I was a kid when I saw Superman for the first time but I still believe that the way Reeves played him was just perfect. He had an innocent confidence that felt like it was truly out of the 50’s.
I love the way he played Superman to this day.
Anyone heard of the “how did this get made” pod cast? They did Superman III and in the episode before it they interviewed the guy who played Zod’s grunting friend. Can’t remember his name, the big guy who doesn’t talk.
Great interview with lots of behind the scenes stories that haven’t been shared before.
I still think the world of cardboard moment from the animated Justice League series is the best moment possible for Superman, and really defines what I think of when I think of Superman’s character.
I think a serious Superman movie should really run with the premise that he’s a boyscout that loves people and is loved in return, but that actually achieving that is hard. Just because it’s too easy for him to rip off the arm of the man he’s handshaking, let alone not give into anger when punching Lex Luthor and accidentally paste him. (Though I’ll admit I didn’t mind the neck snap as much as some people)
Nevermind that in that clip he knocks Darkseid through a bunch of buildings in a clearly populated area, and then proceeds to lose that fight
If he could fly why did he need to join that team to get to the place at the pole?
How was Lois able to walk around there at night wearing just a coat and hat without her eyeballs freezing?
Why did the floating parking meter thing attack Clark?
Why did his powers kick in later in his child hood?
Didn’t his dad die after he already knew he could fly? Why didn’t they take the dog to begin with?
If they had space ships why couldn’t they take the ships off the planet to go to earth with him?
How did he eat and what happened to his poop in the space ship?
Why was his father able to create a version of himself but not the mother?
Does Kevin Costner really look that bad now?
It’s funny, as a kid I loved Superman II and thought Superman was boring; as an adult, I like Superman II but find parts of it silly and kind of dumb but really enjoy the original.
Take out Otis and you get the scene on the boat with Kitty in Superman Returns.
I may be in the minority, but I kinda liked Kevin Spacey’s Lex. He seemed genuinely disgusted with what (who) he had to do to get money to fund his schemes, and he played him like he was really impressed with himself when he was describing his plot to grow a continent.
Now that it’s been mentioned, I kinda have to go with the Superman from the JLA cartoons as the best depiction of traditional Kal-El. They had the most time to develop the character, so they got it closest to what was in the comics. That being said, I really dig what they did with the character in Man of Steel. I’m really looking forward to the next film.
It had a better Superman. (Cavill was so pale and lifeless I thought he was playing Zombie Superman)
It had a better Lois Lane.
More personable Perry.
While Man of Steel had a better actor as Pa Kent, the part as written was a failure.
Man of Steel has better villains, as Lex Luthor never really seemed a threat, just a nuisance. It wasn’t until Superman Returns that he was a threat, but that movie had a host of other failings.
But the biggest failing of Man of Steel was Superman killing Zod. Superman does NOT kill. A good writer who appreciates and respects the source material would have incorporated that, not shit upon it the way MoS did. I’ve never been a big Superman fan (though I am a comic book fan), but this is a core tenet of his character and that one scene had me leaving the movie disgusted (even more so than Tim Burton’s Batman killing mooks right and left).
Actually, I never saw it- after Superman 3 with Richard Pryor, I figured they’d run out of ideas, and I never bothered to watch any of the others with Reeve.
Actually. Batman doesn’t kill. Well, all comics heroes are willing to kill on the big screen, but in the comics Batman’s the most adamant. Supes has shown a willingness to kill as a last resort, as he tends to face bad guys so powerful they can’t be stopped any other way - sometimes, not even killing them works (Darkseid).
More concerning from a character perspective is the Cavill version’s cavalier attitude about collateral damage/casualties.
Except, in comics, Superman did kill general Zod. Of course, in the comics, that was after years and years of Superman not killing any one at all, and afterwards, he was so ashamed that he gave up the cloak and boots for a while. It was a BIG DEAL when he did it in the comics. In movie terms, Superman killing Zod should have been the “downer climax” to the second film in a trilogy, like Luke getting his hand chopped off in ESB, or Batman taking the blame for killing Dent in Dark Knight. The first film should have made a point of him not killing people, to set up how desperate he is when he fights Zod in the second.
I like MoS more than StM. The “dark” or “serious” theme of the movie was also to my liking. I find that in StM, and especially Burton’s Batman, the films we’re unable to capture the mix of silly and serious which is so well done in the comics. I agree that is difficult to accomplish on film. So I’d rather just see it heavy on the serious side with just a dash of silliness.
To me he seemed desperate enough to kill him. I was surprised that he actually did so. Maybe MoS II will show how much it affected Super.
