Supergirl - Season Four

[Romulan_spy]

I dunno, that clip still doesn't encourage me. His voice is kind of annoying, and his look and mannerisms seem a poor match for Lex Luthor.

Well, he is playing a very different character than Lex in that clip. I guess we will find out how good an actor Jon Cryer is. For me, Lex needs to be charming, subtle, but also capable of menace. John Shea is still one of my favorite Lex Luthor's from the Lois and Clark TV series.

Th other big question for me is can the writers adequately show Lex as someone we credibly believe could be a cunning foe to Superman?

 

[Christopher]

Well, he is playing a very different character than Lex in that clip.

Of course, but there's only much actors can do to change their voices, mannerisms, etc. I'm familiar enough with the craft of character acting to know the difference between a trait that's adopted for a performance and a trait intrinsic to the actor, and it's the latter I'm concerned about in this case.

 

[DigificWriter]

I feel like I need to clarify something from earlier: While I've never seen the Christopher Reeve Superman films, I have seen the Bryan Singer-directed follow-up to them, Superman Returns, and would be more than satisfied if the writers used Kevin Spacey's Lex as a 'benchmark' for Cryer's version of the character.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I feel like I need to clarify something from earlier: While I've never seen the Christopher Reeve Superman films, I have seen the Bryan Singer-directed follow-up to them, Superman Returns, and would be more than satisfied if the writers used Kevin Spacey's Lex as a 'benchmark' for Cryer's version of the character.

Is there a reason you haven't? Just no interest based on what you know or have heard, or just haven't gotten around to it yet or something?

As a genre fan that watches Supergirl that has many nods to those films, it's a curiosity that they'd be avoided.

 

[Christopher]

Is there a reason you haven't? Just no interest based on what you know or have heard, or just haven't gotten around to it yet or something?

As a genre fan that watches Supergirl that has many nods to those films, it's a curiosity that they'd be avoided.

Oh, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace should definitely be avoided, and I say that as someone who thinks Superman III and Supergirl (1984) are underrated (and that the first film is deeply flawed). Well, unless you're in the mood for a really terrible movie to make fun of, or just want to see if it's really as bad as people say (it is).

Spacey's Lex didn't work for me. For one thing, I've never been impressed with Spacey's acting and never thought he lived up to the hype around him (I know that sounds like self-congratulatory bluster given what's now known about him, but I've been saying it since at least 2010). For another, he was using Hackman's badly conceived comedy Luthor as a model but trying to play it seriously, which made for an oddly uneven performance that didn't have Hackman's charisma to salvage it. I consider it one of the weakest screen portrayals of Lex Luthor.

Good Luthors: Clancy Brown, of course. Michael Rosenbaum. John Shea in his revisionist way. Sherman Howard from the Superboy TV series.

 

[The Realist]

I feel like I need to clarify something from earlier: While I've never seen the Christopher Reeve Superman films, I have seen the Bryan Singer-directed follow-up to them, Superman Returns, and would be more than satisfied if the writers used Kevin Spacey's Lex as a 'benchmark' for Cryer's version of the character.

Like everything else in Superman Returns, Spacey's Luthor is "kinda sorta" the same version of the character as Hackman played in the first two Reeve films. Spacey's take is more volatile and vicious, however.

Actually, I've been pretty satisfied with every live-action Luthor to date, with the sole exception of the miserably-acted fratboy version in the first season of Superboy. Fingers crossed that Cryer maintains that successful trend.

Is there a reason you haven't? Just no interest based on what you know or have heard, or just haven't gotten around to it yet or something?

As a genre fan that watches Supergirl that has many nods to those films, it's a curiosity that they'd be avoided.

For any fan of superhero movies (or, hell, movies in general) not to have seen at least Superman '78 is indeed an inexplicable omission. 40 years on, it remains the absolute pinnacle of the genre, never to be surpassed.

the first film is deeply flawed

*insert "NOPE" meme here*

 

[DigificWriter]

Is there a reason you haven't? Just no interest based on what you know or have heard, or just haven't gotten around to it yet or something?

As a genre fan that watches Supergirl that has many nods to those films, it's a curiosity that they'd be avoided.

I've never had a whole lot of interest in Superman as a character (much preferring Supergirl, whom I find far more relatable), and only saw Superman Returns because my family recommended it.

Full disclosure related to why I prefer Supergirl: My primary exposure to the character of Superman has come from Lois and Clark, Superman the Animated Series, the DCEU, a trading card set based on The Death and Return of Superman, and a tiny bit of Smallville, most of which portray him as kind of "one-note".

 

[Spot261]

I've never had a whole lot of interest in Superman as a character (much preferring Supergirl, whom I find far more relatable), and only saw Superman Returns because my family recommended it.

Full disclosure related to why I prefer Supergirl: My primary exposure to the character of Superman has come from Lois and Clark, Superman the Animated Series, the DCEU, a trading card set based on The Death and Return of Superman, and a tiny bit of Smallville, most of which portray him as kind of "one-note".

To be honest Superman is pretty much one note, unless you count the Supes/Clark duality. Various writers down the years have tried to add nuance but inevitably it tends to run into the brick wall of watering down the essence of the character as the embodiment of perfection and hope. The DCEU Supes has been criticised for exactly those reasons, for introducing complexity and character development to the flying brick. It's not easy to have an introspective, complex character and still convince people it's Superman.

For me that's why Reeve's version worked so well, they sidestepped that quite neatly by focusing the humanising aspects of the movies onto Clark and worked humour into round out the performance.

 

[YLu]

He had a dramatic role on a few episodes of NCIS and was good in them. He played a doctor who saved Mark Harmon's character's life and then they became friends and he popped up a few more times afterwards.

He was also one of the two final people in the running to play Gaius Baltar in Battlestar Galactica, before he removed himself from the running by signing up for Two and a Half Man. (The other person being James Callis, who ended up in the role, obviously.) And that show had a good track record with casting.

 

[DigificWriter]

To be honest Superman is pretty much one note, unless you count the Supes/Clark duality. Various writers down the years have tried to add nuance but inevitably it tends to run into the brick wall of watering down the essence of the character as the embodiment of perfection and hope. The DCEU Supes has been criticised for exactly those reasons, for introducing complexity and character development to the flying brick. It's not easy to have an introspective, complex character and still convince people it's Superman.

This comment is, IMO, not accurate. The DCEU Superman works by taking everything that is recognizable and unique about the character and adds layers of complexity that many other iterations haven't, and is what gave me a better appreciation for him.

 

[JD]

I haven't been disappointed with the Arrowverse BTS team's casting choices yet, so no matter how crazy they seem, at this point I'm willing trust them to know what they're doing.

 

[The Realist]

I haven't been disappointed with the Arrowverse BTS team's casting choices yet, so no matter how crazy they seem, at this point I'm willing trust them to know what they're doing.

Agreed, their track record is excellent. I'm assuming they see something in Cryer that will surprise us, or perhaps they have a specific and offbeat take on Luthor that Cryer matches.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Well, there was the whole Mxyzptlk desaster, but that was more about general direction than the specific casting.

 

[JD]

Nobody is perfect.

 

[Reverend]

And to be perfectly fair, Mr. Mxyzptlk is a character that's very easy to get wrong even under ideal circumstances.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Superboy did it well?

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[Spot261]

This comment is, IMO, not accurate. The DCEU Superman works by taking everything that is recognizable and unique about the character and adds layers of complexity that many other iterations haven't, and is what gave me a better appreciation for him.

Which is what I said....

 

[Jayson1]

And to be perfectly fair, Mr. Mxyzptlk is a character that's very easy to get wrong even under ideal circumstances.

"Smallville" butchered him. I liked him though as Howie Mandel I think it was on "Lois and Clark" and made everyone relive the same Christmas day over and over I think it was.

Jason

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Superboy did it well?

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Mr. Bonk-bonk on the head, himself. And Jaws.

I think I hurt myself laughing at Gilbert Gottfried's version in the animated series.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

For any fan of superhero movies (or, hell, movies in general) not to have seen at least Superman '78 is indeed an inexplicable omission. 40 years on, it remains the absolute pinnacle of the genre, never to be surpassed.

Some superhero films come close, but for overall presentation, effect and the title character being as close to the source as possible, its at the top of the class. There's hardly an excuse for anyone--superhero fan or not---to have never set eyes on Superman '78.