THE MAN OF STEEL Pre Release Thread - Page 5

The first and only film I fell asleep in the theater on was Superman Returns.

I think I'm one of the five people on the planet that really, unashamedly loves Superman Returns, even with Kate Bosworth.

I think Brandon Routh was fine as Superman. He's certainly a better fit than Cavill is.

Routh was kind of bland and forgetable. Cavil looks much better for the role in the pictures I'm seeing, and hopefully he'll do a better job too.

Agreed about Cavill. The jury is still out on his acting but he LOOKS fantastic as Superman. Routh had heart but unfortunately looked like he was playing dress up. The suit itself is a definite improvement too.

Superman Returns had all kinds of good intentions, but man did it just not work at ALL. The reverence for the character got in the way of telling an exciting action-adventure story, which, for all the cultural baggage Superman has built up, is what a Superman story ought to be. I've heard the crime-fighting montage was a last-minute addition, and that's one of the only times Superman actually did anything in the movie! Singer's priorities were just weird. Combine this with the horribly misjudged super-stalker business, and the way Singer is apparently determined to make James Marsden's character more of a hero than Superman, and you have an excruciating misfire despite the obvious intelligence and ambition of the people making it.

 

I fear MOS will be too far in the other direction, that it'll provide plenty of action but it'll completely back away from the ideas that Superman represents because they're not KEWL enough. There is a happy medium, Hollywood.

Cavill is a genuinely horrible actor. But for Superman, the part thrives on getting a lesser-to-unknown actor and someone who, generally, is terrible in everything else. Thus he'll be fine.

 

Count me in as a big Superman Returns fan. Though I get why most were "iffy" on it. But Routh was great and absolutely brought it. Fuck da hatas. Had the perfect sincerity and heart. I will personally bitch slap anyone who falls on the old "He just imitated Chris Reeve!" script in the nuts. He did the exact same thing every Bond actor following Connery did, having similar set-ups (the opening gun-barrel/flying over the Earth at the end) and echoing famous lines ("My name is Bond...James Bond"/"Statistically speaking, flying is still the safest way to travel"). All within a loose continuity. By that logic every actor since 1968 has just been doing a Sean Connery impression, right?

 

No issue with either Returns or Man of Steel suits. Both are traditional to the classic design while still making changes. Returns was more fantastical/retro-Fleischer, Man of Steel is more medieval/other-worldly. Both look fine.

I would see any film that had half of this film's cast, some of the most charismatic actors alive in there. And I'm sure Snyder will tone his shit down after the commercial+critical beating he took with SUCKER PUNCH. I'm basing this on hope and the hiring of Amir Mokri, David Brenner and Hans Zimmer (instead of Snyder-regulars Larry Fong, William Hoy and Tyler Bates).

Snyder is being heavily controlled here. For the better, I think.

I don't think Routh was bad. The script didn't give Clark or Superman anything interesting to do.

Yes, but will they be controlling his speed ramping?

Clark may as well have been written out of SR. The push-pull between Clark and his alter-ego is such a fun part of the Superman mythos that treating Supes' time in specs as an afterthought will always be a major strike against any adaptation for me.
 

Yes. At first, the studio notes will come down fast, then they'll slow down dramatically, then they'll speed up ridiculously. The notes will be printed on homoerotic stationery & written down on the covers of old issues of MAXIM.

It is a fact that the best way to control your director's speed-ramping is to hire the guy who shot BAD BOYS 2 as his cinematographer.

Heard they were going to do a shitty 3D Post Conversion for this. That still on?

Edited by FilmNerdJamie - 7/14/12 at 5:03pm

TEXTURE the movie.

A few panel reports are comparing it to Batman Begins visually and tonally, with none of Snyder's expected style.

 

I wonder, how anonymous will Snyder be here?  

Ugh, Batman Begins and none of Snyders style is not what I want to hear.  If you hire this guy I want amazing visuals and cool speed ramping, other wise why hire him?

Nothing bad with this poster I guess, but it's just so generic and obvious. When dealing with a superhero with powers surpassed only by Dr. Manhattan, is the best image to use one that features his torso and a pensive gaze? The Superman Returns teaser poster was just a disembodied textured logo, so in some ways this is an improvement, and I do understand the logo is iconic in it's own right. The Superman Returns campaign really picked up speed and put out some amazing posters late in the game though, and I hope we will see a similarly impressive effort on the marketing front with Man of Steel.

I was talking about the texture of the suit.  WAY over done.

Why spend all that money on personal trainers when you can just build the muscles into the suit?

Superman Returna has the superior texture. I am not sure what this texture is supposed to be. It doesn't seem derived from the material, it's some odd design motif.

 

Man of Shower Mat

 

I rather like it, there's a curious, almost chainmail-like quality to it. Re. the S - are they abandoning the yellow aspects completely now then?

I bet Supes could play his own pecs like a washboard with that thing on.

The costume's "super texture" has a Nolan-esque functionality. Blind people will no longer confuse Superman with Aquaman when they hug him.

Apparently Superman fell asleep on my grandmother's carpet right before the photoshoot.

When I think of Superman, grey, gritty chainmail is exactly what comes to mind.

Is that a quote from Tim Burton in 1989?

 

I saw the leaked MOS Comic Con trailer online. Hard to see some of it, but it all looked okay to me.

Liked it. Didn't love it. Shit we've already seen onsceen before (the hero's journey of Clark/Superman and his alienation from society) but... it's well presented.

Unlike Spider-Man, it's been over 30 years since we've seen some of that stuff on the big screen so I'm okay with the origin and what-not being retold. While it may surprise some, there's some kids today who don't know who Superman is. I like that Snyder is treating this is as if it's the only Superman movie there ever was. This could be Superman for a new generation of kids like the 78 version was for that generation and the 50s TV series was for that generation. Hopefully, at least.

 

Damm, was Superman Returns really that bad?

Edited by felix - 7/15/12 at 12:28am

I think the elephant in the room is Smallville, because even though that show was dogshit, it may give the impression to younger people and normals that a retelling of the origin story is extraordinarily redundant. Mileage may vary on whether one agrees with that or not.

Smallville is not 200 million dollar summer action movie big.

That's not the point. No one had to come out of their pocket strictly for the pleasure of watching Smallville and Superman is in a precarious position in terms of cultural relevance. This movie has a lot of work to do to make him matter again.

On the subject of the suit, a lot of the elaborate texturing in these costumes often feels like costume designers justifying their jobs, but then again, film being a visual medium, I think we can attribute much of this to the desire to keep the eye busy. Nothing wrong with that, in theory.

 

Considering how small and incestuous the Smallville universe had become by the show's end, all the more reason to do a clean-sheet reboot with origin and all to function as a cinematic mouthwash for any Smallville aftertaste that may still be lingering.

 

As for the suit texture, it'll be interesting to see how it shows up on film.  A lot of the close-up shots of it thus far have been under a harsh single overhead light which would exaggerate the texture to the greatest degree possible.  

hughJ, I never understood what was so great about Smallville the series.  A...Flightless Superman?  I don't even think of that show in comparison to the new Superman film.  I hope The Man Of Steel is as...Epic, as It could be.  I thought Snyder's Watchmen was a...Super film.  There hasn't been a good Superman film since...Superman II!

Fleed aren't you a fan of Superman III? I think it's quite fun. Drunk Supes flicking peanuts and all that.

Good to know I'm not alone in having a soft spot for "Superman III." The fight between Evil Superman and Good Clark Kent in the scrap yard is greatness.

The teaser sounds awesome cut Zimmer's 'journey to the line'. Definitely doesn't look like any other Snyder movie.

Nope, I guess it was a miss-quote but it's not going to happen.

 

A flightless Superman was either a gimmick to differentiate his motif from the typical Superman story, or just an excuse to cut down on production cost.  Really where Smallville went wrong was its unpredicted success which resulted in the show having to stretch story themes way longer than felt natural, and eventually introduce characters and concepts that they probably never planned on doing in the first place.  The result was a Clark Kent laden with 10 seasons of emotional and intellectual underdevelopment.  To prevent the plot from moving too quickly, every choice the character ever had to make in that 10 seasons was buried under indecisiveness and weak conviction, which made his inevitable transition into the role of Superman (or really an adult of any kind) completely impossible.  Near the show's end, pretty much every character had long surpassed Clark in maturity and development and seemed to be constantly poking and prodding him to make decisions and take on the responsibility of his destiny.

 

And Chris Reeve looked like a total bad-ass as a dark and unshaven Superman.  Without Lester and Pryor, that basic story had the potential to be by far the best of the series, imo.  All sorts of cool themes in it.  A relationship with someone that loves Clark for Clark.  AI vs natural intelligence.  A schizophrenic Jekyll/Hyde Superman and a completely logical/natural means of getting him there with the unknown element bit.  If you think about it, Superman 2, 3 and 4 all have story elements that remove Superman from the middle act in order to build tension, but in Superman 3 he actually gets replaced by something that's even more interesting.

BlueLouBoyle, I...Hate, Superman III!  Dislikes...Superman Drunk, Less Lois, as she criticized the Salkinds for firing Richard Donner, Richard Pryor was totally wrong for this role. Vaughn was a poor villain as well.

 

Likes...It...Ended!

 

Looks like he bought the suit at Champs or Foot Locker. 

That's what the world needs. Superman with man tits.

After Marvel's buildup to Avengers, do you think the general populace will be expecting other DC characters to have cameos?  Or do they lack the general recognition?

 

I don't understand at all why Hulk is surprised that Snyder is inarticulate. The guy is not insightful and has never shown any real sign of intellect. He is a visual stylist with only the shallowest understanding of his own work. When his movies work it's because there is a decent script written by someone else at their foundation for him to hang his visuals on. It blows my mind that there are geeks out there who honestly think that Snyder has something to say. He is the cinematic equivalent of a kickass hairdresser.