The Superman Returns spoiler thread.

[WayneLigon]

- Why assume that Superman has a secret identity? What need would superman have of it, in the first place? He´s seen as almost a god, so it would seem somewhat idiotic that he needs to disguise as a reproter and look for a house like a normal guy, instead of living elsewhere: his spacecraft, the north pole, or the Moon.

That was used in the comics, in the early days of the Byrne revamp. Luthor hires this brilliant researcher to find out all she can about Superman, so that he can find out how to get rid of him. In due time she discovers he's Clark Kent and reports that with all her other findings to Luthor. Luthor throws her out on her butt and destroys her research on the basis that he thinks she's an idiot: nobody with Superman's power would ever disquise himself as a normal person and desire a normal life.

 

[WayneLigon]

Sure, but to be honest, I'm more pleased without that explanation than I would be with it. Superman already has a boatload of super-powers. The last thing I want to do is add worldwide irresistable psionics to the pile. Psionics that don't make a lick of sense, to boot.

This explanation was quietly dropped sometime later You get that a lot in comics, where someone will come up with what they think is a cool idea and incorporate it into the mythos only to see it dropped later on. No need for a Crisis or anything; it just gets ignored or some other explanation is found. Similarly, there was an issue of Flash that retconned his origin into an alien's meddling or something; that was also quietly dropped and never referred to again.

 

[Klaus]

Just came back from it.

Almost cried.

Twice.

 

[shilsen]

Just came back from it.

Almost cried.

Twice.

Care to share which points in the film they were?

 

[Klaus]

I got very moved when the credits began rolling, but the eyes teared up when Superman landed the plane on the baseball field and the crowd just began cheering. The way Brandon Routh portrayed that, the overwhelming welcome of a crowd he felt no longer needed him, that really moved me.

The other time was when they showed the crowd standing outside the hospital, and the eyes kept misty throughout the scenes of Martha standing outside the hospital, unable to reach her son, and of Superman standing next to his son's bed. I think this scene resonated with me because of my 1.5-year-old son.

There is something powerful about Superman suddenly realizing that he's NOT alone in the universe. I am eager to find how they'll resolve the Superman/Clark/Lois/Richard/Jason thing. Richard is obviously a nice guy, so that makes it specially hard. But think about how hard it'll be for Martha when she finds out she has a grandson she can't come close to!

And one thing about James Marsden: he was vindicated of how badly he was treated as Cyclops. Now I want to see him as Hal Jordan, ASAP!

 

[Plane Sailing]

I wanted to see Cars last night, but missed it, so I thought "I'll see superman returns instead".

I so wish I hadn't.

This is the most boring movie that I've seen since Star Trek III (which was the last time I found myself looking at my watch in the cinema).

Extended scenes of superman flying with music in the background just don't cut it for me.

I'd never guess that this was the same director who was behind Xmen1.

I liked the kids cameraphone photos matching the early comic covers, and bullets bouncing off of supermans chest, but everything else was a huge yawn for me.

I'd give it a 1 out of 10.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I agree. There were some good scenes but as a movie it was very lacking. Bad script and too long.

Now I totally disagree on Star Trek III....

 

[Squire James]

I suppose you can only understand this joke if you know the intracacies of the original DC Superheroes RPG, where "normal human" ability scores were around 2-4, and each +1 to a score or power was supposedly a doubling in power.

So (post-Crisis) Superman has a Strength score of 25, which is several million times normal human strength. But that was not his highest score. Superman's Glasses had the highest power score of anything listed in the game... Disguise 80...

 

[iwatt]

I got very moved when the credits began rolling, but the eyes teared up when Superman landed the plane on the baseball field and the crowd just began cheering. The way Brandon Routh portrayed that, the overwhelming welcome of a crowd he felt no longer needed him, that really moved me.

I loved the opening credits. The revamped John Williams soundtrack was the biggest part of it for me. Is it just me or did they use a lot more brass in this version?

And I really loved the landing scene. I felt like standing up and cheering as well.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I didn't find the movie bad. Though I am also not entirely sold, unlike I was with X-Men or Spiderman.

I just wonder about the kid: I got the impression (but I am not certain) that he became stronger _near_ Kryptonite, instead of weaker. His direct reactions were to short to be sure, but it might be noticable that he threw the Piano after he was exposed to the Kryptonite and that his asthma didn't show during the encounter with the Kryptonite.

It would also make sense - if he really was Supermans son and shared his powers, how could he be so fragile? Unless something is considerably different.

There was also something else about this aura holding true to video and photographic imaging, so all the live broadcasts and pictures of "Clark Kent" presented this dumbed-down version. It's been a long time since I read that comic, so if anyone remembers this better let us know, eh? Thanks.

Actually, I think it would make sense (and be consistent with what we "see" from Superman) that the psionic aura doesn't work on video or photographic imaging.
There will never be a scene where Clark and Superman are in the same picture, so there is little risk that someone happens to compare their looks. If someone has a picture of Clark and Superman, he might get some suspicions, but would probably think more of a bad quality of the photo. Once he meets one of them in person, the psychic aura would probably silence the suspicions again (especially since both pictures wouldn't match up to the percieved Clark/Superman).