How does Superman find the time? [i](Superman Returns)[/i]

I finally got around to watching Superman Returns today, I’ve heard a lot of bad things about it so I must say I was pleasantly surprised, I don’t think it deserves the bad reputation it has received?

Anyway one question popped into my head while watching it, Superman is depicted as pretty much saving everyone, everywhere (I have to say I genuinely laughed out loud at the CCTV footage of him tackling the deli robber!) all the time.

How does he find the time to balance his ‘civilian’ life as Clark Kent with the public expectations of Superman, when he’s ‘off duty’ does he only answer the large scale emergencies and let the small stuff slide? Wouldn’t there be something of a backlash if he saved person X but not person Y in a similar situation? There has to be something bad happening somewhere in the world at any given time.

I realise its just a comic-book movie but it was something I wondered.

As for the movie itself, as I said I enjoyed it, it has truly great action sequences and a few funny and even moving moments. The over-arching storyline wasn’t that good and it kind of fell apart at the end but I was entertained and I can’t ask for more than that.

In addition I thought it had some interesting aspects, for once the child-star wasn’t annoying, the main bad guy treated his subordinates as human beings and I kept expecting a twist involving Lois Lanes husband but he was as he appeared to be a nice and likable character.

I thought the sets were a nice combination of class retro look and the modern.

One part of the story I did dislike though, when Superman loses his powers on the kryptonite island he just pretty much lies back and takes his hiding, he doesn’t even make an attempt to fight back. What was the message there? That Superman is only brave when he’s completely invulnerable?

Overall a flawed but fun film.

He’s insanely fast when he wants to be. If he can find an excuse to remain out of line of sight for five minutes, that might be all he needs. I mean, Luthor needed to stage multiple simultaneous emergencies to keep Superman busy.

Only from scum. No decent human being would complain that an undisputed good samaritan isn’t helping the entire world enough.

I’m pretty sure that kryptonite doesn’t just bring Superman down to normal - it’s actually deadly to him.

Wrong. In a real world, Superman would constantly be facing questions and criticism about what he did and did not do. The world is full of self righteous assholes who would love to get attention, seek power and feed their egos by indulging in recreational outrage about what Superman SHOULD have done.

So… “only from scum”?

Indeed.

Straczinski’s Grounded run on Superman discusses this issue quite a bit (along with the concept that Superman attracts danger, thus risking harm to people just by existing).

But not very well, from what little I saw.

Which is itself ridiculous. For every madman like Luthor there would be a hundred would-be crooks who see no profit in crossing a nigh-omnipotent, nigh-omniscient lawkeeper.

I wish I had your faith in human nature. :\

OK, that makes it a bit more understandable but they should have shown him displaying at least some attempt at defiance. I just can’t favourably compare his almost smug confidence when facing the gatling cannon (cool scene though!) when he knows he can’t be hurt and his utter lack of resistance when he is vulnerable.

How does he ‘attract danger’? Because people like Lex Luther want to destroy him?

There’s a scene in Daredevil in which he wearily climbs into an isolation tank in his apartment, shutting out a cityful of screams, police calls, sirens and cries for help, even if only briefly. There’s only so much a superhero can do.

That’s really his usual response to coming across kryptonite. At first he’s severely weakened and usually tossed around, then he rallies and comes back swinging. Dramatic tension and all that.

Yeah, kinda. The series has him walking (not flying) across America while he “thinks about things”. Walking through one smallish town, he’s attacked and the battle wrecks the homes and businesses of a bunch of people. I can’t remember exactly, but I think there’s also a scene of him walking into a park with kids playing, and one mother telling him he shouldn’t be there as he’s putting the children at risk.