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The best form of rehabilitation.
The plot of SUPERMAN RETURNS is simple enough, a sort of balancing act between another real estate scam by Luthor and a sugar sweet romance story. Many comics go there but this film, for some reason, took a lot of heat for that.
They should have just read the goddamn comics and adapted the characters as they are supposed to be.
Superman (1948) is a 15-part black-and-white Columbia film serial based on the comic book character Superman. It stars an uncredited Kirk Alyn (billed only by his character name, Superman; but credited on the promotional posters) and Noel Neill as Lois Lane.
Atom Man vs. Superman (1950), Columbia's 43rd serial and the second live-action Superman screen appearance in 15 chapters, both featuring Kirk Alyn as Superman, finds Lex Luthor (Lyle Talbot), secretly the Atom Man, blackmailing the city of Metropolis by threatening to destroy the entire community. Perry White (Pierre Watkin), editor of the Daily Planet, assigns Lois Lane (Noel Neill), Jimmy Olsen (Tommy Bond) and Clark Kent (Kirk Alyn) to cover the story
I'm not asking for adaptations, nor would I want them in most cases, as the books don't translate well in that way. I just want the spirit of the characters to be there, which it hasn't been for DC in a long time.
Not to mention the better episodes of Smallville, of which there are many...
Glad someone else here likes it. I never read the comic books for it, but I just love the movie. Very funny and entertaining.
1. Casino Royale
2. Memento
3. The Aviator
4. Apocalypto
5. The Wolf of Wall Street
6. Shutter Island
7. Goodfellas
8. The Godfather Part 2
9. The Shining
10. Casino
11. No Country For Old Men
12. From Russia With Love
13. Hacksaw Ridge
14. The Departed
15. Blood Diamond
16. The Revenant
17. Mad Max: Fury Road
18. The Godfather
19. Dances With Wolves
20. Django Unchained
@fire_and_ice, and Snyder had Superman get shot (twice) with a kryptonite bullet that exploded into a gas that he breathed in, which would've (or rather, should've) filled his cells and instantly murdered him. Nobody's perfect. ;)
The difference is, Batman represents vigilantism, albeit with a strong moral awareness, and has almost always been given a chance to pursue darker avenues in the human condition. Ignoring for a minute some of the campier material from the 50s and 60s, Batman kept lurking in the shadows while Superman was still all sunshine and happy faces. And yet, successful attempts at a grittier Superman were made, with genius comic book authors and artists exploring Supes' inner universe, his pains and doubts, his weaknesses and moral dilemmas. But the path from comic book to screen is littered with challenges, one of which being the issue of appealing to a wider audience than merely the comic book savvy. And while a darker Batman seems to work for most, a darker Kansas-based Superman brings with him some issues many, apparently, struggle with overcoming.
In the end, Superman's primary strength is, ironically, also his weakness. He's "super", remember? He can do anything. Even Captain America and Iron Man are still more vulnerable than the man of steel. This puts a lot of people off. And when screenwriters subsequently try to make the invincible Superman somewhat more vulnerable using another kryptonite something or some emotional pressure point, things end up unbalanced pretty fast. People reject the almighty Superman, for he is boring, but they also reject the not-quite-so almighty Superman, for he is a pussy and not true to the character. It's almost a priory a given that a Superman film won't work.
Perhaps the JLA effort will change things, as Superman must inevitably share screen time with several others. Compare this to the Hulk films, which never really worked for a wide audience, and the incredibly positive response to Hulk as seen in the Avengers. Some characters, in this day and age at least, just can't survive a solo film or almost solo film, like BATMAN V SUPERMAN. It's too easy to crap on a Superman that tries to fit in with our Dark Knight expectations; 75% of the film going audience doesn't have an opinion anyway and simply repeats rants on the Internet. Despite all his strengths, Superman is easy to mock. Batman's already got his many updates, successfully I might add. Any update they wish to impose on Superman seems instantly rejected by people who are actually more than anything else confused about this new take on Superman.
The comics offer no safe haven either. SUPERMAN EARTH ONE, SUPERMAN RED SON and several other titles provide us with a grittier, darker, more conflicted Superman, one which might in fact have served as a template for the BVS version of the man of steel. In other titles, however, Superman is still the man who will rescue your cat from the higher branches of an elm tree in suburban America. Any choices you make will put off people, no matter what. So when the screenwriters of these last couple of Superman films set out to take the ultimate Boyscout, drop him in a cynical post-Nolan universe, make him PC, vulnerable and "kind" but also "disturbed", make him Americana but not too Americana, they ended up with a creation that goes neither here nor there, as if thought up by a confused teenager with only selective access to the Superman comic book legacy.
While I still believe the criticisms aimed at BVS are at times unnecessarily harsh--a cinematic Superman can be its own thing after all--I concede that what we got is a compromised version at best, but not one we wanted. The filmmakers should give us a little bit more credit, I think, seeing how well received many of the animated features are, in which a widely accepted and in fact beloved Superman is depicted so effortlessly. The two-Martha bit, the kryptonite... yeah, it's muddled. But like I said, they don't know what to do anymore. They are worried that Donner's Superman simply wouldn't fit in our current Superhero mania. Perhaps no Superman does. Perhaps the animated one does. Who is to say? Superman is a difficult case.
When I watch a Superman movie, I don't want to see him being told by his parents to let kids die, nor do I care to see him accept that he's a bad man simply because people in his new home don't care to understand him. I'm alright with the idea of Superman, the alien, scaring people, because the films can show how he progressively becomes known and loved to them. What I can't stand is a Superman that is everything the true vision of him isn't.
Superman is everything this world doesn't have right now, and that's why seeing a proper Superman film with a proper take on the character is so vital. He can't be corrupted by special interests. He can't be beaten down by negativity because he understands the power of willing positivity. He is a lone survivor, so he understands what it means to be lost, and he always makes an effort to include and think of everyone when he acts. Because he is all powerful, he understands the value of using that power responsibly.
In short, he's everything this world isn't, and shows us how we could be. I don't want to see a Superman film, sit there and think, "Wow, he's just as screwed up as we are." I want to leave the theater and think, "He is the kind of person I want to be." In a dark world we need to bring in the light, and that light is Superman.
Ha ha I buy that more than the shard... I'll get my coat. Though if it's a synthesised gas that's not pure Kryptonite like in Dark Knight Returns pt2, then it works for me ;)
Rogue One first watch on Bluray I thoroughly enjoyed it, the finale was intense I realised early in the film I was invested so it did ultimately emotionally impact on me.
In preparation for the impending cinematic release of Fast & Furious 8, I thought I'd revisit some of the older films. I started at Fast Five because that's when the franchise kicked it up a notch and took things to another level. Introducing charismatic Dwayne Johnson as brutish Diplomatic Security Service's agent Luke Hobbs was a masterstroke, as was moving away from the street racing theme and towards a more heist oriented film involving cars, with larger action set pieces. Those set pieces are something else, with the finale with the two cop cars pulling a bank vault along the streets of Rio being the highlight. Hobbs starts off on Toretto's trail, but eventually teams up with him to take down Joaquim de Almeidathe's Hernan Reynes, a Brazilian crimelord and the villain of the piece. The location photography in Rio in this film is phenomenal.
Fast and Furious 6, also directed by Lin, picks up where the last film ends and ups the ante considerably. Luke Evans takes over this time around as main villain Owen Shaw. In this installment, Hobbs seeks out Toretto's team and asks for their help to capture Shaw, a mercenary who has been one step ahead of him to date. The carrot: Toretto's old squeeze Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who was presumed dead, is apparently still alive and working for Shaw. The stunts are even more amped up this time, and London serves as the main location. The photography in this installment is perhaps not as impressive as in the last one, but the action is truly off the charts. Highlights for me are the vicious fight between Gina Carano's Riley & Letty in the UK underground, but there are so many other top notch action sequences here too. This may very well be my favourite of the series. High octane non-stop action from start to finish. I hope the next one can match it.
Gotta love that movie magic.
I've been watching a lot of films recently
The departed: incredible gangster film Scorsese at his finest
Shutter island: this movie will mess with your head one of the greatest psychological horror films
Memento: very entertaining and confusing with a great story
Hacksaw ridge: easily the best movie of last year Gibson at his finest
Check out the Goldbergs episode that riffs on it. Way funnier than the film and gets everything into 27mins. Excellent!