Feb
24
Superman Lives?
Filed Under Movies
The last time an excellent Superman film was made I hadn’t been born yet. I think the second film, released shortly after I came into the world, is good but not great and I still maintain that the third is not irredeemably bad. No, movie four holds the honor of being atrocious. “Superman Returns” ultimately fails as a sequel and a reboot. In splitting the difference between embracing the established mythology and laying groundwork for a new film series, it alternates between being straight up fan service and a crushing bore.
Warner Bros. isn’t about to give up on creating a viable film franchise out of Superman, though. I think much of that has to do with the fact they’re in danger of the rights to the character reverting to Jerry Siegel’s estate if they don’t get something off the ground by 2012. And so, the studio’s taking another stab at Supes by hiring David S. Goyer, co-writer of “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight,” to script “The Man of Steel.”
From what I’m reading, this will not be a reboot, thank Krypton. The film will begin in medias res. My most despised of narrative crutches — the origin film — is going to be skipped entirely in favor of, hey, telling an actual story that isn’t two hours of exposition. Frankly, if you can’t set up a story world in your first act, you shouldn’t be making movies.
I’m curious to see how this shakes out. Warner Bros. doesn’t really seem to get Superman, and as such, has hired scads of filmmakers with the wrong sensibilities to develop projects that don’t go anywhere. David Goyer’s a geek but might be a little dark for Supes. One tired meme I often read about Superman is that he’s a boy scout. I don’t think this is entirely accurate. Superman has a lot of interesting potential for a character. Where people lament that he can pretty much do anything and is virtually invulnerable, they seem to neglect the things Superman can’t do, like solve real-world problems (war, famine, disease, poverty, the Tea Party movement) or feel completely at home in his adopted world, being an alien from outer space. A villain who personifies some issue Superman can’t simply defeat with brute strength and a love interest who swoons over only one of his dual identities creates plenty of narrative potential for a character. I just hope they don’t make him brooding and emo and pour him into a black costume. At the end of the day, Superman should embody the sense of idealism we seem to have become too cynical to embrace.
-Brad Lohan
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