Superman (casting, rumors, pix till release)

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Obiwanshinobi, Jan 30, 2011.

  1. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Three panels of the storyboard for the climactic sequence got leaked.

    Beware. Major Spoilers.

    http://oi47.tinypic.com/2hehan6.jpg

    Can't wait to see that in the final film.
     
  2. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Hardly. Burton's Batman has been a far more pervasive, lasting influence on these movies in terms of artistic design, story and tone - precisely because he blew away the attitudes that produced movies like Superman.

    I liked the first Superman quite a bit, the second one...good for a while, but it doesn't age well.
     
  3. Flying Spaghetti Monster

    Flying Spaghetti Monster Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Compared the epic of Donner's first film, it's scope, it's use of poetry, wit, emotion and it's breakthroughs in music, special effects, not to mention how it defined to all of how superheroes can bring out the best in all of us, it makes Burton's film look like a rush job of an amateur.
     
  4. Flying Spaghetti Monster

    Flying Spaghetti Monster Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The second one, nearly as good, beat Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne and everyone else in the angst department while still giving us the most memorable superhero showdown in cinema history.
     
  5. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Even the score over the opening credits is less grand and epic, it just feels like William''s original version only someone spilled Coke all over it and it got all sticky.

    The version used in "Superman: Returns" is far more grand and closer to William's score.
     
  6. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    And not surprisingly, you missed the point. I wasn't discussing your personal enthusiasm for Superman, simply pointing out the fact that your assertion "every superhero film since owes its very soul..." to the Superman films is specious.

    Modern superhero films depend heavily upon the direction that Burton's Batman took, and not at all on Donner's Superman. The only superhero movie of note since X-Men that owes a debt to Superman in any substantial respect is Superman Returns, and it disappointed Warner Bros.

    Is that clearer?

    That's nonsense. Superman II is a patchwork job, badly written and clumsily edited together from usable footage shot by Donner and new stuff representing a complete change of tone and direction on the part of Richard Lester. It's an entertaining film, but not even a particularly good one. Angst? Nope - goofy, occasionally touching melodrama at best.
     
  7. Set Harth

    Set Harth Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Because it was required to make $540 million in order to be considered to have made a profit.
     
  8. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    Yea, that $200M(?) they didn't even spend (from False starts), but had to make back really skews the Financial conclusions on the movie itself. It's a shame. I think a second Brandon Routh film actually coulda done really well (Of course assuming they toned down the "stalker" stuff in the Sequel)
     
  9. Flying Spaghetti Monster

    Flying Spaghetti Monster Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Wrong on both counts. Nolan might have been making a batman film when he made BB, but he had everyone in the production study Superman. He said that's the template. The movie breathes the same way, and the appearance of the finest actors of the representative times even in minor roles proves it it as well. Need more proof, notice the time stamps for the time when the hero, in costume, appears. Raimi, to a smaller extent, had the same idea, and he even paid direct homage to it when Parker pulled his shirt open to reveal his costume. The new spider man film did as well, taking its time for the origin story. Daredevil, iron man, all of them. batman was a fun film but it was a hack job. Move the camera slightly to the left in almost any shot and you'll see a gaffer.

    Superman 2 has some issues of tone, I'll grant you that, but it was still forging ahead to new, uncharted ground. Dude it was the first superhero sequel ever. Need I remind you that it was intended to be a part of the first film? They had to split it up and in many ways that was a good decision, and Suoes is introduced in an early action scene and the villains are introduced as well. The film picks up the themes of its predecessor and uses them for a good story in a way that has only been matched by X2.

    Burton's batman is a template for a hack job of style over substance. Superman used style to supplement the substance, beginning like a science fiction opus, then moving to an aesthetic that is not at all disimilar (no doubt influenced by) the work of Norman Rockwell, to a more modern urban adventure that had something you might have noticed: wit.

    See for yourself. Google "template for superhero films" and see how many times Batman pops up in the lists, essays, whatever.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2012
  10. Captaindemotion

    Captaindemotion Admiral Admiral

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    Superman The Movie had a big influence on Batman Begins, which has been acknowledged by Chris Nolan and David Goyer. I personally also see a lot of it in Sam Raimi's first Spider-man movie.
     
  11. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    None is really evident in either of those films, except for the fact that they're origin stories. A lot of Burton's Batman in both, though.
     
  12. Captaindemotion

    Captaindemotion Admiral Admiral

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    I don't know. Burton's Batman is very stylised, with an almost surreal Gotham, of huge sets and Gothic architecture. Nolan's Gotham, like Donner's Metropolis, is recognisably a real city (Chicago v New York).

    Burton was also aiming for a characteristically surreal almost fairy-tale atmosphere to his Batmovies (more so with Returns than the first one admittedly). Someone said that his Batman movies are arguably more companion pieces to the likes of Edward Scissorhands than to other superhero movies and I tend to agree. Whereas Nolan, like Donner, wanted his movies to be set within a reasonably realistic world.

    I think also that Nolan, particularly with Begins, very much tried to avoid the trap of the villain completely overshadowing the hero, which beset the earlier Batman films (even if it ended up happening with Ledger as the Joker, but that was in part down to the actor's death and cult following).

    Here's what Nolan himself has said:

    http://movies.cosmicbooknews.com/co...nners-superman-talks-ending-dark-knight-rises

    As to the Spider-man movies, well, Raimi admittedly stole Burton's composer (Danny Elfman) but I thought that tonally they had more in common with Donner's sunny and cheerful movie than with Burton's gothic vision. There was more of an innocence to them - certainly, the scene where New Yorkers pelt the Goblin near the end is more like something from Superman the Movie than something from Batman, IMHO.
     
  13. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, I don't really see a lot of the Burton Batman movies in modern superhero movies like Raimi's Spidermans and Nolan's Batmans. Burton's movies where very stylized and kinda OTT, while most of the modern stuff has been going for the more realistic tone for the world around the character that the Superman movies used.
     
  14. Alidar Jarok

    Alidar Jarok Everything in moderation but moderation Moderator

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    I think you have to distinguish between Batman and Batman Returns as far as over the top.
     
  15. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Commodore Commodore

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    Actually I see a lot similarities in tone and style between Burton's Batman and Raimi's Spider-man.
     
  16. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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  17. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Commodore Commodore

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    Much more so than with Nolan's Batman.
     
  18. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    The only similarities in tone in and style between Burton's Batman and Raimi's Spider-man is that they're pretty much exact opposites of one another. One is all darks, gothic, grays a'la how Burton's been for, well, his entire career the other is all colorful, insane whimsy that Raimi used to ruin Spider-Man's movies and horrendously date them. (I'm looking at you Power Rangers-looking encounter scenes between Spidey and Green Goblin.)

    The only similarity is our lead villain chewing scenery.
     
  19. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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  20. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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