Wanna see Brandon Routh's Superman?

[Klaus]

Good job Klaus! Much improved.

Thanks!

I think the main thing that's keeping this costume from working is the smaller S-shield. I own a Superman T-Shirt that has a HUGE shield. The shield draws the eye from across the street!

Alas, too late for that now, eh?

 

[Chain Lightning]

The reason why the Christopher Reeve costume and the Alex Ross one works better is because of the proper size of the "S" symbol on the chest. I can only assume they wanted the raised material "S" on the new Superman, and to do that it had to be smaller. If it was bigger, Brandon couldn't have as much freedom of movement in his torso. But if you ask me, they should've thrown out the raised symbol idea and just gone with the symbol being a graphic on the costume itself. That way, it could be the proper size.

This is important because Brandon has a long torso and there's A LOT OF BLUE going on there. The symbol counters and balances this by breaking the large area of blue with its design.

Another artistic design point: The blue is blue, like the blue we're used to seeing. But the red isn't? Why make that decision? The other factor that makes the Superman costume iconic and work , is that the red is the same brightness as the blue. The two work together (well, there's three...the yellow is important too). Now that one is off and the whole costume feels different.

And yes, the belt symbol is redundant.

Brandon's frame is okay by me. Its hard to find a truly huge guy you can also take serious to play Superman. Although, if the rumors are true, and the story is about Superman returning to Earth after being gone for a while, then shouldn't we be seeing a Superman that looks at least a smidge older than Brandon? Unless, of course they do the whole "Superman ages way slower than everyone else" then I guess its ok. But that doesn't explain why Lois is so young looking since she's played by Kate Bosworth.

We'll see what happens.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Meh, the S shield really sucks and that ruins the whole costume. The shield should be big and stretch across his chest. It should dominate his costume. Bleh. This looks bad.

 

[Gentlegamer]

This is important because Brandon has a long torso and there's A LOT OF BLUE going on there. The symbol counters and balances this by breaking the large area of blue with its design.

His torso appears even longer because they have him in hiphugger speedo type shorts. The shorts should come closer to his waist.

 

[takyris]

Don't like the line on the shorts, and I don't like the look of the actor. I agree with the folks who say he looks like a guy in a Superman costume. He doesn't look muscular. Even if he is muscular, and he's probably in good shape to play Superman, he's not muscular enough. If the costume department could put a muscle pattern onto the costume without being blatantly obvious about it, that might help, but otherwise, we're looking at a Superman parody movie...

 

[Gentlegamer]

Don't like the line on the shorts, and I don't like the look of the actor. I agree with the folks who say he looks like a guy in a Superman costume. He doesn't look muscular. Even if he is muscular, and he's probably in good shape to play Superman, he's not muscular enough. If the costume department could put a muscle pattern onto the costume without being blatantly obvious about it, that might help, but otherwise, we're looking at a Superman parody movie...

Well, unlike in comic books, real-life spandex tends to obscure muscle definition. I think he has the build for Superman (I prefer the in-shape "normal guy" look for Kal-el instead of the Ross "big lug" look).

 

[takyris]

I agree completely that spandex obscures muscle. That said, I don't care. My primary basis for Superman identification is the comics. Ergo, I want a guy who can look on-screen like Superman in the comics looks. If that means getting someone who's positively ripped, fine, although I suspect I'm sort of midline -- I'd prefer someone who, with his top off for the obligatory "hot Clark" scene would look like he's in good shape, possibly at the pro athlete level, but not a steroided-out bodybuilder. Ideally, they'd figure out a new costume material or do the "musculature pattern" outfit thing so that the outfit didn't take an in-shape guy and turn him into an extra from the Tick live-action show.

Right now, he looks like a Kids in the Hall sketch of Superman.

(And admittedly, right now we're seeing posed stills, and since Superman doesn't do martial arts, we're seeing posed stills of a guy in spandex flexing, which is always gonna look a little silly. Live-action Superman really shines when moving -- so a shot that looks completely silly on a poster could work well on-screen.)

 

[Klaus]

The picture doesn't show, but Bryan Singer mentioned that the costume would have a subtle "shading" to emphasize Routh's natural muscles.

All in all, this was not the best picture to debut the new Superman. Bad Warners!