Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Superman: Will he fly or fall?

EDITORS NOTE: After this article was posted, Warner Bros. announced that it will reboot the Superman franchise, meaning Brandon Routh will most likely not return, nor will director Bryan Singer. Apart from that my thoughts on the direction of the next Superman film remain unchanged.

In 2006, director Bryan Singer gave us "Superman Returns", the long awaited return of the Man of Steel. The film grossed a very respectable $200 million, and was generally enjoyed by audiences. Brandon Routh did a good job in the title role, playing the character much like the late Christopher Reeve did. The rest of the cast did a good job as well, I was really impressed with how Kevin Spacey played Lex Luthor. I remember taking my kids to see it in the theaters, and my daughter was even crying at the end when she thought Superman was dying. But as much as I enjoyed it, I always felt the movie was not quite what it could and should have been. Let's face it, Lex Luthor is in every Superman movie, and as great a character as he is, he really does not present that great a threat to Superman. Not since the three Kryptonian villains in Superman II has Superman really been challenged.

So now Bryan Singer is starting work on "Superman:Man Of Steel". The big question is can he deliver on the groundwork he laid down with "Superman Returns". I have a few thoughts on that.

OK, if you have to have Lex Luthor in the movie, he cannot be the main villain. Give him a role similar to the one he had in "Superman II", but Superman really needs a villain who can give him a real challenge, be a real threat. Superman is just about indestructible, so he needs a villain that is almost at the same level. There also needs to be more action, the action in "Superman Returns" was good, but the stretches between the action were a bit too long. Not that it was boring, but the action needs to come a bit faster than it did. The whole Superman has a son thing, I could have done without it. The kid was OK, but it really didn't add anything to the story, but he is a part of it now, just take the focus off of him.

Bryan Singer is a very capable director, after all, "X-Men" and "X2" were awesome super hero movies, so I know Singer has it in him. Let's just see if he can do what he did with "X2", take what was great about the first one and make it better.

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