Chain Lightning said:
But I disagree with your preference for Clark Kent.
Fair enough.
One reason is, it is such a big contrast to the Superman persona that it adds more credibility to his Clark disquise.
I am not claiming there's no validity to this claim, but I personally find this point unconvincing. To strangers, sure. The suave, confident Superman and the timid Clark Kent wouldn't be taken for the same guy. But everyone in the Daily Planet who works with Clark would know, the moment they laid eyes on Superman. It's like identical twins. People who don't know them can't tell them apart. For people who do know them, it's as easy as pie.
We already roll our eyes with just putting on the glasses and combing the hair different thing. But posture, mannerisms, and all the other dorky things helps the audience suspend reality a bit more.
For me this doesn't help at all. Accepting the Superman/Clark Kent disguise is an act of pure, unaided suspension of disbelief. Nothing done is going to make it any easier. It's patently silly regardless of what angle you look at it from. But I accept it, because it's Superman. As a result, it serves as poor justification for other incongruities in the mythos.
Another reason.....and my main reason.....is that I like seeing non-typical things. You say you can't see someone as strong as Lois falling for a dork like Clark? Who says all intelligent, beautiful, and strong women HAVE to fall for guys that are "cool"? Sometimes girls just geet sick of the "cool" guy....sometimes they like the sweet and dependable guy...even if he is a dork.
But that's just
it. Movie Clark isn't a dependable guy. He is basically
never there when Lois needs him, so that Superman can be. He's also not sweet, at least not from what I saw in the movie. Unless Lois just happens to find clutzes sweet, in which case she's going to be disappointed when she discovers that his clutziness is an
act.
It's the difference between Ray Barone from
Everybody Loves Raymond and Doug Heffernan from
King of Queens. There are absolutely no redeeming qualities about Ray Barone in
Raymond. He's not a good father. He's not a good husband. He's not romantic, or smart, or anything. It is inconceivable to me why his wife or indeed any woman, would love him.
Contrast that to Doug. He's not the greatest catch either. But you can see that he's a good man often trying to do the right thing, that he loves his wife, and tries hard. He might not get every hottie's number in the bar, but you can see why a particular hottie would fall for him.
To pull this long tangent back on track, I see movie Clark Kent as another Ray Barone. He has no redeeming qualities, and I'm supposed to accept that Lois will prefer him to Superman, who has a lot of redeeming qualities, even if they're superficial ones.
The
Lois and Clark Clark Kent was different. Sure, he was a country boy and not as sophisticated as Lois might like. But he he
was a sweet and (mostly) dependable guy. It made sense that, although Superman has all the super-powers, she'd fall in love with that sweet and dependable guy.
I would admire Lois more when she finally chooses Clark over Superman. Then I would see that she sees past the social awkwardness and realizes he's a good man.
A question for you. Do you believe that Clark is actually physically clumsy. Do you believe that the Clark Kent persona is, like others in the thread have posited, the "true" persona? Or do you believe it's an act, meant to throw off suspicion that they are one and the same individual?
That's what made Rick Hunter's journey in Robotech cool. He finally realized that the girl for him wasn't the flashy singer....but the older more homely girl next door Lisa Hayes.
I imagine that two things hold true (though I haven't seen Robotech in twenty years, so I couldn't say.) 1. That Lisa was honest and not creating a false persona for Rick. And 2. that Lisa had some redeeming qualities.
Both of these aspects are lacking, for me, in the movie Clark.
I like the dorky Clark Kent. I like seeing people in the office ignore him and not going out of their way to rub elbows with him. He's totally invisible in the office. Which makes his secret identity more credible. Better yet though....I like the irony of seeing people who would act friendly around Superman ignore Clark. I like that the most sought after bachelor in the world is walking about un-noticed by all those ladies at the Daily Planet.
For me, its like there's a message saying....."see ladies, sometimes your Superman is right in front of you and you don't know it....."
It's an interesting message, but I don't particularly want to sacrifice my belief in the relationship to sustain it.
Even in "Can't Buy Me Love" the protagonist had a lot of redeeming qualities. We see none of that in Routh's Clark Kent.
Also....let Bruce Wayne be the cool guy with his secret identity. Clark can be the dork. The difference will be cool when we see them onscreen together in a "I wish" World's Finest movie some day [crosses fingers].
