Aug 11 2008
But can we keep Brandon Routh?
I felt he did a pretty decent job, all around. Over on something called MTV’s Splash Page (by way of the Superman Homepage) is an article about reboot the Superman movie franchise by ignoring Superman Returns.
I’m not nearly as critical of this movie as I should be, and it’s largely due to how happy I was simply to see a partly decent Superman movie after so long. I’m very much a fan, and I’ll admit to bias here and now. The movie, however, was far from perfect. Even now, as I watch it, I often simply skip to the plane rescue (with some of the general crime fighting that follows after) then forward again to final action scenes, catching the Daily Planet globe and lifting the Kyrptonian island into space.
MTV spoke to Grant Morrison, Mark Waid and Brad Meltzer for their thoughts, and the general consensus was pretty spot on.
“I so wanted that movie to work,” said Mark Waid, “but every choice they made in that movie was wrong. If you’re making the movie in a vacuum, and there will be no other Superman movies ever again, go ahead and give him a son. But otherwise, that’s a staggeringly awful idea. What are you going to do next? Either the kid has to be a part of his life, or get superpowers, which no one wants to see. I want to go to them and say, ‘What were you thinking?’”
All three have ideas to reboot, ala the recent Incredible Hulk movie. Morrison brings up his own “All-Star Superman” comic series, and I think that would be a fine idea. Waid brings up his series “Birthright”, but I don’t think that’s such a good idea. While Waid is an excellent writer, and that series was well done, it provoked some sharp reaction amongst the print fandom. One of Waid’s retcons was to place Lex Luthor in Smallville during Clark Kent’s early years.
Now, retconning can make me grumpy when done poorly, but you can’t say it’s not a part of comics history. Luthor himself has been a mad scientist, a billionaire industrialist, a mad billionarie scientist/industrialist…well, I don’t want to see his resume. But Birthright’s alterations to cannon had one simple problem: Smallville, the TV Series. Now, I’m certain there would still be people upset over Birthright without the TV series, but a large amount of the outrage seemed to be over the perception that Birthright was simply an attempt to retcon the print series around the TV series. Worse came later, when suggestions came out of DC that this was now the “official” continuity (although, I understand even that’s in dispute),
Myself, I didn’t mind that particular retcon. It did reduce my enjoyment of that series, and that is related to my disappointment in Smallville as a whole. Clark Kent as a young man is tricky character, and I sort of feel like Birthright didn’t do him justice. But these feelings aside, I think any movie built around that story would become “Smallville, the Movie” and while that show has had it’s highlights, I don’t think it’s a good movie for the movie franchise.
I am intrigued most by Meltzer’s comments, who doesn’t put forth a particular existing storyline, but instead does some character analysis through Superman’s creators. Going back to Superman Returns, I think Singer had good ideas, but made some bad decisions. That’s what you get with people passionate about a character like Superman. Different interpretations, different approaches, some will work and some just won’t. I hope this franchise isn’t over yet.
