The Superman Returns spoiler thread.

[stevelabny]

Your opinion of the movie aside, this part was a factual statement, and was false.

Strike out at the box office? This movie is doing GREAT at the box office! $21M for partials on a Wednesday. That's 8th highest gross on an opening Wednesday ever (with movies like all three of the Lord of the Rings and Spiderman Two and Passion of the Christ beating it).

And that is WITH a good chunk of the east coast being shut down for storms, and the movie being slightly longer and therefore playing less often than many films.

This movie is doing well so far. This weekend will be the real box office story however.

Since I posted that late Tuesday night, before any box office results were in, its probably safe to assume I was talking about the content of the movie and not the amount of money it took in.

But I can see where the confusion is. To be clear, the line just meant that Superman is a bad movie, like every other DC-based movie before it.

 

[Darthjaye]

Since I posted that late Tuesday night, before any box office results were in, its probably safe to assume I was talking about the content of the movie and not the amount of money it took in.

But I can see where the confusion is. To be clear, the line just meant that Superman is a bad movie, like every other DC-based movie before it.

So one should ask then. What are all the good comic book adaptations you've seen thus far?

 

[DonTadow]

GAH.

this was bad.

DC strikes out again at the box office, maybe one year theyll get one right.

Slow, plodding and sometimes tedious...the spider-man trailer had more action than this entire movie. 2:30 but so much of that time was devoted to the tertiary characters that it was ridiculous. I guess we know that Singer wooed Marsters by offering him a hero scene he didnt get in X-Men, unfortunately it was just a waste of film.

The near-death of Superman was executed poorly. First, he just gets beaten and stabbed by Luthor and tons of Kryptonite. Whoopee. How about a knock-down drag out fight for the ages if Superman is gonna die... say what you want about the Death of Superman storyline in the comics, but at least that created the epic feel necessary for bringing down the most powerful superhero.

Then, to not follow the near-death experience with a good butt-kicking made no sense, and really makes the end of the movie a depressing drag...when that's NOT what they were going for (or else youd just leave it with an "is he dead" cliffhanger)

and my problem with the kid isnt even making the kid his son, as it would be strongly hinted anyway, its the weak way it was revealed and accepted and dealt with. much better to just leave it a question and deal with it next movie.

the people i went with questioned some of the sfx, but i thought the movie looked pretty enough, although shaky cam should always be removed, the airplane and car sequences were excruciating.

Slightly better than the garbagey Batman movie.... I give this dreck a 4 out of 10.

(Cuz I think I gave Batman a 3. I might have given it a 4 though, but I've since watched it a second time and it still sucked so call it a 3.)

I agree with your sentiments on Superman REturns but thought Batman Regins was a homerun. Kinda disapointing to A. see that they are redoing the same moving from 22 years ago, as if Superman's rogue gallery consists of Lex Luthor, Richard Pryor and He-Man. (Dolph LUndron).

I wasnt expecting a punisher superman (I dont think they can make that movie unless their taking the brother eye controlled superman) but I did want a modern take, like the script that floated around when Nik cage wanted to do it. I would have liked to see a different take on Lex Luthor. Lex is at his best when he's manipulating other super villians.

Tell me steve, waht superhero movie did you like. You didnt like batman, you didnt like superman, you didnt like xmen... maybe its notthe movie but the genre? Those are all three different types of movies. OUt of those three batman I loved but the other two sucked.

 

[stevelabny]

Ok.. since you asked.

X1 was really good, X2 was great, X3 was eh.
Spidey 1 was really good, Spidey 2 was good.
Daredevil was entertaining.
Fantastic Four blew it Dr. Doom (and casting Alba) but hit Johnny and Ben right.
Hulk was bad.
Elektra was awful.
I thought Blade1 was ridiculous and didn't watch the sequels.

Other DC movies aren't even worth mentioning... Supergirl? Steel? Catwoman? (I didn't actually see Catwoman, but I'm sure you'll let me slide)

The older Supermans carried the problem of most movies from around the time... ugly, slow, and yawn-inducing. Also, While Reeve (and Routh's) Superman is ok, since Superman is generally kind of boring, I don't like the silly Lex of Hackman (and Spacey)

the older 4 Batmans and the Batman Begins were all a completely different level of suck.
None of them seemed to have any clue about who Batman is.

That's my main problem with comic movies, not when they change little things, but when they screw up on big things and wind up breaking the feel of the characters. Conversely, when a character does something that is so right, so THEM, it scores an endless amount of points in my book. Just having Beast say "Oh my stars and garters" in X-3, made me relax enough to not throw eggs at the screen during the ending.

When X1 was coming out, I was petrified it would suck, but when Rogue asked Wolverine if his claws hurt when they come out and he said "Every time" ... I was sold.

Now THIS movie doesn't really have a problem of character's feeling wrong, except for using a more comical Luthor, but it just gets the feel of a modern Superman STORY wrong. Superman's rogue gallery might not be as famous as Batman's or Spidey's but there are enough solid choices that it is inexcusable for the movie to not have a sequence where Superman can really flex his muscles.

Flying, being bulletproof and being able to lift heavy inanimate objects just isn't all that impressive anymore. There's ZERO tension or excitement to a scene where Superman takes out guys with guns.

In this day in age, it just doesn't fly.

 

[DonTadow]

Ok.. since you asked.

X1 was really good, X2 was great, X3 was eh.
Spidey 1 was really good, Spidey 2 was good.
Daredevil was entertaining.
Fantastic Four blew it Dr. Doom (and casting Alba) but hit Johnny and Ben right.
Hulk was bad.
Elektra was awful.
I thought Blade1 was ridiculous and didn't watch the sequels.

Other DC movies aren't even worth mentioning... Supergirl? Steel? Catwoman? (I didn't actually see Catwoman, but I'm sure you'll let me slide)

The older Supermans carried the problem of most movies from around the time... ugly, slow, and yawn-inducing. Also, While Reeve (and Routh's) Superman is ok, since Superman is generally kind of boring, I don't like the silly Lex of Hackman (and Spacey)

the older 4 Batmans and the Batman Begins were all a completely different level of suck.
None of them seemed to have any clue about who Batman is.

That's my main problem with comic movies, not when they change little things, but when they screw up on big things and wind up breaking the feel of the characters. Conversely, when a character does something that is so right, so THEM, it scores an endless amount of points in my book. Just having Beast say "Oh my stars and garters" in X-3, made me relax enough to not throw eggs at the screen during the ending.

When X1 was coming out, I was petrified it would suck, but when Rogue asked Wolverine if his claws hurt when they come out and he said "Every time" ... I was sold.

Now THIS movie doesn't really have a problem of character's feeling wrong, except for using a more comical Luthor, but it just gets the feel of a modern Superman STORY wrong. Superman's rogue gallery might not be as famous as Batman's or Spidey's but there are enough solid choices that it is inexcusable for the movie to not have a sequence where Superman can really flex his muscles.

Flying, being bulletproof and being able to lift heavy inanimate objects just isn't all that impressive anymore. There's ZERO tension or excitement to a scene where Superman takes out guys with guns.

In this day in age, it just doesn't fly.

So we pretty much agree on everything besides batman. Not to get too far off, but what made batman begins suck. I can understand batman 1-4 (one only sucking cause it got the joker wrong) , but it was far more original than the superman regurgitated plot.

As for superman, you're reading my mind. It is just silly from a visiaul point of view to pit superman versus lex luthor. Yes, Lex is a great and genious villian, but Superman vs. the evil lex plot just doesnt come off on screen to make superman look..well super. Superman has an impressive, powerful rogue gallery that can truly test him. He also has more weekenses other than kryptonite such as magic and psionics. He comes across as a non-super, stalker whom seems a tad bit dainty. If superman's rogue gallery isn't popular they should make them popular. Batman used Ra Aghul and the scarecrow. Plus the superman cartoon was just as popular as the batman cartoon, so the public has some familiarity with supes's other villians. The problem is that the the execs whom approve the movies are too afraid to venture outside of the norm with superman. Batman they'd go ahead and wing it.

Another problem is with 80 years of comicbook stories, the writers seem to want to write their own stories in the last three movies instead of really try to craft one from the comics.

 

[theburningman]

I easily enjoyed this movie as much as Spiderman 2 and Batman Begins, my two favorite comic book films. The title was Superman Returns, and it seemed that his return to earth and how much he means to humanity and humanity means to him were the main plotlines, rather than Lex's real estate scheme. I liked that.

Hell, my only complaint to my nephew after the movie was over was the overuse of the forboding shaking of the environment to indicate oncoming danger.

As far as the Supes's illegitimate child subplot goes, I was actually glad they did it. Mix things up a bit. I hope they explore it further in the future. With the set-up in the first act of Superman truly being the last of his kind, I could see a lot going on under the surface of the "ho-hum" conclusion to the son subplot. And I like the ambiguity that remains in the relationship between Superman and Lois/Jason. Gives them another story to tell.

 

[Mistwell]

Current estimates are looking at around $100M for the opening weekend (total for weekend).

It's running at 75% positive at rotten tomatoes right now (users have it at 88%).

 

[Darthjaye]

Daredevil was entertaining.

You had me until I read this. It was neither entertaining nor good. While I can agree with most of the other choices (except Batman Begins.), this was clearly one of the horrible adaptations. If your telling me their representation of Bulleye's look and style was good, I have to completely disagree. Just about every element of Daredevil hurt to watch. I enjoyed Punisher more than I enjoyed DD, FF, X3, or even Bats 3 & 4. I'm just trying to figure out how you say DD is more entertaining than Batman Begins though. That's gotta be the oddest choice on the list. FWIW Blade was better than DD too. The reason I pick on this choice so much is that DD is one of my favorite Marvel characters. What they did to the film version was a travesty IMO.

 

[Mistwell]

I found Daredevil entertaining as well. And yes, I am a fan of the character and the comic, and a collector of the Frank Miller run.

 

[stevelabny]

For those who missed or dont remmeber my rant on Batman Begins...
linkage to my post
http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2335457&postcount=22

if you want to relive that whole thread...
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=136211

but we've been down that road before. no need to clog up another thread. if you want to yell at me, send me an instant message, email, or respond to that thread.