The Top 11 Dumbest Superman Moments
- Thread starter Trekker4747
- Start date
it's only funny because it's true.
^ Emphasis on the "only". I usually can't stand to listen to this guy's Nostalgia Critic segments due to his grating voice.
Much prefer his 5 Second Movies.
Much prefer his 5 Second Movies.
He only scratched the surface of what's wrong with the whole spin-the-Earth-backwards thing. For one thing, if he's altered history so that he's now saving Lois, does that mean he's allowing all the death and destruction that he originally prevented? I mean, Lois died because he was busy elsewhere, doing things like preventing a town from being washed away by a dam burst and saving Jimmy Olsen from a lethal fall. But on the second iteration, he just saves Lois and hangs around with her for several minutes, even though Jimmy and a whole town are dying at that exact moment.
Although I guess that could be rationalized if you assume he merely overlapped his own time track rather than overwriting it -- that there were briefly two Supermen at the same time. But that creates the paradox the Nostalgia Critic mentioned -- if he's saved Lois, then his past self would show up to find Lois saved by another Superman and would have no incentive to spin back time in the first place.
He also left out one incredibly stupid thing from Superman II: the depowered Clark and Lois walking through the Arctic from the Fortress of Solitude back to civilization, and Clark then walking all the way back. I mean, the Fortress is supposed to be impossible for mere mortals to reach, at least without extensive cold-weather gear, snowmobiles, etc. You don't just walk through the Arctic if you have no superpowers.
Although I guess that could be rationalized if you assume he merely overlapped his own time track rather than overwriting it -- that there were briefly two Supermen at the same time. But that creates the paradox the Nostalgia Critic mentioned -- if he's saved Lois, then his past self would show up to find Lois saved by another Superman and would have no incentive to spin back time in the first place.
He also left out one incredibly stupid thing from Superman II: the depowered Clark and Lois walking through the Arctic from the Fortress of Solitude back to civilization, and Clark then walking all the way back. I mean, the Fortress is supposed to be impossible for mere mortals to reach, at least without extensive cold-weather gear, snowmobiles, etc. You don't just walk through the Arctic if you have no superpowers.
I'm embarrassed that I never noticed that logic flaw before. Though in my defense, it's kind of like not noticing a lit barbecue in the middle of a forest fire.
What's sad is as a ''kid'' I loved these movies. But now! All I can do is watch and LAUGH!!!These movies are incredibly STUPID!!!!!
Yeah, it never fully occured to me before too until I saw the movies as an adult and I was like, "WTF? He can fly that fast around the Earth but he can't stop two missiles going in two different directions at once?"
To be honest, I always saw his struggle with the missles to be a result of still being weakened by the kryptonite (not to mention his near drowning). And even if he COULD catch up to the missles in a blink, it still would have taken awhile to redirect and carry those big ass things all the way into space.
Plus I doubt at the time that he was aware he was CAPABLE of flying that fast (this was still the first movie, after all). Lois's death clearly motivated him to put things into a higher gear and go above and beyond anything he had tried before. Which is also why I don't have a problem with him not using it all the time-- this was clearly a special circumstance.
Personally I wouldn't change a thing about the ending (well, except for that fake model town he saves from the water. lol).
Plus I doubt at the time that he was aware he was CAPABLE of flying that fast (this was still the first movie, after all). Lois's death clearly motivated him to put things into a higher gear and go above and beyond anything he had tried before. Which is also why I don't have a problem with him not using it all the time-- this was clearly a special circumstance.
Personally I wouldn't change a thing about the ending (well, except for that fake model town he saves from the water. lol).
I never took it so literally, sure he was flying faster than normal to go around the earth, whereas the kryptonite weakened him so he couldn't do it originally as davejames suggested. However, I do not think that he was literally flying fast enough to cause the earth to spin the other way. This was merely an illustration for the audiences benefit.
See, when Jor-el told him not to interfere with human history, he wasn't referring to simply flying around and performing parlour tricks (this si supported by Supes revisit to the FOS in the extended cut) but that he should not tamper with time. There are hints in the film sprinkled throughout that the Kryptonians have some m,easure of control and mastery over time itself, and that is what makes them superior to Earthings . After all in his space capsule, Supes amassed a lot of informaiton from 12 galaxies in very little time. When he was in his twenties and in the FOS, he leaned a great deal more than 12 years would allow. When supes is flying around the world, you can see his struggle to access a power that had remained trather dormant, the ability to affect time. It was always there, and it took his rage at Lois' death to access that power.
That's my interpretation.
See, when Jor-el told him not to interfere with human history, he wasn't referring to simply flying around and performing parlour tricks (this si supported by Supes revisit to the FOS in the extended cut) but that he should not tamper with time. There are hints in the film sprinkled throughout that the Kryptonians have some m,easure of control and mastery over time itself, and that is what makes them superior to Earthings . After all in his space capsule, Supes amassed a lot of informaiton from 12 galaxies in very little time. When he was in his twenties and in the FOS, he leaned a great deal more than 12 years would allow. When supes is flying around the world, you can see his struggle to access a power that had remained trather dormant, the ability to affect time. It was always there, and it took his rage at Lois' death to access that power.
That's my interpretation.
Checkmate
Commodore
He didn't spin the Earth backwards. The Earth just appeared to go backwards because he was traveling through time. You know, like if you drop a glass and then someone goes back in time, bam, it jumps back up into your hand fully formed. Same difference.
It was probably one of the more believable time travel effects to be shown on-screen. As opposed to giant clocks, Einstein's face, and green ghostly figures.
It does, however, make Jor-el look like a jerk for not planning some time-travel shennanigans to save Kryptonian civilization.
How exactly? It's not like Superman could do that time travel trick around Krypton. The red sun would rob him of his powers and completely nullify any effectiveness he might have had in saving Krypton or the Kryptonians in general. Jor El did everything he could to save his people. They just had their heads up their big fat Kryptonian asses.
I've always presumed that he prevented all the death and destruction First. Which means he didn't need to waste time building a makeshift damn to prevent flooding in the valley and the Earth doesn't crack open to swallow up Lois and her car.
That's one possible rationalization you can make in your own imagination, but it's not what the typical viewer is going to take away from what's actually shown onscreen. The text and the interpretation are two different things. Your interpretation is that he somehow reversed time through some unexplained means and the text was merely symbolic. But the text itself, on the face of it, shows Superman making the Earth spin backwards and thereby reversing time, and surely you can understand how many people would perceive that as ludicrous.
And I'm sure those same people would find the actual idea of Superman to be just as ludicrous. So it's a pretty academic debate; a man who's existance is ludicrous performed a feat that is ludicrous in a fictional movie Universe.
If someone finds this scene so ludicrous that it detracts from the movie, then surely they must also find the idea of Superman so ludicrous that it begs the question of why they are a fan (or at least bothering to watch the films) in the first place?
Checkmate
Commodore
I don't know. To me, it seems like you're just embarrassed that you interpreted the scene completely wrong and instead of admitting that not only to yourself but anyone else, you'd prefer to lose yourself in a seething, irrational anger about the subject.
At no point did Superman grab the Earth and yank it backwards during that scene. He just starts flying and as he accelerates faster and faster, the Earth appears to slow and reverse itself. Just as if someone had hit the rewind button.
I also have no idea what "text" you're talking about. The scene is pretty straightfoward. Hell, you even see other examples of the rewind button effect as he does it!
Even when set in a fictional/fantastic world, there are still standards that should be met. The new Star Trek movie will require a lot of suspension of disbelief, but if Kirk has X-Ray and heat vision, fans will be upset. It's not completely fair to say that if you can accept the concept of Superman, you shouldn't have a problem with the time-travel scene.
