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Superman Returns--Comments
January 1, 2004 in Movie Analysis | Permalink
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I really hated the new movie. I was never a big fan of superman because of the limited number of plots, but at least the superman I remember as a kid stood for something real. He represented everything good, he stood for America, and America believed in virtue. I look at the new movie and the fact superman has an illegitimate son and I immidiatly have problems with the equation superman=virtue. Next throughout the movie all superman seems to care about is getting back Louis Lane. Even if you forgive the funny business, Superman shouldn't have just flown off without a word afterwards. And now maybe Louis isn't married, but she is living with a man and raising her son as if she is married. He obviously is commited to the relationship and is a good guy. So why should the movie make me hope he dies? Now I don't judge a movie by the virtue of its characters, but in superman thats the whole point. I think this is one of the worste movies I've ever seen.
Posted by: Justin | Feb 27, 2007 4:24:37 PM
That is one 'moral' issue that I didn't mention in the article to avoid spoilers--it's a sign of the times that illegitimate child-bearing has little to no modern correlation with 'virtue', although you might argue that Superman being from another planet and another culture might make a difference. Maybe 'marriage' doesn't exist on Krypton.
What makes this plot point interesting is that it seems obvious that when Superman 'erased' Lois's memory at the end of Superman II about his identity, he surely must have erased the memory of their sexual encounter (otherwise, she would have figured out just from the memory of the location and how they got there what had happened). Which means--in another Christological parallel she might have discovered one day she was 'miraculously' pregnant, seemingly without a father. "Superman Returns" doesn't indicate one way or the other whether Lois understands (at the beginning) who the father is...
Posted by: The Baron | Feb 27, 2007 8:37:01 PM
I seem to remember hearing/reading an interview with Brian singer where he talked about how the first two Superman movies were almost entirely filmed by one director, both at once, then the studios decided they didn't like him, fired him, hired a complete hack, and had him cobble it together. From what I read, the first two movies would have been a wonderful, no-psychic garbage, combination of films- but that, sadly, was killed. In the same interview, however, they talked about how, apparently, they're going to release a Director's cut of both films from the original director. Anyway, Singer's is apparently suppose to be, essentially, Superman III for those, good version, original two films.
... Now if only I could remember where I saw/heard all that...
Posted by: George | Mar 1, 2007 8:57:33 PM
That's all correct--Richard Donner filmed the first movie and most of the second before being fired and replaced by Richard Lester. Marlon Brando (Jor-el) refused to work with the new director, and had all of his scenes in Superman II removed. Gene Hackman refused to film additional scenes with the new director, although his original scenes remained. They just released a "Richard Donner Cut" of Superman II, with a different ending (although it's basically the same ending as Superman I) which has gotten mixed-to-negative reviews, showing that it may not have been all that meaningful that the directors were switched in terms of the final film quality.
"Superman Returns" is essentially "Superman 3" in continuity, pretending the actual Superman 3 and 4 never happened...
Posted by: The Baron | Mar 1, 2007 9:41:26 PM
I found more interesting Messianic connections for the Superman character posted in a blog at:
http://copaseticflow.blogspot.com/2008/01/jesus-christ-superstar-or-superman.html
Posted by: Dolphus | Jan 13, 2008 9:43:22 PM
