What should the next Superman movie be?

[JoeZhang]

Jetfire wrote:

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After season 9 of Smallville...A Superman movie with all the Smallville cast that would work...Welling, Durance, Ashmore, Rosenbaum, Kreuk, O'Toole, Mack, Hartley, Vandervoort, Freeman, Witwer and I would include Stamp as Jor-El and Slater as Lara, Morris as J'onn J'onzz. I would include villains ofcourse Doomsday and Lex, also Metallo, Bizarro and Zod.

JF

But who would go and watch it? Welling regularly gets out acted by the set.

[Hermiod]

I'm not sure really. I don't mind if it's a sequel to Superman Returns, I quite liked Brandon Routh.

However, one rule I would like to apply is No Kryptonite. Give Superman a villain he needs to use his powers to beat - say Doomsday or Darkseid.

[The Borgified Corpse]

Norrin Radd wrote:

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"Not a direct sequel but Brandon Routh should get another shot"

I don't see how this even makes sense. I mean, it kind of has to be a direct sequel in this case. If you have the same actor brought back...playing the title role...you can't just ignore what happened in the previous movie and you can't contradict it. That would just confuse audiences all to hell and they would have a right to be.

It's not entirely unprecedented. Casino Royale is generally considered to be a total reboot of the James Bond franchise, and yet they continued to have Judi Dench play M, a role that she had previously played during the last 4 Pierce Brosnan films in the prior continuity.

[The Borgified Corpse]

Hermiod wrote:

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However, one rule I would like to apply is No Kryptonite. Give Superman a villain he needs to use his powers to beat - say Doomsday or Darkseid.

Agreed. The existing movies are pretty uncreative when it comes to how to challenge Superman. You either have Kryptonite (Superman, Superman III, Superman Returns) or a villain with nearly identical powers to Superman, whether its other Kryptonians (General Zod & co. in Superman II), an evil twin (Superman III), or a partial clone (Nuclear Man in Superman IV. I think the only difference between him & Superman was that he couldn't function in darkness and that he had fingernails that made you really sick).

One idea that was in the J.J. Abrams script that might be worth stealing is Superman fighting a giant robot in Washington D.C.

[Lookingglassman]

I vote for Tom Welling, but I know it wont happen.

I want a good Superman movie where he actually fights something. It dont have to be Doomsday, but it could be an alien from another planet or something Lex created.

[Takeru]

QuasarVM wrote:

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Yeah...who's the genius who said "Hey! Let's make a Superman TV series where Clark Kent never turns into Superman and never flies!"?

I think it's great that he's not wearing the costume, it's butt ugly and idiotic, easily the worst part of Superman.

For a new movie they should keep Routh but get rid of everyone else and toss the Returns storylines out of the window. I don't want Lex as the villain in the movie, but he should appear in a minor role, just to make sure the audience gets that this is not the Spacey dumbass Luthor. I also want a younger Martha and Johnathan (who's not dead), if Smallville did one thing right, it was not making the Kents old farts.

[QuasarVM]

Takeru wrote:

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I think it's great that he's not wearing the costume, it's butt ugly and idiotic, easily the worst part of Superman.

I also want a younger Martha and Johnathan (who's not dead), if Smallville did one thing right, it was not making the Kents old farts.

Well, then call it something else -- cos it's NOT Superman if you change that kind of stuff!

People who want to change the basics should create their own superhero and do all that shit!

But, if people don't like things about Superman they should leave Superman alone and do their own thing!

It's stupid to say "Let's do Superman but get rid of the costume, all the DC supervillains, Krypton and the Kents...oh, and let's change the name of Smallville to Littletown while we're at it!"

Idiots!!!

DC should be stricter about what people are allowed to do with the character. I know if it were my property, any of that revisionist bullshit would never go into production.

JoeZhang wrote:

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But who would go and watch it? Welling regularly gets out acted by the set.

I don't agree, there are many times Welling shines, it depends on the writing...I feel in some cases He gets handcuffed by the writing...I think He has done very well from season 3-8 I don't think he is the best actor in the world...but people need to cut him some slack. I watch Smallville all the time, got all the DVDs and watch new episodes on TV...I think alot of people will go see Smallville based Superman movie...I'd see it like a dozen times.


JF

[hyzmarca]

1) Superman Shouldn't Fly.
2) He shouldn't have a cape
3) He should fight a Giant Spider
4) Brainiac should be the villain.
5) Brainaic should have a flamboyantly gay robot sidekick.
6) Brainiac should fight a Polar Bear.

I think that'll satisfy the no tights no flight crowd.


Seriously?

Lets call this new film Superman Unleashed, inspired by The Force Unleashed. The entire point would be to have him use his powers in the coolest ways possible.

First thing, we tone him down a little. No flying FTL, time travel, or moving planets. We can keep it at a reasonable Low Silver Age/High Dark Age without hitting heights of absurdity like altering the very nature of reality by punching it.

And now that we've put some limits on his powers, we set about figuring out how to use them in the most awesome ways possible. To do that, we need a villain who can survive a Superman's best. Doomsday is tempting, but flat. There is nothing interesting to be done with him. So I would suggest Darkseid. He has an army, he has a motivation, he's a complex character, and he's all but invincible.

No origin story, of course. That gets in the way. It starts with Superman kicking butt and doesn't slow down.

On the relationship angle, Supes is more open and and honest with those in his life. Lois knows his identity and is living with him, providing him with emotional support in addition to kicking butt in her own right. She is never captured and is not a damsel in distress. There will be no rescue missions. There wil be no hostages. Superbaby can be ignored or included, depending on the direction they want to go. But he shouldn't be important to the plot. He's a kid and he's strong, but he can't do much against parademons, mostly because he's just a kid who happens to be strong. He doesn't develop any other powers.

Frame the conflict between Darkseid and Supes within a higher moral conflict of control vs freedom, tyranny vs chaos, safety vs risk, and efficiency vs compassion, with Superman seriously questioning how far he should go to save lives and if his unwillingness to step outside of his moral comfort zone makes him just as guilty as the countless criminals that he doesn't stop, precipitated by a disastrous suicide bombing that he could have stopped if he were willing to use lethal force against the bomber. Not angsty, of course. Superman and angst don't mesh, but just trying to feel out the limits of his moral obligations to the people of the world.

[Praetor]

I like your ideas, but I'm unsure about using Darkseid. I'm not sure how well he would work, at least for a reintroduction.

I think Brainiac would be an excellent choice, and would also allow subtle reflection on the Superman origins if he is Kryptonian as has been done of late.

^

The whole no tights, no flights thing is Smallville's greatest error...atleast for season 8. I think Superman Returns got it right in many ways...just need to lose the kid, add 2 more Superman villains(Metallo & Atomic Skull) and lose Kate Bosworth...for Kate Beckinsale.

JF

[The Borgified Corpse]

hyzmarca wrote:

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I would suggest Darkseid. He has an army, he has a motivation, he's a complex character, and he's all but invincible.

No origin story, of course. That's get in the way. It starts with Superman kicking butt and doesn't slow down.

On the relationship angle, Supes is more open and and honest with those in his life. Lois knows his identity and is living with him, providing him with emotional support in addition to kicking butt in her own right. She is never captured and is not a damsal in distress. There will be no rescue missions. There wil be no hostages. Superbaby can be ignored or included, depending on the direction they want to go. But he shouldn't be important to the plot. He's a kid and he's strong, but he can't do much against parademons, mostly because he's just a kid who happens to be strong. He doesn't develop any other powers.

Frame the conflict between Darkseid and Supes within a higher moral conflict of control vs freedom, tyrany vs chaos, safety vs risk, and efficiency vs compassion, with Superman seriously questening how far he should go to save lives and if his unwillingness to step outside of his moral comfort zone makes him just as guilty as the countless criminals that he doesn't stop, precipitated by a disasterous suicide bombing that he could have stoped with lethal if he were willing to use lethal force against the bomber. Not angsty, of course. Superman and angst don't mesh, but just trying to feel out the limits of his moral obligations to the people of the world.

Perhaps that would be a way to incorporate Jason into the story, kinda getting to a metaphor about the stress that a father feels toward creating a better world for his child. It's not cutesy. Rather, the existence of Jason gives Superman a greater stake in the world.

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Matthew Vaughan should direct the next Superman movie, a reboot.

[hyzmarca]

Praetor wrote:

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I like your ideas, but I'm unsure about using Darkseid. I'm not sure how well he would work, at least for a reintroduction.

I think Brainiac would be an excellent choice, and would also allow subtle reflection on the Superman origins if he is Kryptonian as has been done of late.

My reasoning behind Darkseid is that he's menacing and alien in appearance but ultimately human in mind and goal. His army provides a constant external threat to the people of Earth and gives the various military forces something to do so it doesn't look like they're just sitting on their butts waiting fro superman to save them. And, most importantly he's powerful enough to justify some cool fight scenes.

And by cool fight scenes, I mean supes rushing him at superspeed, uppercutting him with such force that he's literally knocked into orbit, supes flying after him, grabbing him, and throwing him to the ground (aiming for an uninhabited desert) and heat visioning him constantly as he falls. And then, when the dust clears, there's Darkseid standing in the middle of a giant crater, smiling. "Is that the best you've got?"

Brainiac isn't a powerhouse; he's a tech villain. It is fairly difficult to remain true to the character and justify a scene where he and Superman beat on each other using decomissioned WWII battleships as clubs. But there is something to be said for the coolness of a scene where two very strong guys just repeatedly hit each other with battleships.

[QuasarVM]

hyzmarca wrote:

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My reasoning behind Darkseid is that he's menacing and alien in appearance but ultimately human in mind and goal. His army provides a constant external threat to the people of Earth and gives the various military forces something to do so it doesn't look like they're just sitting on their butts waiting fro superman to save them. And, most importantly he's powerful enough to justify some cool fight scenes.

And by cool fight scenes, I mean supes rushing him at superspeed, uppercutting him with such force that he's literally knocked into orbit, supes flying after him, grabbing him, and throwing him to the ground (aiming for an uninhabited desert) and heat visioning him constantly as he falls. And then, when the dust clears, there's Darkseid standing in the middle of a giant crater, smiling. "Is that the best you've got?"

Brainiac isn't a powerhouse; he's a tech villain. It is fairly difficult to remain true to the character and justify a scene where he and Superman beat on each other using decomissioned WWII battleships as clubs. But there is something to be said for the coolness of a scene where two very strong guys just repeatedly hit each other with battleships.

Man, I LOVE that fight scene you described between Darkseid and Supes!

THAT I would pay good money to see!

However, my caveat is that they DO NOT change the general look of Darkseid.

I hated what they did with Galactus in Rise of the Silver Surfer...what a stupid change and a waste!