, and the dialogue was boring. There wasn't even anything interesting in the way of special effects.

Sometimes, these factors don't get in the way of me enjoying a movie, but this was at just the level of bad that it wasn't even interesting to watch at a masochistic level. A two and one half hour yawn.

Oh, what's going to happen next? He's going to lift something really big again? OK, that was neat to watch the first twenty times.

I agree, this movie was a total dud.

Boring through and through. There was no story. NONE. With the biggest premise of the movie (Superman leaving for 5 years) glossed over completely, there was no steam to push anything forward. Lois asks him, "where did you go?" He says, "I went to find Krypton, but it was nothing but a graveyard." Hello??? Superman leaves without telling anyone (or caring about the fate of innocent victims that he saves daily), stays in a spaceship for 5 years, nothing to eat or do, looks for a bunch of space rocks, then comes back? VERY FLIMSY PREMISE.

Then we throw in an obligitory "super hero helps in some scenario" with the bank theft scene. Except that it's a generic jail heist, an excuse to show off some dated Matrix effects, and it doesn't have an ending (can we at least see Superman beat up these guys and hand them over to the cops?).

Oh, Lex Luthor as a villain again, great. You do know that Superman's history includes hundreds of villains to chose from, right? Yeah, and we're just picking this one, where he can't really fight the bad guy hand to hand, instead he just tries to foil an insane plot that makes no sense?

The second half of the movie was visually bland, full of greys and browns when dealing with the off-shore crystal island. Okay, we've seen enough of this boring rainy crystal land, can we please see something else?

Singer seems to have an obsession with showing Superman just flying up into the sky doing some artsy fly poses while pumping up the strings, to make it seem like a beautiful shot, instead of what it really is: SELF INDULGENT MASTURBATION. Ooooh, look, Superman can fly. Yeah, well, that's freaking boring. Spiderman moved around with more excitement, and at least he made fighting crime interesting.

4 out of 10

...and that's only for the high budget special effects used sometimes (and the airplane save was cool).

I just saw the movie as well. I have to say that I liked the first 2/3 of it, but the last third of the movie completely sucked. I was waiting for a massive/heroic ending of sorts and it's almost like the film completely deflated towards the end... I was like, "Wait - what? That's it?" when the credits started rolling. I'm a little disappointed, I guess. The original premise (or idea) behind the movie was fantastic, and I just don't think the film lived up to that potential.

There are too many jaded people in this forum. I don't get why all of you can't just sit down and just ENJOY the film without having to become psuedo-ebert and roepers.


I don't follow Superman, not his comics, not his films, not really anything of his. I am more of a Batman guy personally, however this film makes me realize why so many people love Superman and think he is the greatest Superhero. It's because he is THE superhero. He is the perfect hero for a world that needs him, and he can do just about anything, yet through all he can do...he doesn't ask for anything in return, and he has accepted the responsibility of being Earth's 'Savior' and is humble about it. A normal person would crack under something like that, but then again..he's not a normal person at all, heh.


I'm sure there are plot holes from the previous installments of the Superman movies, but hey...who cares? Honestly? Do you NEED it to be absolutely precise? The movie got the job done, it brought Superman back, hence the title of the freakin' movie. I mean, is anyone pissed that this movie doesn't take place circa 1980s, because that's when the films before it came out, and I doubt back then they had flat panel TVs and Boeing 777s. Just enjoy the film, and stop being so critical with it. Me personally, seeing the beginning and hearing the classic Superman theme and seeing him in action...it was sublime, and it was a total escape from the world around me.


Now that being said, I personally thought the acting was cool, The actor who was Superman did it well, and he definitely played the dorky Clark Kent we all do know. Superman the character wasn't bad at all, and definitely portrayed the humble but heroic and self-sacrificing Superman that is known throughout the world. Every other character, even Lex Luthor was decent and guys...it's a superhero film, not a generic dramatic academy award film...since when are superhero films supposed to be on that level? Thanks, didn't think so.


The scenery and music was just epic and IMO, incredible. I hate overdone CG too, but hey...it goes hand in hand with superhero films, so i've come to accept it. And besides, this CG was done beautifully:




Overall, this was just a good, clean, fun film. IMO, much much better than X3. It's funny too....the marvel movies are dropping in quality, while the DC movies such as Batman and Superman are so much better in quality. Heh. If they make a sequel to this, i'd look foward to it.



[and what I said wasn't to stir up some e-drama, so spare me it, because i'm apathetic to an internet argument in this place. Don't like what I said, feel free to debate it with me, not argue.]

*puts 2 pennies in the box*

out of curiousty i went to see it last night.
i just find it actually a little 'too short' actually since it probably could've said more with its 2+ hour time. i am actually ok with the whole thing
especially that this is the first fairly good multi-tasking i've seen a super hero done in a while. after all, there isn't just one bad thing happening in the world (USA).

feel bad for the henchmen tho, did anyone of them actually have lines?

me thinks with all these comic-turned movie spawinging. this movie may just be the re-introduction of the characters, small talk/explainition/romance before they start making sequals. heck, why not bring back supergirl as well... hah!

I did enjoy the film for what it was. When I saw it I had expectations. They weren't met by the film. To me Superman Returns is just the start of a new franchise that failed to live up to its potential. For that it is a lot like the the original Spider-Man and X-Men films. Where the sequels were infinitely better than the first. This is what I see happening with Superman.

I tried to enjoy this film. It was just very boring. And never mind plotholes tieing into older movies:

I really enjoyed this movie. Brandon Routh did an incredible job. I cannot wait for the sequel.

I saw it tonight. Honestly I was kind of dissapointed. Believe me I tried to enjoy it but like knkwzrd said I found lots of it pretty boring. The sappy romance stuff got on my nerves too.

The movie is visually stunning but I dont think its worth seeing because of that.

I just came back from it myself, and I must say that I loved the movie. It was a total and complete nostalgia-fest, and it harkened me back to the first Superman movie, making me feel like a kid again. It reminded me of how great a hero Superman truly is.


All in all, to me it was close to, if not equal, in greatness as Batman Begins. Just remember, it is a different style of movie, simply due to the fact that the heroes are a little bit different in and of themselves. 9/10

Did either of you actually watch the movie?



That out of the way, I felt it was nothing less than fantastic. They managed to get every single aspect of the Superman mythos completely fucking dead on. They just got it all so RIGHT. His interaction with Lois. His choices to help humanity. The Clark/Superman dynamic.

Routh plays an absolute amazing Christopher Reeve playing Superman playing Clark Kent. There were moments when I honestly thought it was Chris again. He's most definately built a career on this performance. Bosworth was alright. Much better than I expected, but I still feel she was a little young for Lois. Marsden was great as always. Huntington played a PERFECT Jimmy Olsen. Such a man-crush on both Supes and Kent, but too naive to peice them together. Langella was great, pretty much the anti-Jameson. The "Great Cesear's Ghost" made the fanboy in me get all giddy.

Spacey was a good Luthor. Not quite as good as I had hoped, but still great. Leagues ahead of Hackman, but I still wish he was a little less campy and alot more menacing.



The effects were great, I imagine this is what Donner was hoping for but wasn't possible back in the 70s.

The entire airplane scene is one of the best things I have ever seen. It was like watching a comic. Hell pretty much every "action" scene was great. Pretty much every flying scene was great. The shot of him in space before the robbery, the landing on Luthor's island, and the end shot of him in space will stick in my mind for quite some time.

I don't know how someone could find this film boring at all. It had just the right amount of action to keep it from being nothing more than Superman punching henchmen. Apparently some people are a little miffed that a comic book tried to tell an actual story. I mean the nerve of them having a romance. It's not like the entire Superman legacy can be boiled down to his choice to help the people of earth and his love for Lois Lane. Damn those central driving forces behind well established characters!

It is possibly the best comic book movie yet. Batman Begins in a close second, and Spider-Man (1) in third. This will not be the last time that I see it before it leaves the theater.

This comment contains an infinite amount of lies.

Batman Begins is the best super hero movie by far. This movie brought Batman back from the brink of destruction by telling a story that hadn't been told before. Superman Returns doesn't even come close to being better than it. Even if you are a big fan of Supes you have to see the movie for what it is. It was full of cheese, bad dialougue, bad acting, romantic fluff, and repetative and weak action scenes. I still see potential in the franchise though. Like I said before I consider it to be like the original X-Men movie or the original Spider-Man movie. The sequels to those where far better than the original and I see the same thing happening for Superman.

For reasons I have already mentioned Spider-Man shouldn't even be on the list unless it's Spider-Man 2. When you say best comic book movie and not best super hero movie you forget to mention Sin City which was incredible.

I'm 100 times the Batman fan as I am the Superman fan. Batman is my guy. Superman doesn't even rank in my top 5. However as much as I loved Begins (and that was ALOT), I think I may have liked Superman more.

Spider-Man was a huge disappointment. Yeah it had a couple of good scenes, but overall it was just "meh". It felt like I had already seen it. The train fight was immensly cool, which they then managed to fuck up with the dumbest sequence I've ever seen. Spider-Jesus and the "Don't worry Spider-Man! We won't tell anybody!"

Don't talk about cheesy acting and dialouge and then bring up the first X-Men. Was it great, oh god yes, but it too had it's moments. Toad's and lightening, people.

I really want to know what action scenes were weak. Like seriously, because I sure as shit don't know.

And yes, you're right. I should have said best superhero movie to narrow it down. Although I don't agree that Sin City was better, it was a great movie.

Simply put, Superman was so great because I haven't had that much fun at a movie in years. And really, that's exactly what comics are supposed to be.

Awesome post, acid. I agree with every single thing you said except for it being better than Batman Begins. Superman is just shy of the top spot, if you ask me. I personally feel that Batman Begins is just a much more beautifully crafted film than Superman. A few times in Superman, the CG is just LOLable, and it took me out of the film. For instance, in the beginning when he has his flashback of him jumping around, the shot of him hitting the weathervane.

This isn't a Batman thread, so I won't elaborate any further. Bravo on your post though.

I don't see the end of the train scene in Spider-Man 2 as being all that different from the hospital scene at the end of Superman Returns. Completely unneeded and stupid.

You are correct the first X-Men movie was a weak film. It is not one of my favorite super hero movies, but X-Men 2 is.

The only well done action scene was the first airplane scene with the space shuttle. Everything else was just a rehash of things I have seen before. Such as, super breath, laser eyes, super strength. I was hoping these things would be more exciting and innovative.

My real problem with the movie is that Superman doesn't have any real villian to fight with. Lex just doesn't do it and his moronic schemes are ridiculous. Like I mentioned before, Bizarro would have been perfect for some awesome action scenes. That way there would be someone on equal level with Superman.

The next Superman will undoubtable be better than Returns as nearly all sequels are better nowadays.

Wait hold on. All sequels are better nowadays?

Note the "nearly" in my sentence. I'm only basing it on the fact that X-Men 2 was better than 1 and the same for Spider-Man.

Epic
 

I finally got a chance to see it lastnight, and found it to be very enjoyable on the whole. Routh definitely exceeded expectations in his portrayal of the Man of Steel as well as the bumbling Kent. Spacey was great although I wished we'd seen more of his frustration with his incompetent staff. Those boots he was constantly wearing were killing me... so damn funny. I think that Kal Penn was a poor choice of casting. It wasn't that he did a bad job (he didn't say much of anything) but moreso that I kept asking myself, "wait, what is Kumar doing in this movie?" He just seemed out of place. Also, Jimmy Olsen bugged me. He seemed too plastic and too young. If Superman had been gone for 5 years, then how old was Jimmy when he started working for the planet... 15? Sam Huntington just looks way too young.

Jason's (Lois' kid) hair bugged the shit out of me. What's with Hollywood and giving every 8 year old kid a mop top haircut? Maybe it's just me, but I can't remember the last time I saw an 8 year old boy with a mess of hair like that. Other than his look, the kid was decent.

The special effects were top notch. Despite the CG looking obvious in a few sequences... nobody's ever flown like that before.

The storyline was decent, however I still think they should've started from scratch. It's a difficult task to re-introduce a storyline that's been dormant for 25 years. I thought a lot of it was a stretch to flow off of a plotline that was started so long ago. It also leaves a number of holes in the story that comic nerds will argue about... explaining away for months to come. The benefit to making a sequel to the previous film is that hopefully it will encourage movie goers to go home and rewatch Superman I and II, cause they are kickass movies that should be appreciated.

The score was solid although I wish Ottman would've made more use of the Williams themes. It hit the emotional highs and lows. The sad chiming of that music box sounding track fit really well.

A few places in the movie were too slow paced and lacking in substance as far as dialogue goes.

The dialoge wasn't as witty as in the first Donner movie. There were times where I was expecting more of a comedic element from Jimmy, or bumbling Clark, but it didn't deliver. It seemed as though every funny one-liner was crammed into the trailers. I was glad that they re-used a few of the lines from the first movie like the line about flying being the safest way to travel.



Overall I'd give the movie an 8 out of 10. It's an awesome comic movie, though it can't touch the Spidey flicks, or Batman Begins. I hope they do another one.

I agree with pretty much everything said here except for the comments about Routh as Superman and Spacey as Lex to a degree. Personally while some of Routh's performance of Clark seemed much like Chris Reeve's version of Clark Kent, Routh made Superman all his own...a more "mature" Superman mostly.

Kevin Spacey seemed to be playing Gene Hackman except without the cheese and little more darker and menacing. The scene for example where...


Overall I loved the movie. I mean I'm on a high after seeing it and the IMAX theatre was packed and you could tell the audience was getting a kick out of the film and then seeing them leave you had grandmothers, mothers and fathers and kids talking about the film. If I had any complaints it'd be that some of the FX, mainly the digital double stuff for Routh, looked a little hokey and fake and I wish some of the deleted scenes like Superman exploring the ruins of Krypton and the like were kept in.

The IMAX 3D stuff was pretty good too, not distracting but the 3D stuff does take a little getting used to and sometimes some of the background objects look a little out of focus but I'll be seeing the film again via IMAX for sure.

I saw 2 movies this weekend: Superman Returns and Nacho Libre. Both are really ridiculous, but at least one was MEANT to be.

Everything was really predictable. There was NO SUSPENSE. Lois was about as deep as a spoon, too.

I think Spacey was visually bad for the part of Lex (he reminded me too much of Goldmember), but he turned out to be the best part.

It seemed to me like the movie made a great effort to be endearing, but given the amount of time (or lack thereof) that was given to dialogue, I'm suprised so many people, including myself, found it to be endearing.

It's not all that surprising, I guess. In your average film, you need the dialogue to become adjusted to the characters. To learn where they lie and what drives them. Not so with this movie, where we know pretty much everyone and how they'll react to any given situation.

So it seems like a lot of the burden that fell on this movie was to make it something that we haven't seen before. The scriptwriters thought the best way to accomplish that was to make enticing action scenes, things that are made interesting by virtue of the special effects used and the visual flare that came out of them.

That is, indeed, what I think the movie accomplished the best. Not the special effects, and not the action sequences, but the visual flare and feel of the film. So many scenes had so little dialogue, but the resulting imagery and atmosphere of the shots seemed to make up for whatever was missing between the characters themselves. The use of light and shadow, of lighting and post-production effects like the scene when Superman gets beaten up, and the colors are all washed out-- all of these things combined made for an intense and beautiful cinema experience. So many of the scenes, it seemed to me, could be posters hung up in a fan's room. There was just so much room in the screenplay for visual feasting.

But I suppose that's where the film fell short as well. Because while it was able to bring out that emotive quality using only visual cues, it left almost nothing to the imagination. One-dimensional is the word Ebert uses, and I think that is accurate, but I think it also discounts a lot of the film's strength, which is to make you feel that these are the characters which, for all intents and purposes, have never left us. Though the actors who play them may change, there is a sense of security in knowing that Superman, the character, has not. It is directly related to who Superman is that he never change; never grow truly bitter or recalcitrant, because if he does, it means he is fallible in a way that kryptonite cannot compare with.

Overall, I think the movie is taking more abuse than it deserves. I'd give it three stars. Good, but I can't say I prefer it to Spider-Man 2 or Batman Begins.

What story is that, again?

This isn't a Batman thread, but to answer your question Begins told the origin story. The origin of Batman wasn't told in any of the previous Batman films. We had glimpses but nothing definitive or with any substance. Begins was a great film because it made the whole man in a mask premise believable and wasn't just about flashy effects and big explosions. It actually had a working plot and convincing characters that emoted heart.

Mask of the Phantasm had Batman's origin.

Your comment had me confused, as you didn't exclude comics from your statement.

Mostly decent, but Singer should've made his own movie and not a fanfic-esque followup to Donner's efforts.

i watched the movie today and it was one of the best movies in my life.
the plot was clever and visually it really made me feel the speed and the tension through my own eyes like i was there!

AWESOME MOVIE, A MUST FOR ANY DC FAN!!!!!!!! ^_^

Let me get this out of the way. I'm a DC fan and I basically follow alot of Superman. Somebody asked earlier if it was possible to just enjoy the movie for what it was, instead of arguing about continuity and plot holes: The answer is no. Why? It bugs the hell out of me because I know otherwise.

Some random thoughts here. I thought this was a great movie to showcase some great cinematography, along with a maturing of Superman's character. Surprisingly, while the potrayal of some of the characters for the movie were spot on, I was hoping for a little more maturity from the writing. The main plot was horrible. Probably an insult to Superman. Lex Luthor is supposed to be Superman's arch-enemy and what does he do? Try to get rich. That's pretty...lame for somebody who deals with galactic level threats. Now that technology has caught up to the movies, I had wished they would make a "proper" villain for him. There are many in the past that have given him a shitload of trouble. Manchester Black, Doomsday, Mongul, and General Zod are some of the names off the top of my head. In fact, sometimes the writer makes him so powerful that it's hard to create villains that can keep up with him. He spends half the comic musing about the morality and the humanity of it all. The Superman in the movies is less powerful, so I don't think a villain will be a problem for him. Maybe I'm a sucker for titanic battles, but I hope that will not be what will be missing from the Superman franchise in the future.

It seems Lex Luthor will be a recurring villain in the next movie. Great. A little backstory here: In the comics, Lex Luthor is a basically an evil Batman. Somebody who can do everything. From finance to martial artistry. He's been potrayed from a mad scientist to a xenophobic, ruthless businessman to the President of the United States. Personally, I like the businessman one, who is also a techno-futurist in the vein of Tony Stark (The Billionaire Industrialist from Marvel Comics who is also Iron Man). He owns Lexcorp which in turn makes him incredibly rich which in turn allows him to bring to bear his massive resources (Third biggest corporation in the world behind Waynetech and ahead of Sivana Industries) to make life as difficult as possible for Superman. Instead he seems to have fallen to a new low as a genius who can't even make a decent bit of money legally. He's potrayed in the movie as a bit of a bumbling fool as well, which is really a shame.



Yes, yes, I know that the Superman movies are supposed to be disconnected from the comic, but wouldn't it be great not to have thrown away years of character building so that Superman wouldn't have to deal with what is, in essence, simple bank robbery?

p.s. Alot of credit in this post has to go to Zergrinch for the links and some of the thoughts.

As I understood it, he was simply going to sell peices of the land off to other random countries. He won't really lord over shit. He owns the property and is simply letting other countries own a part of it for a price.

And while the didnt really explain the whole weapons thing, I would assume that a society that is as advanced as Krypton would have weapons that would be able to stand up to being punched through.

And I'm sure that he would have problem recruiting a small army of thugs. He never has had that problem in the comics.


I do agree that movie Lex holds no candle to comic Lex. Comic Lex would have your father fired, your mother arrested, your dog put down, and your school closed for looking at him wrong. Movie Lex would send Parker Posey and Kumar after you.

However you really cannot fault this movie for that. That was well established back in 78 with the Donner films. I do agree that Lex should have been more ruthless (let some of that Se7en Spacey come out to play), but I don't fault Singer for it.


Superman was de-powered and did the hibbidydibbidy with Lois in Superman II.

I'm assuming you're talking about the "eyeball" scene. If not, let me know. But I don't see why he wouldn't deal with this. It's never been above him to stop a petty crime if he sees it being committed, and it certainly has never been above him to save the lives of police officers.

Hr. A more long-winded review available here.

Undeniably, the visuals were great. Nice special effects, and bold brass cues when it's time for Superman to do super kind of stuff. I thought the shaking stuff foreshadowing some important event was rather overdone. Many, many scenes about Superman using his powers, which is appreciated in a comic book movie.

The acting wasn't too bad either - I wanted the incarnation of Lex Luthor which was a conniving and corrupt industrialist. I can't deny that Kevin Spacey looks like and played Luthor better than Gene Hackman's comedic routines, but there IS still a bit of campiness. However, the character does improve over the Superman 1 & 2 variants.

Personally, no complaints over Routh's acting, although I thought Lois Lane should e more aggressive than she was. Olsen was well-cast, ditto Richard White. Poor Marsden, however.

The weakest element in this movie is probably the plot. There are three plot elements: Superman's adaptation to this world used to the idea without a Superman, Lois Lane's story, and Lex Luthor's story. All three were satisfactorily concluded, but the interweave wasn't as good. The movie probably ran 30 minutes longer than it should have.



I give this movie three out of five stars. Nice popcorn, summer blockbuster, type of flick.

Well, for whatever reason I can see this not working out. Since he's in the middle of the ocean what would stop other countries from bombing the hell out of it? Well, I suppose "advanced kryptonian technology" would have stopped them or whatever.


Problem is that the comic and the movie are totally different. Lex is a much less powerful man in the movies.

I just wish they would do something about that. Not necessily to retcon the writing, but to show a progression of his character. =/


No, I'm talking about Lex's scheme. I was just saying it's the equivalent of a bank robbery, just on a much larger scale. I was saying in comparison with other "more deserving" villains that Singer could have used.

I just got back from this. I really thought Brandon Mumblemumble had Clark Kent nailed. He really reminded me that Clark is supposed to be NERD-1, which is really most of his disguise.

I however, did not think Kate Bosworth was a good choice for Lois Lane. She didn't fit in with my mental image of Lois, and while she did a pretty good job with the role, seeing her as Lois was quite distracting throughout the film.

Also, I know I'm gonna get a lot of flak for this, but I was underwhelmed by the score. I particularly was surprised that the intro stacatto notes to the theme were quoted more often than the actual fanfare itself. It seemed like Superman's motif in the movie wasn't the fanfare, but those stacatto notes, which I thought lessened the impact of the score. I absolutely love the score to the first movie, by the way.

Watched this last night, and really enjoyed it. Like many have already said, I thought Routh did a great job playing as Superman/Clark Kent. Though, it didn't seem like he had much in terms of lines (however, when he did, he sure sounded a lot like Reeve). Anyway, I liked how they kept the opening credits similar to the first movie (only have seen the original, has yet to find time for the sequels). One thing I thought that they did well was Superman flying (compared to the original), you really got a sense of speed (eg. the part when he flew out of Daily Planet and quickly hit sonic boom), haha, and his cape actually flowing when he flew.

The plot was somewhat predictable. It would have been interesting to have seen the movie using Kevin Smith's script (which was based on the issue story arc where Superman was killed Doomday and reborn much more stronger). Haha, even though I'm pretty sure it would have turned out cheesy.

Has anyone seen this on the IMAX? Is it any good on the larger screen? Cause I was thinking seeing it there for a second viewing. Last time I saw a movie on the IMAX was Spider-man, and I could barely remember the experience on it.

BTW, wasn't the Spider-man 3 teaser supposed to be shown during the previews for Superman Returns?

It played before my viewing. Some can argue this trailer was better than the movie that came after.

The IMAX experience was great. Aside from the visual and audio quality the 3D scenes were quite cool. Some scenes didn't work or the effect wasn't that great (Flashback of Young Clark on the farm) while the others were memorable (The 777 rescue, creation of New Krypton & the sinking of the Gertrude).

They also showed trailers for The Ant Bully and Happy Feet before the film which threw me off because as soon as the "The Following Preview..." notice came up the whole picture went out of focus. Apparently the staff failed to mention that the previews would be in 3D too. :eyebrow:

One word for this movie, BORING!!! I love comic movies but this one put me to sleep. There was more silience in this movie than anything else. The only good action scene was the plane crash and Lex Luthor and Kitty were ultra lame I thought.

I totally agree with your points. I loved how Brandon played Clark Kent, I wish there were more scenes with Clark, because I thought he was so cute. I love nerds like him. <3

Kate Bosworth was too young and not very aggressive. She did a decent job, but somehow I even though Kitty might have a better "look" for Lois than Kate did, but Kitty wasn't pretty enough. Kate reminded me a bit of Natalie Portman, don't really picture them as Pulitzer prize winning journalists.

The main Superman theme carried the movie music wise.. I didn't hear anything else that was all that inspiring. Good movie overall, liked it better than Pirates 2 at least. ;)

I personally found the movie to be hyped up. The effects were awsome but the movie as a whole really dissapointed me.