It's good to be me Reason 105,993
I’ve just been invited to see Superman Returns on the local I-Max at 10:00 tonight. I’ll try to have a brief (HA!) review up tomorrow on what may be the best comic book movie of the summer. So far as I know it’s either this Ultraviolet or X3. I like the X-Men more then Superman . X3 wasn’t all bad but it shouldn’t be that hard to beat so this could be a good contest.
posted by Garble at 11:03 AM
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14 Comments:
Your title is rather vainglorious don't you think? There's no good reason to be you, escecially if one of the reasons is to see that latest comic book shitfest. It proves my point that Hollywood is out of concepts because of the ever increasing ratio of comic book spin-offs to original movie ideas. Superman sucks. I hope the movie ends with him getting stabbed in the temporal lobe by a Kryptonite railroad spike.
I'd pay to see that. I HATE the boy-in-blue...but I think I'm gonna see this movie anyway. Just to see Spacey as Luthor!
There are many good reasons to be me; this was just the least and latest. Ignoring the rest of your efforts to be insulting I dismiss what little point you had. Your point is based on two false assumptions. First that only a wholly original work can be a good movie. Second that only by creating wholly original works can Hollywood succeed.
Not all movies need to be groundbreaking commentary on the human experience. Tonight I hope to be entertained and possible impressed by some special effects. Everything beyond that is icing on the cake.
Jack, what is your beef with the man of tomorrow anyway? He's not my favorite fictional character but I’ve got to admit I don’t see why he bothers you.
Well, different strokes for different folks. Couple of questions and points. He was pretty much the first superhero. It’s tough to be cliché when you were the first. Being the strongest is definitely one of his defining characteristics. But how is it that you hate the fact that he’s the toughest but you loved Goko for that same reason? I’m not questioning your right to do so; I’m just curious how you see the characters as different. As for his squeaky clean image...yeah, depending on how they write it that can be lame. One of the things they’re focusing on lately is the consequences of his being so powerful. Not invulnerable though, just much tougher than anyone else. Basically the idea being that the only reason he’s not ruling the world is that he thinks it would be wrong.
I didn't say anything about Hollywood succeeding, dumbass. I just said they're out of ideas and concepts. Jack brings up some good points. What's the point of having a superhero if he can do anything and everything, (except see through lead because he's a pussy) and is also invincible? Wow, exciting, Superman fights some crime on the streets. I hope the enemies don't injure him with their 9MM's. Uh-oh, Lex Luther is sending out another robot to fight Superman. I hope Superman can withstand being punched by something made out of metal. Boring. Spiderman was way cooler, because he only had augmented abilities, he wasn't the champion of the universe who ate coal and shit rare-earth metals.
Sure Goku and Superman may have comparable powers, but Goku at least looked cool while he was kicking ass. I haven't seen much DBZ, but I do recall Goku getting his ass handed to him on numerous occasions. At least he's got multiple weaknesses. Whereas Superman is only weak against Kryptonite. And they never did much with the Kryptonite, they didn't bust it out at every chance they got. At least Goku was getting blasted with laser-fist beams and nuclear mind-bombs, or whatever the hell they called their powers.
Comic book characters are often reflections of the current day societal values (as interpreted by the individual artist/author). Superman is simply a product of a different era. He is a virtually flawless hero, and as such, I can't possibly relate with or enjoy watching such a character operate. I much prefer the modern day anti-hero, i.e. the kind of guy who generally does the right thing, but doesn't necessarily do it in a moral or good way.
As far as this new Supe movie: I'm glad they picked a no-name for Clark Kent. And I will go see it (a matinee of course) simply to see the scene where he gets shot in the eye with a mini-gun.
I'm going to see the movie, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it. I just don't like Superman.
Jim raises a good point about superhero’s reflecting the era. There are a lot of current issues regarding the proper use of force and when it’s right to use violence. So they’re writing some superman stories in that theme. I like that they’re looking beyond the fight of the night type stories. Those don’t have much suspense no matter what the power level of the characters. Whether it is superman or batman fighting a gang of thugs there’s not a lot of doubt on the outcome. It doesn’t really matter if it’s thugs, alien hordes, robots, the hordes of hell, or alien-demon-robot creations from super alternative dimension hell with a limited edition foil wrapped cover. It usually works out the same. That’s why I want the story to have a hook or something interesting to say.
So there are some things about the superman character that I find interesting. What would you do with Wolverine’s powers? Not a lot would be different, you’d be really healthy, have a great sense of smell and wouldn’t have to worry about forgetting your pocket knife. You couldn’t do that much. Superman’s powers on the other hand give you more options and consequences. That sort of story is a lot more interesting to me than superman beats up another big alien menace.
I’m not saying that the movie will get into any of that. It’s just an explanation of why I like some superman stories. Also, as in every single super-here series I’ve ever seen, the writers always seem to make the fight look good. Spiderman was always to my mind the worst offender. One issue Spiderman is fighting some super powered human tank and in the next he struggling with a couple of muscle bound thugs.
As far as relating to superman; it’s not much harder to relate to him than say Neo, Wolverine or Professor X. The basic premise is that he was raised human and thinks of himself as one us.
You make a good argument Garble. But how can the writers make a fight interesting against a guy that is basically invincible? Unless the enemies are using Kryptonite weapons of some sort, a regular fight would be boring and mundane.
The regular fights usually are boring and mundane. But I've seen some things work. The obvious one is the big bad guy, Darkseid, lobo (yeah he's cheesy), Braniac, Mongol, etc. Those guys are in the same weight class as superman so it's a good fight. He’s not really invincible, just very very hard to hurt. Either way if you do that all the time it looses its punch. The other option is to just be inconsistent with his powers. But that’s just sloppy, lazy writing. I’m already suspending disbelief to the extent necessary to accept a superhero let’s not push it.
What I prefer is when the writer either comes at it from a different angle or builds the suspense around something other than the fight.
For instance, “with great power comes great responsibility” is a standard super hero value. (Thanks Stan Lee) Does that scale up? If I have more power do I have more responsibility? Where does that end? Yeah I should stop alien invaders from killing lots of people but what about an East Asian dictator? What if the dictator has been democratically elected? What about communist china? If I have the power to destroy all their weapons and remove the communist politburo do I have a responsibility to follow through? If I can stop a hurricane that threatens to destroy the coast should I also make sure that there are rain clouds above Kansas? If I fought through robot hoards to stop a mad scientist from melting the polar ice caps a heat ray do I have a responsibility to try and stop other sources of global warming? Where does it end? How do the other body condom types react when I decide that the Iranian Mullah’s have been in power too long? How about other governments? That’s a pretty cool story. They’re doing something with along those lines right now. I’m reading it as it comes out in TPB.
Right, right, I can see the logic behind that. Well I guess it all makes sense. The only thing for me to do now is to watch the movie. I want to see how he uses his powers. But I just read an article that this is a continuation of the first two movies? Well, I didn't know there was a second, and I never saw the first, will this movie still make sense?
The movie doesn't get into anything I just mentioned really. It will make perfect sense. I don’t' really remember the first two movies either. It's not a big deal. This one was more about the idea that it's pretty lonely to look like a human and think like a human but not really be human. (With no whining. It's good to be superman and he seems to know it.) Plus Spacey is a great lex luthor. It’s pretty good. I like Batman Begins better. But this would be tied with X2
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