Superman

[Eternal Padawan]

I just watched this again on the small screen and I wasn't impressed. There were some cool action sequences, but there was an awful lot of the huggy kissy shit. And Superman comes off as a winsome bitch. "Awwww...I can't have Lois. Boo Hoo. Woe is me." Always looking at her with puppy dog eyes and UGH stalking her outside her house with his X-Ray vision.

[anarky]

You don't like this movie?

Fuck you, EP. You fucking GoBot.

[Eternal Padawan]

I'm saying it wasn't as good the second time on the small screen.

[jjreason]

All I cared about was the first Super part, and it held up fine on my 27" Sharp tube.

[Eternal Padawan]

I just got the COMPLETELY AWESOME Deluxe Ultimate Collector's Edition Set in the tin case. SEVEN movies. 14 discs. 20 hours of bonus features.

Superman:The Movie
Superman: The Movie 2000 Expanded Edition
Superman II
Superman II: The Donner Cut
Super Man III
Superman IV
Superman Returns
Two full length documentaries
ALL the Fleischer cartoons
ETC ETC ETC

I cannot wait to pop this in and hear Bo Rucker utter the single greatest movie line of all time...




Oh yeah. And I got it for $50 because I work at Warner Bros. Suckers.

[Eternal Padawan]

I figured I would get it out of the way and watched The Quest For Peace first thing after I opened the tin. I hadn't seen it since it came out 20 years ago. My god it was awful. What got me through was thinking about Nuclear Man's color scheme and long blonde mullet sort of makes him like the Sentry from Marvel comics, who is essentially a retconned ripoff of Superman for Marvel. So watching Superman pummel Sentry for 90 minutes was enjoyable. But otherwise....euuch. It's no wonder the franchise died for two decades.



I also watched the Richard Donner Cut of Superman II. Interesting, but nothing noteworthy since he still had to use some of Lester's footage, and the original footage of his direction wasn't so different from the other stuff that it made for some sort of wildly radical new film. The most noticable departure is the lack of the entire Eiffel Tower sequence from the beginning of the film, and extensive use of Marlon Brando throughout the film. I will watch it again with the commentary track, which will most likely be quite more insightful and enjoyable.

[Eternal Padawan]

I watched the commentary with Donner and Tom Mankiewicz. They really seemed to tapdance around the fact that Lester had stepped in and finished the film. They usually referred to him as "the other guy" and went on and on about not putting Brando in the film to save money. Every time footage he hadn't shot came on screen, they glossed over it and started talking about random things like Terence Stamp's transcendental meditation. I know Donner holds a grunge, but shit man it was almost 30 years ago. Get some thicker skin.

Near as I can tell, anything with Hackman, Brando, Beatty, and Miss Tessmacher is definitely Donner's direction. Most of the Daily Planet stuff is his. The stuff in the podunk town is Lester's as is the Niagara Falls stuff. The big fight at the end is kind of mishmash between the two directors.

[Eternal Padawan]

I watched Superman III yesterday. It was about as bad as Quest For Peace. The Salkind's did a great diservice to the franchise when they fired Donner. The whole slapstick opening credits thing is truly an atrocity. And the "climax" against the "supercomputer" is laughably dated complete with cheesy videogame graphics. I hereby add Richard Lester to the Rob Liefeld list of poeple who deserve nutshots.

[Eternal Padawan]

Continuing my exploration of the Super DVD Set, I watched an interesting documentary about the cinematic history of the Man of Steel, which basically covered the first four films. It's amazing the first film ever got made with all the goofs, gaffes, people getting sick last minute, etc. You have to give credit to the Salkind's for thinking big and ballsy asking Brando to play Jor-El. And then watching the entire franchise get fucked before the first movie ever even came out, thanks to the deterioration of communication between Donner and the Producers. Oh, what could have been but for a few extra dollars? I don't know if this is availible separately, but it's as fascinating as any of the movies and worth a watch.

[Diabolical]

Was it called "Look! Up in the Sky...The Amazing Story of Superman" or something like that?
If so, it is/was available separately.

[Eternal Padawan]

Actually "Look, Up In The Sky" is also in the set. It covers the whole scope of the Superman phenomenon from the comic conception, thru radio and cartoons of the forties, the television show in the 50's, and all the motion pictures, Lois & Clark, Smallville, etc right up to the new movie. It also hit the pertinent comic moments, like Byrne's reset back in the mid 80's, The Death of Superman, his marriage to Lois in the mid 90's etc. Narrated by Kevin Spacey, which gets wierd when he starts referring to himself in the third person by the time it gets around to him playing Lex Luthor in the new movie.

The docu I watched is called "You Will Believe: The Cinematic Saga Of The Man of Steel" and deals with just the four Reeve movies. Mostly the first two and all the drama inherent in going over budget and shitcanning Donner in favor of Lester. But they have some of the third, fourth, and even Supergirl thrown in. Richard Lester, by the way, does not appear in ANY of the documentary material in this giant ass set, even though he directed two of the films. The only place he shows up is in the original made for television BTS shows from the early 80's. Is it because he knows hes a douche deserving of a nutshot? Probably.

[anarky]

Looks like rumors are already circulating about Man of Steel. One is that Jason Lane is killed. Fanboys are eating it up.

So, Singer's directing a sequel to his Superman movie, and he's going to kill a fucking kid? Moreover, it's the kid who embodied the entire theme of the first?

Nope, don't buy it. More likely the villain will be The Sodomizer (played by Bizarro the Grin), and run around fucking Superman.

This is Singer we're talking about, where characterization, theme, and storytelling are far more important than explosions and fanboy wank. Not the asshole who fucked up X3.

[Negative Boy]

That's funny. Because I heard all that subtle homosexual subtext was going right out the window, and the sequel was going to be a two hour nipple piercing, rubber ball in the mouth, gay sex romp. Queerboy Singer was going to write himself a small but integral role where his gay fuck Adonis, Brandon Routh, does a one man bukkake all over Singer's face. Fucking hell, is there anything more unAmerican than having a gay jew direct a Superman movie? No. It's that butter rim jobbing liberal Hollywood that fucks everything up for everyone, and all those fucking Democrats in Washington that let them get away with it. When Governor Schwarzenegger becomes President, I hope to hell he makes some changes about who and who is not allowed behind a camera. And maybe somebody will finally have the balls to do a proper Mack Bolan movie!!

[anarky]

I would pay to see Brandon Routh suckerpunch you in the balls.

[anarky]

Despite an unspoken resolution to not post elsewhere for two weeks, I had to put my two cents into the pool of people who actually believe the rumor about Bryan Singer going from great director to fanboy masturbator.

How long until some of those ultimate fanboys (cough, Beast, Tycho) take offense?