Superman

[dupersuper]

certainly superior to Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.

...I mean, what isn't?

Smallville Clark had the bullet time super speed, and I never quite understood why he can act in super speed, do his chores in super speed but could never do his school work that fast.

Well, pens, pencils, laptops and calculators are pretty fragile...

I recently ranked all the Superman movies in another thread, but it makes a lot more sense here:

Superman
Superman II
Superman and the Mole Men
Superman III
Superman Returns
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
Man of Steel
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Justice League

Ooo, we're ranking?

Superman
Superman II
Superman and the Mole Men
Superman III
Justice League
Superman Returns
Man of Steel
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Hasn't Supergirl always been shown to be a bit more powerful than Superman? The idea being he was raised on Earth since a baby and "held back" his strength and powers to some level because he didn't want to risk harming humans whereas Kara didn't quite have these compulsions since she arrived here as a teenager? She doesn't want to hurt or harm people any more than Superman does necessarily but she also hasn't lived her entire life, or was raised her entire life, to pull her punches.

Not always: that started in the Jeph Loeb Superman/Batman arc that introduced the post-Crisis Kara Zor-el; but, as you say, she wasn't more powerful. They realize by the end of that arc that she just doesn't hold back reflexively like Clark does growing up as he did with powers among breakable humans.

The Kents did go to church

In some iterations.

Christopher Reeve put his heart into that movie but it was clearly a project whose vision and scope were well beyond what its limited budget could accomplish. Superman IV may be a mediocre and arguably terrible sequel but nobody can say it didn't at least try and have a positive message it was trying to tell audiences.

Yeah, it was a terrible movie bookended by two very nice speeches.

He's always been a Christ image: the visitor who brings healing in his wings so to speak; but I believe it's in this book the author perceives or believes him to be Jewish, being the quintessential outsider, and created by Jerry Siegel. The Routh movie almost overplayed the Christ symbolism: he goes way out to bask in the sun near the end iirc, extends his arms like the cross and even crosses his legs a bit, ot at least keeps em together. Here 's a pic, though you all probably remembered it better than I did.

He's also been a Moses image, Apollo image, Zeus image, Hercules image...

Superman: The Movie is still the greatest superhero film ever made.

Apparently they watch it before they start making a Marvel movie.

Man of Steel I think is probably the best of the current crop of DC movies.

I'd put it well below Wonder Woman, Shazam and Aquaman, and the Superman characterization below Justice League.

DC can't be right until they get Superman right. Cavill's version didn't work because Snyder wanted to make Superman into Batman and then have him get trounced by Batman. It was stupid. Just because Frank Miller wrote a story 30 years ago doesn't make it any less absurd that Batman could compete with Superman physically. The only way Superman loses is if you depower or dumb him down.

Well, maybe not the only way...

 

[cooleddie74]

"But the Snyder movies are made for modern audiences."

"And they still suck."

 

[plynch]

Now, especially, we could stand a primary-colored, optimistic good guy who goes around righting wrongs.

 

[The Realist]

Now, and always.

 

[cooleddie74]

More than 42 years later it still thrills me and gives me a sense of hope.

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[Nerys Myk]

More than 42 years later it still thrills me and gives me a sense of hope.

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Isn't the \S/ the Kryptonian symbol for hope in current continuity?

 

[cooleddie74]

I don't know but if so it's one of the few things about the Snyderverse continuity I could sorta get behind.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I don't know but if so it's one of the few things about the Snyderverse continuity I could sorta get behind.

I think it's a comics thing. Not sure if it popped up in the Snyderverse.

 

[The Realist]

Isn't the \S/ the Kryptonian symbol for hope in current continuity?

Depends on the continuity. "Hope" per the comics and DCEU. "El mayarah" ("stronger together") per the Arrowverse.

 

[dupersuper]

Depends on the continuity. "Hope" per the comics and DCEU. "El mayarah" ("stronger together") per the Arrowverse.

That's the El family motto; did they actually say it was what the shield meant?

 

[The Realist]

That's the El family motto; did they actually say it was what the shield meant?

From Supergirl 01x02, "Stronger Together":

Kara: "Did he ever tell you what that 'S' means?"
James: "The House of El."
Kara: "Yes, but, it also stands for a Kryptonian phrase, our family motto. 'El mayarah.' It means, 'Stronger together.'"

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Superman IV deserved its disastrous failure. No one wanted to see some stale, Pollyanna-ish plot about nuclear weapons (and their threat) and how the world would ever support that (...throwing all nuclear weapons into the sun...oh boy...). Nuclear Man...yeahh...

When plots from random cartoons had more weight and drama than this film, you knew things were going downhill, ironically propelled by a missile. To think it would take a long, 26 years before a great Superman film/version of the character would be released.

 

[RandyS]

Now, especially, we could stand a primary-colored, optimistic good guy who goes around righting wrongs.

And wears his red underwear on the outside.

 

[DarKush]

My ranking of the Superman films:
Superman II (Donner/Lester version)
Superman: The Movie
Batman V. Superman: Ultimate Edition
Justice League
Batman V. Superman (Theatrical Cut)
Superman III
Superman II: Donner Cut
Man of Steel
Superman IV: The Quest For Peace
Superman Returns

Regarding Superman IV, yes it was terrible but I don't think the premise was. The premise felt to me very much like something Superman would want to do, and him reaping the unintended consequences was also in keeping with the Donner-era admonitions of Superman interfering too much in human affairs.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

More than 42 years later it still thrills me and gives me a sense of hope.

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Agreed.

Still the best cinematic adaptation of the character.

 

[CorporalClegg]

It's still the best cinematic adaptation of any comic character.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Highly debatable, and its failings, such as the entire "turning back the world" business, the only prominent black male in the film being a pimp (and yeah, that was called out in 1978), and the incessant Otis slapstick did not help the film at all.

 

[The Realist]

The "turning back the world" bit works perfectly -- narratively, thematically, and most particularly, emotionally -- in the context of the film, which is all that really matters. As I posted in a different thread:

The point of that climactic scene in Superman '78 is NOT that Jor-El was right, and that Clark fucks up by defying him. That's such an emotionally tone-deaf reading of the film that it beggars belief. The point is that this time, warnings be damned, Clark WILL NOT accept that he is helpless. He WILL NOT let what happened to Jonathan happen again. "All those powers, and I couldn't even save her" WILL NOT be the answer again. Not this time. Not this woman.

Superman is not a tale of accepting limitations and failure. It's a story of transcendence, of triumph, of being better than we are, better than we thought we could be. It's a story of moving Heaven and Earth for truth, for justice, for life and for love.

Is that "realistic"? Perhaps not. The fallacy is the assumption that realism is the purpose of narrative, or its highest mode of expression. Superman is not a documentary. He's a fable, a fantasy, a parable, an ideal. His world is better than ours, because he won't accept less, and he has the power and the will to make it so. He's the best aspirations of humanity, given fictional form and substance. Donner understood that, fundamentally and profoundly -- which is why his movie has resonated and defined the character of Superman, above all other portrayals in any medium, for more than 40 years.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

No. The scene was deservedly derided by many in 1978 and certainly in the decades since for the way it colored the character. It remains one of the most heavily criticized points of the film.

 

[cooleddie74]

It's my least-favorite part of the film but it's never done more than marginally annoy me at worst. Its failings aside it's still the best Superman film ever made.