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Superman Returns (2006)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 10:44 am    Post subject: Superman Returns (2006) Reply with quote




Ever wonder why Marvel Studios seems to be like King Midas (whatever they touch turns to gold), while anything made from the DC universe always misses the mark by a little — or a lot?

Yeah, me too. Perplexing, ain't it?

For me, "Superman Returns" missed it by a lot. It worked so hard to be a remake of the 1978 movie — without looking too much like a remake — that it ended up looking like it was made first and the one from 1978 was a superior remake.

Somebody flew real fast and turned back the world.

My two biggest complaints with the movie are (1) the initial concept (Superman leaves Earth to go visit the old neighborhood, even though he knew darn well it blew up), and (2) the big climax (Superman lifts a giant mass of rock that's chock-full of Kryptonite — some of it inches from his face).






Excuse me, I thought a fist-sized piece of this lovely green stuff gave Kal-El a bad case of the Krptonian flu. So, how does he manage to just grit his teeth and carry Rhode Island's twin brother off into space?

The soap opera aspects of the plot weren't a big plus either. Superman loves Lois, but Lois is engaged to some guy, so he stalks her and becomes the Peeping Tom of Steel outside her house.

Gee whiz, Superman, I think you should just move on. Why not just consider Kara Zor-El as a possible girlfriend. She's only a cousin, and in parts of Alabama a relationship like that is as common as grits for breakfast.

And let's be honest — the way she flaunts it in that little super-duper outfit, I think she's sending signals you're clearly missing! Shocked




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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 8:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was not in love with this movie either, Bud.

Routh made for a bland hero. Maybe its the fault of his talent, the script, or direction, or a combo of all, or some of those factors.

I did understand Kal-el wanting to return to the destroyed Krypton. Answers. If he could somehow connect to anything there that survived it might be able to answer questions he always had. Longing. He just wanted to see where he was from originally. Not logical perhaps given the state of Krypton, but very human. Just like us.

I think one of the greatest, fantastic scenes ever in any Superman movie remains his rescue of the passenger/press jet & space shuttle!

Nothing equaled it before or since.

Superman with a kid was an original & innovative direction for the writers to take the character, but it did not work.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 1:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I saw the trailers with that shot of Superman grabbing the wing of the aircraft and ripping it off, I thought he was to intentionally destroying the plane!

Then when I saw the move and realized the poor dope didn't realize how silly it was to grab a fragile airplane wing near the end to stop it from spinning, my respect for the film makers' intelligence took a nose dive.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't help imaging the writers in a story conference where the discussion went like this.
___________________________

"So the plane is spinning out of control, see? And Superman grabs the end of the wing to stop it!"

Another writer says, "But wait, that would make Superman look dumb. Everybody knows the wing would just break off!"

"Naaaaaw, nobody will think that. People aren't that smart."
___________________________

It's another example of what I said on the "Sky Captain" thread — sometimes the cool and dramatic way of doing something is so unrealistic it just destroys the suspension of disbelief for a moment and works against the scene instead of for it.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2017 7:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________


Today is the 79th anniversary of the first Superman comic, so here are a few trivia items about the first Superman movie in the 21st Century.
________________________________

The last line of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) (the one before "Returns") is Superman saying to Luthor, "See you in twenty." That scene was filmed in 1986. Coincidentally, twenty years later, Superman Returns (2006) was released.

Note from me: Wow! What ARE the odds of that? Shocked (Okay, it's not that crazy, but it is pretty cool.) Very Happy

Amy Adams auditioned for the role of Lois Lane. She later eventually played Lois in Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).



Note from me: And the lesson we can learn from this is: If at first you don't succeed — audition, audition again.

When Bryan Singer became interested in possibly hiring Brandon Routh, he arranged for them to meet in a coffee shop. When they met at their table, Routh stumbled and spilled hot coffee all over the table. Although he panicked, thinking he had just lost the part, Singer laughed and said it actually helped him get the part. The incident convinced Singer that Routh could pull off the clumsy, bumbling Clark Kent.

Note from me: This is a priceless story! I predict that actors will be spilling coffee in Bryan Singer's lap on a weekly bases in their desperate efforts to get roles in his movies! Very Happy

In interviews, Kal Penn revealed he originally had a much greater role. It would have been revealed that his character was a disgraced former Daily Planet science reporter who was bribed by Lex Luthor to plant false evidence of Krypton's possible survival, thus inspiring Superman to leave Earth and explore Krypton's ruins.

Note from me: This movie started right off confusing me with the whole idea that Superman went looking for Krypton, and it never explained that very well. This aspect of the story should not have been omitted.

Bryan Singer is on record as saying Superman Returns is a loose follow-up to Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980), but does not follow those movies' continuity strictly. It ignores Superman III (1983) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). However, there is a reference to Supergirl (1984), which was released between the later two: a radio announcer reports Superman is off on a space mission to a far away galaxy.

Note from me: I have the DVDs of the first two Superman movies, and I might watch them someday soon and then Superman Returns, just to see it they work together to some degree.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Bryan Singer discussed a scene that was in an early draft of the screenplay, but never filmed.

"At one point," Bryan recalls, "I had a scene in the script which I never shot, and I probably was never going to shoot, where Superman would be standing — after flying around rescuing people at night — would be standing at dawn at Ground Zero. Sort of standing there, almost as if to say, 'If I had been here, this might not be.'"


Note from me: That would have been a powerful scene. I wish it had been included, but I understand why it was omitted. 9/11 is the ultimate "sensitive subject".

All previous scripts revolved, in one way or another, around the death and subsequent return of Superman. Jonathan Lemkin wrote a draft in which Superman impregnates Lois before he dies, she gives birth soon thereafter (also dying in the process), and a fully-grown new Superman emerges to save the world. Lemkin's work was quickly discarded.

Note from me: The next time I wonder why superhero movies sometimes come up with wacky ideas, I'll remember this insane concept and thank the good Lord for the movies that don't go off the deep end as badly as this premise did! Shocked

Milliskin, a type of cloth, was used as the material of Superman's suit. Unfortunately, this cloth restricts movement when new. Worse, it sags after being worn, and becomes comfortable. As a result, eighty suits, one hundred capes, thirty boots, and ninety belts were made.

Note from me: WOW! What did they do with all these Superman costumes! Did they throw them in the wash and then sell them on eBay? Did they hand them out as gifts during the film's wrap party? Did they put them a big garbage bag and give them the National Kidney Fountain so that 80 homeless guys could run around at night in Superman suits and fight crime in the "mean streets" of major American cites? Shocked

Serious, am I the only one who things thinks that last suggestion would make a hysterical comedy! Surprisedl:

In an interview on Larry King Live (1985), Bryan Singer said that had he not had access to John Williams' original music, he would not have done the film.

Note from me: This is a laudable attitude. The open credits are fairly good in the movie, even though they seemed to be an attempt to "top" the original film's credits . . . unsuccessfully.

The reappearance of Superman in Metropolis by saving a crashing airplane is a direct nod to an episode of Paul Dini's Superman (1996) cartoons titled: The Last Son of Krypton Part 2, as well as an episode of the Max Fleischer-animated Superman called Japoteurs (1942).

Note from me: I have to give this a little credit for presenting the "crashing plane" concept well in some ways . . . but not so well in others.

I hated the fact that Superman was dumb enough to grab the plane's right wing and think he could slow it down! When I saw that scene in the trailers, I thought he intentionally ripped off the wing because he wanted to destroy the plane!

I worked for Eastern Air Lines for 16 years as a baggage handler, and I once accidentally damaged a jetliner at the gate by pulling a baggage cart too close to the fuselage and cutting it with the sharp corner!

The passengers had to be transferred to another plane.

This movie demonstrated how fragile airplanes are when Superman ripped the wing off of the airliner. But it misrepresented the situation when he grabbed the nose and stopped it in the middle of the stadium with only a few wrinkles in the fuselage.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 2:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This didn't have to be a totaly bad movie.

Scenes were shot of Superman's return to Krypton, finding it totaly destroyed and a mass of Kryptonite, but was edited out of the final cut. I do wish they were not excised those scenes, since it explained why Superman was away from our Earth for so long (possibly 5 or more years.).

The best aspect of this film is that it seemed to go from SUPERMAN II right to SUPERMAN RETURNS, disregarding the banality of 3, 4, and 5.

Brandon Routh did a fine job filling Chris Reeves shoes (if that was possible!), but he did play it in a mode more consistent with the Mort Weisinger vision of Superman.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 8:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gord Green wrote:
Scenes were shot of Superman's return to Krypton, finding it totaly destroyed and a mass of Kryptonite, but was edited out of the final cut. I do wish they were not excised , since it explained why Superman was away from our Earth for so long (Possibly 5 or more years.).

When my daughter showed me the deleted scene on the DVD special features, I was amazed that such a powerful moment had been omitted from the movie! It is incredible.

For those who haven't seen it, here it is.


________ Superman Returns - Return To Krypton


__________

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Custer
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 2:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Looking at the back cover of my dvd copy, I see there was a whole second disc of around three hours of features. "The Joy of Lex - Behind the Scenes with Kevin Spacey" seems worth avoiding now, but "Over 10 Additional Scenes" sounds good (perhaps someone can't count very efficiently once we get to double figures). Maybe a Director's Cut one day will appear, including the unused scenes... though the Richard Donner Cut of Superman II wasn't a huge success, if I recall.

Brandon Routh, of course, has more recently downsized to playing The Atom in Legends of Tomorrow, and certainly brings a boyish Clark Kent type of enthusiasm to the role.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 12, 2018 5:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

One of the DISH channels showed this movie recently, and I watched it again. Lo and behold, I changed my mind about it.

I reckon I'm just shamelessly wishy-washy . . . Shocked

I'm not saying that the things I stated which were bad weren't bad after all. I mean, hell's bells, it's obvious that Superman could have done the same damn thing to the falling airplane that he did to the space shuttle!

Get under it and lift it up until it was "flying" relatively normal, then set it down at an airport!

As for the giant block of kryptonite which he lifted up and threw into space, Superman could have flown at super-speed to a smelting plant, poured out most of the molten lead from a huge steal cauldron (leaving the inside coated in cooling lead), gotten inside it, and flown this protective shield back to the growing mass of kryptonite.

Using this shield, he could lift up the kryptonite mass without being exposed to so much kryptonite radiation that he whould have been dead in seconds!:

That's just one idea for doing it better. I'm sure I could come up with better ones with a little more time. Very Happy

But the point of this post is that the rest of the movie had some fine elements that I didn't appreciate, because I was so put off by the parts I didn't like!

For example, I now think that Brandon Roth is a better Superman than Henry Cavill, because he comes closer to the likable Christopher Reeve version than the square-jawed-but-unemotional Mr. Cavill does.

I've watched Man of Steel . . . but I can't remember what the story was about! There were lots of spectacular scenes of life on Krypton, and a titanic battle between Superman and General Zod. But that's about it. Sad

Superman Returns has a entertaining Lex Luther, a lovely Lois Lane, an amusing Perry White, and a story that makes poor Superman suffer for mankind and emerge triumphant!

Hopefully that "director's cut" with the deleted scenes will be released someday, and I'll be able to enjoy it even more! Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 12:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Funny video that pokes fun at the goofy things in this movie that make it hard to love. Very Happy
________________________________



__ Everything Wrong With Superman Returns In 6 Minutes Or Less


__________

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 5:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I originaly saw this at the theatre there were some scenes shown in 3-D. The airplane rescue segment for one.

It really made the film a lot more enjoyable!

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Custer
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 11:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Strange - I did watch the movie when it came out, I'm sure, but that "Sins" video brought back zero memories. Looks as if that's another dvd I need to add to my "to watch" list! Surprised
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 12:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gord Green wrote:
When I originaly saw this at the theatre there were some scenes shown in 3-D.

I've never heard of a movie in which "some scenes" were shown in 3-D. Strange.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Eadie
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2020 3:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Brandon Routh Opens Upon on Superman Returns Difficulties With Bryan Singer, Failed Sequel Hopes

https://www.slashfilm.com/brandon-routh-on-superman-returns-difficulties/

With the release of Superman Returns in 2006, star Brandon Routh was poised to become the next big thing. He was taking on the role of a superhero icon in one of the biggest blockbusters of the year, cast partially for his resemblance to the iconic Superman star, Christopher Reeves. But then, crickets. Superman Returns opened to decent reviews and a respectable worldwide gross of $391 million. But Warner Bros. wrote the film off as a disappointment, and Routh was devastated to learn that there would be no sequel — instead the superhero got rebooted in with 2013’s Man of Steel in which Henry Cavill donned the cape.

While Routh has carved out a good niche as a genre TV regular with roles in Arrow, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and Chuck, the actor revealed the difficulties he endured in the aftermath of Superman Returns — and indeed, during the filming, with director Bryan Singer, who has in recent years been exposed for his history of sexual abuse.

In an interview with Inside of You host Michael Rosenbaum, Brandon Routh opened up about the effect that the “failure” of Superman Returns had on his career and mental well-being.

“I would say that the end of my run as Superman in Superman Returns that did not pan out the way I thought it was going to, the way everyone around me thought it was going to. I had to really come to terms with a lot of that. There was no sequel, the movie was widely well-reviewed, people liked the movie, but it, you know, made almost $400 million worldwide but that wasn’t enough. And it was a very slow fizzle out of the possibility of a sequel over the next two, three years and I did everything that I could do, that I thought, in my world to help make it happen.”

So how did he cope? World of Warcraft. But that didn’t help Routh either, until his wife, Courtney Ford, was able to help him deal with the trauma. “It was a coping mechanism but it wasn’t teaching me things until I finally came, you know, had several experiences where I had to come to terms with that and she was part of that,” Routh said.

Routh had faced criticism when he was cast as Superman — with many comparing him unfavorably to Reeves. But Routh revealed that he had difficulty on the set of Superman Returns too, specifically with director Bryan Singer.

“He wasn’t always the kindest person to everyone,” Routh told Rosenbaum. Routh agreed that, though Singer was good to him, he had seen the director behave badly with others — stories that stars like Bohemian Rhapsody‘s Rami Malek and X-Men: Apocalypse‘s Sophie Turner have corroborated in the aftermath of reports of Singer’s alleged sexual assaults.

But all the criticism and on-set difficulty Routh endured, and he didn’t even get to play Superman a second time — on the big screen, that is. Routh reprised the role on television for the CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event. So at least he got the chance to say goodbye to a character that helped launch his career, and gave him so much trouble.

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The Spike
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 5:32 pm    Post subject: I'm in a minority... Reply with quote

I like it well enough >

The light to show the way.

After a five year hiatus, Superman returns to Earth to find that Lois Lane is now a soon to be married mother, but some things don't change, loony Lex Luthor is loose and his latest plan will kill billions of people.

I first reviewed Superman Returns some two years after its initial release, I had first caught it on release back in 2006 and was really taken with Bryan Singer's approach to a subject he clearly loves. I was awash with nostalgic fervour back then and the moment the theme tune kicked in (great move by Singer to use the John Williams original) I was grinning like a Cheshire cat, yet it seemed I was in a minority back then as regards the film's worth, and with each passing year I find I still am.

Superman Returns will forever be known as the franchise entry that has too much heart, because it finds Singer giving Superman emotional fortitude and, crucially, making it the heart of the story. Those that purely wanted a big colourful popcorn explosion will forever be unfulfilled it seems. Yet it has to be said that fans of Singer's work (such as I) totally get the emotionally heavy approach he has taken, watching Superman shred himself after learning of Lois' love for another, makes for compulsive viewing. Because our man of steel is conflicted, not only with his sense of protective being, but also in the rigours of love, it's this conflict of Superman that drives the film on. Not to say that there isn't any action here, though, in fact some of the sequences here are truly exhilarating. Oh yes, the popcorn crowd are well catered for, planes, space shuttles and a tension filled helicopter, all figure in and around Superman and Luthor's world.

Brandon Routh dons the cape worn so brilliantly by Christopher Reeve in the 70s, and smartly Routh takes the route of "if it isn't broke then don't fix it", there's no need to put ones own stamp on a character already so well defined and well loved. Looking like Reeve, and playing out uncannily like him, Routh studied Reeve's performances to get as close to the Reeve incarnation as he could, and he gets it down pat whilst adding a bit of brooding honesty into the mix. Kate Bosworth gets to be Lois Lane, it's a very solid and controlled performance that would have seen her as a shoe in for the role again if Singer had of taken the reins for a sequel. Taking up the role of Lex Luthor, and clearly having a great time, is Kevin Spacey, this is a more clever Luthor incarnation, it's spiteful and devoid of campery. While along for the ride as Luthor's moll is Parker Posey, she's sparky with a hint of devilish sexiness.

Bryan Singer reinvigorated the Superman franchise, and in doing so brought a new verve to the characterisation of an American icon. It has proved to be divisive amongst the fans and critics alike, so much so that Singer has left the Superman world. But viewing it even now brings many rewards, it is a damn fine Superman movie. You can never have too much heart at your film's core, that is as long as one remembers what made prior efforts work in the first place, Singer did to my mind fuse both very admirably indeed. 8/10

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 24, 2023 4:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________________________

In a post above I said that I'd never heard of a movie which had parts of it shown in 3D. My apologize to Gord Green, who mentioned this his own post.


Gord Green wrote:
When I originally saw this at the theater there were some scenes shown in 3-D. The airplane rescue segment for one.

It really made the film a lot more enjoyable!

I looked it up online and found this in the Wikipedia article.
__________________________________________________

Superman Returns: An IMAX 3D Experience was released simultaneously in 111 IMAX-format theatres worldwide, which included 20 minutes of converted 3D film material. It was the first Hollywood full-length live-action film to be released in this combined format.
__________________________________________________

Wow . . . just shows ya what I know about stuff, huh? Rolling Eyes

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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