Series Link 12.09.08: Superman

Posted by Arnold Furious on 12.09.2008

I haven’t seen Superman IV in 20 years…does it still hold up? Find out inside!

Series Link #10: Superman

I haven't seen Superman IV in 20 years…does it still hold up? Find out inside!

SERIES LINK

Or Furious on Franchises…wish I'd thought of that 6 months ago.

Frequently when reviewing movies I notice I'm missing sequels here and there from classic series. In line with one of my key film watching beliefs I'll be making a point of tidying up some of my sequel history. The belief in question being that as long as I enjoyed the original I'll watch any sequel made of it. I don't know where this belief came from but it's one that seems to work out for me quite frequently and there are many film series where I have enjoyed multiple sequels based on my love and respect for the initial instalment (Alien, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Rocky etc).

Series Link #1 – The Pink Panther
Series Link #2 – The Road To…
Series Link #3 – Planet of the Apes
Series Link #4 – St. Trinian's
Series Link #5 – Jaws
Series Link #6 – A Nightmare on Elm Street
Series Link #7 – Norman Wisdom
Series Link #8 – The Exorcist
Series Link #9 – Critters

Plus don't forget to check out my blog here where I throw quickfire reviews up whenever possible. Like Furious on Film. Only much quicker and less frequently.

For this tenth edition of Series Link I'll be taking a look at one of the major superhero movie franchises. Superman began life as a comic strip in the late 1930's and was first converted into an animated form in 1941 by Max Fleischer's brother Dave. Superman was voiced by Bud Collyer and the animated shorts were so popular they continued until Superman was ready to appear for real. His first live action appearance was 1948's Superman played by Kirk Alyn. Running fifteen episodes it was a hugely popular serial. Such was the popularity of the character that the studio claimed Superman was played by himself (aided by Alyn's skills as an actor where he played Kent & Superman totally differently)! This was followed by another series in 1950 called Atom Man Vs Superman. 1951 saw a benchmark in Superman history as Superman and the Mole-Men marked the first appearance of George Reeves as Supes. He'd go on to make the role his own and starred in the series throughout the 1950's until his suicide in 1959, portrayed in the movie Hollywoodland starring a superb Ben Affleck. That kind of press can hurt a franchise and Superman was largely animated rather than live action for some time after. The series I'll be looking at is the Christopher Reeve series. It is, after all, the defining series for the character and the series that made us believe a man could fly.

Series Link #10:

Superman

How many films?

Four although Supergirl & Superman Returns both fit into the same continuity.

Starring?

Christopher Reeve (4 times), Margot Kidder (4 times), Gene Hackman (3 times), Marc McClure (4 times), Marlon Brando, Terrence Stamp (2 times), Richard Pryor.

Directed by?

Richard Donner (1 ½ times), Richard Lester (1 ½ times), Sidney J. Furie.

Series Span:

9 years. 1978-1987.

Superman (1978)



TRAILER –



Let's get things straight right from the off. 1. Superman isn't even remotely close to being my favourite superhero. Not even close. 2. Superman: The Movie is the definitive way to convert your comic book character to the big screen. It's still one of the best adaptations of source material in the comic book world. Of course no film is perfect and there are always gripes to be had but I'll try and keep them to a minimum here because Superman is such a good movie. The one thing that does somewhat grate at me though is how bad Jeff East is. If you're wrinkling your brow then let me remind you…Young Clark Kent. He's just awful. I find the part in Smallville hard to watch because of it. I generally skip from Krypton's destruction to Clark arriving in Metropolis when I'm watching it on DVD. Save myself some time. I guess they felt they had to get more scenes out of Marlon Brando (Fortress of Solitude) for the ridiculous amount of money they paid him. He appeared for 10 minutes in total and received a fee of $14M. Which is pretty much the entire gross of Superman IV! You can't really blame Brando for taking the money and he does add importance to Krypton and the film's opening 45 minutes. It would have been a pretty tedious haul without Brando. Seeing as Donner was shooting for epic he needed some heavyweight actors in there. Reeve finally arrives, to star in the film, at 48 minutes

Reeve is fantastic as the stumbling, bumbling "mild mannered reporter" Clark Kent. He really was the perfect choice for the role. But not only is he perfect as Kent but he's also majestic as Superman. Gene Hackman is also really good. But then he's good in everything. And Ned Beatty is a good comedy foil for his character much like the fast talking Margot Kidder is a good foil for Reeve's Kent. Donner got all the ingredients right for Superman. A good mixture of comedy, action and characterisation. The story whips along at a fair old pace too introducing supporting characters like Jimmy Olsen (Marc McClure), Miss Tessmacher (Valerie Perrine) and Perry White (Jackie Cooper). There's an urgency about the storytelling once we've gotten past the start in Krypton & Smallville. I personally would have preferred a slightly more drawn out build on the likes of Lex Luthor, Lois Lane and Clark himself. Although all characters are very strong and well constructed. The idea was to shoot both Superman and the sequel back to back. Of course things got a little complicated during Superman II but more on that later.

Superman may have been completely different. Steven Spielberg was offered it but wanted too much money. Bond director Guy Hamilton was hired but too much of the shoot was in England, where he couldn't go because he was a tax exile. The role of Superman wasn't an easy one to cast either with both Warren Beatty and Robert Redford turning the film down. As did Clint Eastwood and James Caan. Imagine Superman with Beatty in it? That would have sucked something fierce. After that the producers looked at some mid-level actors like Nick Nolte and Jon Voight. Sylvester Stallone was among the actors who did want the job but he was rejected. Boy, that would have been another awful movie. What they did get was quality though. John Williams score. Script from Godfather scribe Mario Puzo (among others). Oscar winning cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth (who died during production and the film is dedicated to). Oddly enough wasn't a winner for the awesome work on 2001: A Space Odyssey. When you have a great team in place behind the camera it makes the work in front of it that much easier. Donner knew what he was doing and got the right people. Especially Christopher Reeve. Without Reeve the movie isn't half as good. As it stands he is in it. And it is that good. One of the best superhero movies, ever. Had Donner been allowed to complete Superman II then maybe they'd have had two of the best superhero movies ever!

Superman II (1980)



TRAILER –



And the problems with the franchise kick in! Richard Donner had originally filmed the vast majority of Superman II. It was pretty much a done deal with Donner keen to emphasise the religious overtones of the Superman saga, as he had in the first film, but he clashed with the producers (the Salkinds) over the content of the movie and that was that. This is the problem with producers. They want things their way. So they hired a director they could push around instead; Richard Lester. The first change he made was re-shooting everything that Donner/Unsworth had shot with replacement cinematographer Robert Paynter. Which removed much of Superman II's original beauty and replaced it with a deliberately comic book style. The fusion of the two is no bad thing however and Superman II actually ends up, against all possible reasoning, being a good film. But had Donner been allowed to shoot it his way I'm sure it would have been even better. Lester was simply clueless as to the character's importance and didn't understand or care about the characters. Luckily there was so much structure already in place that Lester couldn't completely ruin Superman II…merely put his own twist on it. There were various things that prevented him changing too much. One of which being that Gene Hackman was unavailable for re-shoots so all his footage had to be the stuff that Donner himself had filmed.

I've seen the 2006 released Donner cut and I was actually quite disappointed with it but he had to use various stuff that was available so you can't really knock it. It's easier, and more accurate, to knock the Salkind's for not letting him shoot the movie his way…or more accurately again; not replacing Donner with a more competent director. Lester just really didn't know what he was doing. But on the upside Superman II has bags and bags of Terrence Stamp. He's running around yelling about the Son of Jor-El and how he wants him to kneel. Great stuff. Along side General Zod are his fellow villains Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and the dumb Non (Jack O'Halloran – Emil Muzz in Dragnet incidentally). They're released from their prison in the Phantom Zone and turn up on Earth looking to conquer it. When they discover Superman is there and he's the Son of Jor-El they want to meet/crush him. Meanwhile Kal-El has his own agenda as he's accidentally exposed his identity to Lois Lane and subsequently the two have fallen in love. So Kal-El gives up his superhuman powers in order to live as a human blissfully unaware that while he was away the world has been overthrown by the trio of Kryptonian criminals.

Superman II does have its fair share of errors. Like noisy explosions in space! Or wind in space! They didn't quite have a grasp on the science of space did they? They also don't have a grasp on one of the most glaring plot holes in cinematic history. Superman, having given up his powers, then regains them. But it's never explained as to how? We're left wondering if it had anything to do with a mysterious green crystal but the Donner Cut suggests Jor-El gave up his remaining life-force to give his son another chance at being superhuman.

But enough with the mistakes. Superman II is more than a passable follow up. Reeve is terrific at his duel role again especially during his attempts to retain the secret identity. The pratfall into the river is PERFECT. Then again he gets it so right when he's forced into the reveal. The cast of characters are so good in Superman II. Terrence Stamp and Gene Hackman combine as bad guys and provide two very different threats to Superman. The physical and mental. The opening in Paris is a fine way to introduce the film with an action sequence and also sets up the whole anti-nuclear vibe the Superman movies had and frees the Kryptonians from the Phantom Zone. I get a kick out of Superman II because it's such a fun movie. It's not as traditionally capable as the first film but I enjoy it almost as much. There are just too many moments where I'm aware that I'm not enjoying myself whereas the first one is pretty consistent. For example; the scene in the diner the first time just doesn't feel right. Neither does the assault on Metropolis' citizens by the three Kryptonian criminals (almost all of which ended up cut out of the Donner version I noticed). It just borders on parody too often instead of using the natural talents of the actors; like Terrence Stamp's occasional slips into a cockney accent or Christopher Reeve's ability to do pratfalls. If I wanted to see a film where someone continues a conversation on a phone while laughing maniacally after the phonebox has blown away I'll watch a Steve Guttenberg movie…thanks very much. So in short; great fun but somewhat ruined by Richard Lester and prevented from exceeding the original origin movie. A bit like Spiderman 1 & 2. Only if Sam Raimi were fired partway through the second movie and replaced with Claudio Fragrasso. OOOOHHHHH! Richard Lester is so burned!

Superman III (1983)



TRAILER –



And here's where the franchise goes completely fucking tits. Richard Lester was given a great deal more control over his second movie in charge of Superman…and it suffered something fierce for the honour. The first major error committed coming into this was with Margot Kidder. She was furious about the treatment of Richard Donner on Superman II and made sure the producers knew about it, which got her role demoted to a virtual cameo in Superman III. Unfortunately without Lois Lane the character of Superman, and indeed Clark Kent, lacks a purpose. He protected humanity in Superman because he was forced into saving Lois Lane. And he fell in love with Lois Lane. And he altered human history to save Lois Lane. He gave up his powers for Lois Lane. Everything he did was based on the love he shared with Lois. Take Lois' character essentially away and it rather exposes Superman as a character (you'll notice both Superman IV & Returns put a huge emphasis on Lois). Also they decided not to use Lex Luthor as a bad guy because he'd already appeared in the first two films. Which is like saying; let's not use Magneto in X-Men 3 because he was already in 1 & 2.

Worse still the two bad guys in this movie are played by Robert Vaughn and Richard Pryor. Now, I love Richard Pryor. His autobiography is hilarious and his stand-up is amongst the most groundbreaking ever. But casting him as a bad guy in a superhero movie, albeit the crafty wheeler-dealer who isn't really evil, isn't good news for the franchise. He's just there because he's a big enough name for the producers. Lester doesn't care either way so we get lumbered with Pryor…who clearly doesn't want to be there. And Robert Vaughn is a fine actor…in other things. Here he plays the evil genius who recruits Pryor's Gus Gorman to be his stooge in setting up Superman. It's Lex Luthor without the venom. Lester opts for a mostly comedic approach, which completely shits on the first two films.

The whole tone of Superman III is wrong. There's too much emphasis on goofy comedy (like the entire opening sequence or Richard Pryor wearing an ugly suit and an enormous cowboy hat) and coincidence (Daily Planet's badly named "Jingo" contest winners, Gus Gorman happening to go to Smallville). Lois' replacement gal is Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole). Introducing Lana as a replacement isn't a bad idea, per se, but having her character so bland and emotionless compared to Lois Lane is. Although it makes her an alternative it also makes her really boring. Meanwhile Lois is off to Bermuda after one scene. BOO! To cut to the chase…Richard Lester doesn't know what he's doing. Some of his "comedy" scenes are just horrible. Like the scene with the guy getting extra cash out of the bank during the ‘economic destruction' sequence and kissing the money. Or the traffic light signs fighting. I mean, really, who like this fucking idiot direct a movie?

BUT despite all the bad involved in Superman III, and there is plenty of that, it does have a few scenes of merit. And the most obvious, and best of these, is the Superman Vs Superman showdown. This comes from Gus Gorman's failed attempt to recreate Kryptonite that turns Superman into a jerk with a split personality. Evil jerk Superman is by far the best thing about Superman III and finally gives the movie it's edge AND gives Christopher Reeve something different to do. Evil jerk Superman is also the basis for Hancock, when you think about it. Only EJS takes it that little bit further by deliberately being a total dick. My favourite EJS moment; blowing out the Olympic flame! HAHAHA. Because of Evil Jerk Superman it even gets me into Gus Gorman a little more as his naïve screw up gets a few genuinely funny lines. Although he's still a very flat character compared to Pryor himself. Matters improve with Superman drinking Johnny Walker Red Label and flicking peanuts through the bottles of spirits for his amusement. I love this guy. The junkyard showdown that follows is terrific but is the last fun you'll get from Superman III as it's quickly followed by the crappy computer game simulation, the ‘fem-bot' and the super-computer. Thanks for nothing Mr Lester.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)



TRAILER –



Goddamn it, even the title sucks. The Superman franchise was struggling after Superman III. It was the law of diminishing returns, combined with an ineptitude among the filmmakers, that saw profits drop from Superman to Superman III. As a result the budget dropped significantly for Superman IV. To a rather small $36M ($54M on II). But Cannon Pictures, responsible for making it, were in the shit financially so the budget was slashed again to a measly $17M. Word of mouth concerning the film was so negative however that it didn't even recoup that. Both Richard Donner and Richard Lester rejected the chance to direct. No one is entirely sure which one was asked first but they both weren't interested. Even Reeve wasn't particularly interested in doing a 4th film and only signed up after Cannon promised to finance another project of his. Wes Craven was supposed to take the director's chair but he and Reeve didn't get along and the studio was more attached to it's star, at one point offering him the directors chair on the planned Superman V. So the next in line to direct was…drumroll please…Sidney J. Furie. Er, hang on…who? The director of Iron Eagle got the director's chair on a Superman movie? Yikes. We were really scraping the barrel at this point. It comes to something when Superman spin-off Supergirl is SIGNIFICANTLY better than the Superman movie that follows it.

The opening footage of Superman flying through space, complete with cape flapping in the wind (oops), should tell you exactly how much money Cannon didn't spend on Superman IV. At least some of the series regulars return including Margot Kidder, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure and Gene Hackman! Although apparently Ned Beatty was a no-go as Jon Cryer replaces him as Lex Luthor's bumbling nephew. Presumably Beatty had already signed up to one of four movies he shot released in 1987. Based on the final product he was probably relieved. I've always believed that if you don't have the money for special effects…then don't try to shoot them! And the special effects in Superman IV are TERRIBLE. It doesn't help that most of the actors look like they're not interested and the script is pretty weak. Not to mention the premise. Lex Luthor, hell-bent on revenge against Superman, creates Nuclear-Man from a strand of Superman's hair. What follows is an essay on how nuclear anything is a bad thing because it's dangerous and yadda-yadda-yadda. If there's ever been a film that encompasses how Hollywood will jump on any pinko hippy bandwagon cause going if they think it'll make a buck this is it.

The fights between Supes and Nuclear-Man should be the highlight of the movie but they're actually the worst part of it. The rebuilding of the Great Wall of China in particular. That part really sucked. When Superman IV isn't being awful, confused and ignoring it's own continuity it's by far the most boring film in the series. I know a lot of people hate on Superman III but at least that film has the junkyard battle and an evil Kal-El. This is just shit. Even Superman managed to become retarded as he figures out Nuclear-Man needs sunlight and shuts him in an elevator…and then puts it on the moon. Yanno, right by the sun. How about just burying him somewhere? Nuclear-Man is a pretty terrible bad guy anyway. Evil fingernails and a mullet? Oh, I'm so scared. And then Mariel Hemmingway somehow survives in space…what with there being all that air there. And gravity apparently, as demonstrated in several weak effects shots. You can allow for certain unbelievable things to take place in a movie where the central character can fly but Superman IV just hops over the line into bullshit routinely and doesn't have a punchline by way of apology. I hadn't seen the movie in 20 years and hopefully it'll be another 20 before I accidentally forget how much it sucks and watch it again. Avoid!

RATINGS

Superman ****1/2
Superman II ****
Superman III *1/2
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace BOOO!

Box Office

Superman $134M
Superman II $101M
Superman III $56M
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace $15M

But we're not done yet! Because I figure most people missed it here's my review of Superman Returns from Furious on Film #85.

Superman Returns (2006)



Not being a total mark for Superman puts me in a good position to review the film from a fairly neutral standpoint. I must admit I got quite excited while the opening credits rolled because Singer had gone out of his way to try and recapture the vibe of Superman (1978). The music and the credits set this up perfectly. I found myself marking out a lot more than I expected. I put this down to John Williams. There's no other man alive capable of eliciting such feelings by use of music. It was like I was being taken back to the first film all over again. I suspect Indiana Jones will feel right for the same reasons and it's possible I don't feel any anger towards the Star Wars prequels because the music is so good. Certainly John Williams is a guy who is invaluable when it comes to creating a good first impression. With Superman Returns it works right off the bat. There's another musical interlude I'd like to quickly mention as well and that's when Superman is dealing with the new continent (something I'll get to in more depth later) it blocks out the sun just like the Monolith in 2001 and, this is so awesome, in comes the music cue from 2001. It's only a quick change in music before the original score settles back in but it was such a fun little throwaway thing that I had to mention it. I really didn't like the scene at all but that made it work better for me. I suppose I should probably discuss some of the casting here. Routh was a good choice. I think it's better to have an unknown as Superman. I can't begin to imagine how terrible Nic Cage, a fine actor mind you, would have been as Superman. Routh just feels like Superman. Like Christopher Reeve did. The only concern is Routh really doesn't know how to play Clark Kent. He's not found his own Kent yet. He's playing Kent as if he's imagining how Christopher Reeve would do it and it comes off that way. Not great. As Superman he's fine. Larger than life. Kevin Spacey hams it up suitably as Lex Luthor. I don't think he's anywhere near Gene Hackman because Hackman had this special level of ham that he discovered and he owns it. No one else can have it. Spacey tries for it though. He overacts in ways I didn't expect from such an accomplished actor. He's definitely enjoying himself out there. Kate Bosworth worried me when I heard the name. I'd seen her in several films and I felt she lacked the kind of maturity that the slightly older Lois Lane would need and after seeing the film I feel the same way. She can't deal with some of the more emotional scenes and doesn't carry over any of Margot Kidder's confidence. It's like watching a totally different character, which would be fine if the other characters weren't almost identical to the originals.

For me Lois drops the ball. I don't like Bosworth in the role and of all the major characters I think she comes across as the most miscast. Kate is 23 years old. That just isn't mature enough for the role she's playing here and they should have realised that. If we're working from Kate being 23 then Lois was a teenager when the first Superman took place. Think about it! It's wrong. I felt the same way about Jessica Alba in Fantastic Four. While I don't object to the hotty quotient going up it shouldn't be at the expense of realism. That said the other support roles are gravy. James Marsden is great as the likeable other half for Lois. We know we shouldn't like him because he's knobbing Superman's girlfriend but at the same time it's not his fault. He does a good job of being a good guy in what is a very hard role. Parker Posey is also great as Luthor's sidekick Kitty. I always had a soft spot for Miss Teschmacher. I think Kitty does a good job filling that void. The other Luthor sidekicks are pretty bland including Kal Penn. He doesn't speak so it's ok. As for action sequences; the plane/space shuttle disaster is fantastic. The plane going into the atmosphere and everyone getting weightless only to drop right back down as the plane starts losing control was superb. And the scenes of Superman attempting to catch the plane and only ripping parts off in an attempt to slow it down. I ate that shit up with a big "this is awesome" spoon and came back for seconds. I was standing by the time Supes landed it on a baseball diamond downtown. Sadly the other big action sequence, erm sort of, doesn't belong. Superman does a lot of stuff where he's stopping minor things around Metropolis but the raising and subsequent disposal of the new continent is daft. It puts him on a level with God, although so did reversing time in Superman (1978), and with the added presence of Kryptonite making him "as weak as a kitten" he shouldn't have been capable of this feat. In fact you look at how Lex Luthor kicked his ass just minutes beforehand and nearly drowned him and then here comes Superman to carry away this enormous land mass like he's lifting bags of sugar. Shouldn't that Kryptonite be affecting him somewhat? I had issues with that. Luckily I liked most of the characters and most of the plot so I can overlook things like this.

BEST BIT – Superman gets shot in the eye from point blank range. The bullet gets crushed. Superman doesn't even blink. The cap falls to the floor and the gunner looks bewildered.

RATING - ***1/2. I liked Superman Returns. I thought it had a great deal of positive about it. The plane scene, the patience in character development and patience in general of the director not to rush the plot. The film spans 154 minutes and it needs that time to build everything up to that conclusion. The good news for Singer fans is that the film doesn't feel like anything close to 154 minutes. It flies by. I have a few gripes, as before mentioned, that kept niggling at me but apart from that it's all good. This was a pretty satisfying blockbuster. I'm confident that Singer can do a good job with the next Superman film. I'm really glad he got the chance to make this instead of Brett Ratner, who switched over to destroying the X-Men franchise in Singer's place. Or McG who was also attached and got dropped because he wanted a bigger budget (keeping in mind the budget for Superman Returns was $270M). Both of those guys would have done a horrible job with it and killed the re-born franchise before it had a chance.

And because I'm feeling generous

Supergirl (1984)



I admit that Supergirl has been, for a very long time, one of my guilty pleasure favourites. Probably because of Helen Slater who does such a fine job of playing the lead; Linda Lee aka Supergirl. It's odd because Supergirl was her first feature film. She'd only previous acted once on an ABC after school special. Because Supergirl tanked miserably at the box office losing about $20M there were no sequels although they were originally planned. The original line-up was somewhat different too. Supergirl was originally a role given to Brooke Shields but she didn't want it. Christopher Reeve and Demi Moore, who were scheduled to be in the movie, also dropped out. The aim of Supergirl was fairly simple. They wanted to give female fans an icon to look up to as they had the male fans with Superman. Slight problem though…not many female comic book fans. The sheer maleness of the Superman legend made Supergirl somewhat inaccessible to it's core audience. The secondary audience of ‘people who wanted to see an actual girl dressed as a comic book character' was somewhat smaller. Although I was certainly in that group at the time. I was 8, come on! I had a major crush on Helen Slater as a child because of Supergirl.

Director here is Jeannot Szwarc who shows up for the second time in Series Link after directing Jaws 2 as well. He's better known nowadays for his TV work including Smallville. He introduced a more graceful look to the flying sequences…making them more balletic and feminine. In Supergirl the character of Kara (Helen Slater) flees Argo City to come to Earth. Argo City being part of Krypton that had survived and was now drifting through space. When Kara leaves Argo City she takes a Maguffin with her that falls into the hands of Selena (Faye Dunaway) who uses it to try and take over the world. The storyline is a mixture of Selena's pursuit of power and Kara's adapting to Earth and going undercover as Linda Lee. Interesting superhero connection when Kara arrives. She has a confrontation with an aggressive trucker called Eddie who was played by Matt Frewer. The same guy who's playing Moloch the Mystic in the forthcoming Watchmen movie. There are an assortment of supporting roles in Supergirl including a rare acting performance for Peter Cook as Nigel and Hart Bochner as Ethan who falls in love with Kara. I really don't like Hart Bochner but I think that's mainly because of his role in Die Hard where he's such a sleazeball. He's much worse in this, in acting terms anyway. Mia Farrow is also in Supergirl appearing briefly on Argo City.

For those of you who don't like Supergirl imagine how much worse it could have been! Luckily there's no Comet the Super-Horse or Streaky the Super-Cat. Or Jerro the Merboy. Wow, Supergirl has a tonne of rubbish characters when you think about it. And Peter O'Toole is in it! I think there's far more positive than people give it credit. Yeah, it's not great and the effects aren't good but for some reason I like it. **1/2

Superman – Doomsday (2007)



This is the animated movie that was based on DC's "Death of Superman" comic. Certainly that comic was an event. I remember it very clearly and I've never been a big DC fan outside of Batman. I'm just surprised it took them this long to do something animated based on those events. Or a movie for that matter. While I'm on the subject here's some movies that *almost* happened…

Superman V was scheduled for the early 1990's but the failure of Superman IV meant the collaboration, between the Salkind's and Christopher Reeve, never took place. It pre-dated the Death of Superman but had similar themes. After the success of the Death of Superman comic book Warner Bros decided to buy the rights to Superman from the Salkind's. They handed the project to producer Jon Peters who hired Jonathan Lemkin to write a script (a TV writer who eventually penned Lethal Weapon IV, Red Planet and Shooter). His script "Superman Reborn" saw Supes pass his power to Lois Lane when he died thus allowing Lois to give birth to a new Superman. When that script was rejected for thematic similarities with Batman Forever a new script was written by Gregory Poirier. But like Richard Lester before him he didn't really ‘get' Superman and made a bit of a mess of it. Apparently Warners liked the script but famously, as detailed in "An Evening With Kevin Smith", they were quite out of touch with the comic book community at the time. Smith was hired to re-write it and what he wrote became "Superman Lives". Might have been interesting to see although Smith wanted Ben Affleck to play Superman (if you think that's stupid though…check out Hollywoodland). Robert Rodriguez was offered the film but was making the Faculty and couldn't take it so it moved on to Smith's own suggestion…Tim Burton. Warners spent nearly $30M on hiring Tim Burton and Nic Cage to play Superman. Burton's first change was to ditch Smith's screenplay. Everyone involved wasted a year of their lives on something that would have cost $190M but the script was never ready and no one knew what they were doing. Burton left the project taking his $5M pay or play fee with him.

After that disaster was complete Warners tried to re-launch again with a lower budget…meaning more re-writes. Everyone turned the movie down though. With Michael Bay and Brett Ratner among those who rejected the movie. Eventually Nic Cage gave up on the idea and dropped out in 2000 after having been attached to the project for several years taking his rather large pay or play fee with him. Oliver Stone was asked to direct at one point with a new script but declined. Basically no one wanted to make the movie because of a) the disasters that were Superman III & IV and the failure to re-launch since. McG was attached to make the film from a JJ Abrams script but that never got off the ground so Andrew Kevin Walker pitched his own script for Batman Vs Superman with Wolfgang Peterson directing. By now Spider-Man had been a success so Peterson was looking for an actor not just a movie star. Josh Hartnett was offered the role but Peterson then left, upset over delays, to make Troy. Batman Vs Superman was cancelled and the Superman reboot was once again planned. Brett Ratner was the next director to sign up but he couldn't find a star because he'd planned three movies to be shot over 10 years. Hartnett was even offered $100M!!! For the trilogy (according to Variety). Paul Walker was offered it after Hartnett turned the role down. Ratner ended up so sick of Jon Peters control over the project that he quit. McG came back onboard with Brendan Fraser considered as Supes. Warners refused to shoot in New York however and McG quit finally replaced by Bryan Singer! He saw Superman Returns through to the conclusion you see now. God knows how much money Warners pissed away on their non-existent Superman franchise over the years but at least they had a movie at the end of it!

Speaking of which…Superman: Doomsday is another such movie. It's not part of the Reeve/Routh continuity although most of the characters have the same relationships with each other. It sees a dangerous creature called Doomsday released on Metropolis. Doomsday is a creature engineered to kill every living thing it encounters. This leads to an epic showdown with Superman after some of the more grisly moments in Superman's history. The fight with Doomsday is very well done and I generally enjoyed the movie although it seemed a little rushed. Knowing that it tackles the Death of Superman storyline you're aware that Superman will die during the course of the film and it's a case of the filmmakers thinking the same thing so they rush to that part as quick as they can. The animation is decent though and it's a more enjoyable effort than Batman: Gotham Knight or The Animatrix even if it lacks the depth of those films. But very much on the plus-side this film features a far darker and superior Lex Luthor, which is almost worth the rental fee alone. ***

YOU TUBE GOODNESS…

Kevin Smith talks about Superman Reborn.



Superman Vs Clark Kent



Kneel Before Zod!



THE CURSE –

Before signing off on Superman I think I should probably mention the curse that seems to be attached to series. Not only the film series featuring Christopher Reeve but Superman in general. There are enough cases during the course of Superman's history to make that connection. For example the multiple failures to get the franchise back on track after Superman IV. It took the best part of 20 years for Superman to return to the big screen but something was in development the whole time! The supposed Curse of Superman even pre-dates the misfortunes of George Reeves and goes back to…

JERRY SIEGEL/JOE SHUSTER – the creators of Superman. Both were paid a tiny amount of compensation by National Allied Publications (the precursor to DC) and eventually sued them for more money. DC paid out a pension at a later date of $35,000 per annum but neither man worked on another high profile comic…which is pretty weird when you consider how well other major character inventors fared. Stan Lee for example. Their follow up work "Funnyman" was a total failure.

THE FLEISCHER BROTHERS – Max & Dave were responsible for the early animated Superman shorts, which were hugely successful. After the success of Superman the brothers fell out and sold up to Paramount. It's been argued they're a part of the curse but Max went to work for Disney and Dave for Universal. Admittedly Max did spend the final five years of his life in the poor house with ill health but he was 89 at the time.

KIRK ALYN – The original live action Superman struggled to find work afterwards finding producers simply couldn't look past his role as the Man of Steel. Kirk only appeared in a few films after his turn as Superman but did live a long and full life

GEORGE REEVES – Now this is perhaps the best example of the Superman curse. The others that pre-date it are more tailored to suit the curse. Reeves genuinely had problems that stemmed from him being Superman. As detailed in the film Hollywoodland, where he was played superbly by Ben Affleck, Reeves couldn't find work after Superman and died, supposedly of suicide, in 1959. Reeves was only 45.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE – The other really famous Superman to have huge misfortune after playing the role. Reeve's fate is also quite well known as it happened in the public eye. He fell from his horse in 1995 and broke his neck. One of Hollywood's most tragic stories the genuinely nice guy Reeve found himself paralysed from the neck down. He died 9 years later of heart failure. He was only 52. His wife, a non-smoker, died of lung cancer two years later aged just 45.

MARGOT KIDDER – Lois Lane herself struggled with bipolar disorder and went missing in 1996 with mania before being found by LA cops. She's also been divorced three times. She also suffered serious injuries in a 1990 car crash that put out of work for two years.

MARLON BRANDO – A hugely successful actor throughout his career Brando saw a decline in his popularity around the time of Superman and he "retired" in 1980. His comebacks were often met with poor reviews. His personal tragedies are far more overwhelming however as his son was convicted of manslaughter and his daughter Cheyenne committed suicide.

LEE QUIGLEY – The child who played a young Kal-El died aged 14 of inhaling solvents.

RICHARD PRYOR – Three years after appearing in Superman III he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Despite all this "evidence", mainly stemming from Reeves and Reeve's unfortunate deaths, it does seem like a number of coincidences. After all a lot of strange things seem to happen to famous people. And many actors appearing in Superman films and TV shows have been completely fine afterwards. You could argue for the likes of Mark Pillow (Nuclear Man) and Dean Cain (Superman on Lois & Clark) that their careers tailed off but there are plenty of actors who've been fine by comparison. Gene Hackman has had a long and successful career. Likewise for Ned Beatty and Terrence Stamp.

FURTHER READING –

Jason Chamberlain does a Superman Casting Call!

Bryan Kristopowitz actually likes Superman IV. Hey, it'd get boring if we were all the same! And yes, Nuclear-Man does indeed look like Lex Luger.

George Sirois did a Scene Anatomy on Superman: Doomsday!

George Sirois also did a Scene Anatomy on the Donner Cut!

Scotty Flamingo takes shots at Superman. As per usual he's pretty much right. Which is why Superman isn't the full five snowflakes. He also lines up shots at Superman II. Different strokes to rule the world folks.

I also looked at the Donner Cut. I considered copying and pasting that into this column but this way you get a look back at Halle Berry accepting her Razzie and reviews of some other films too.

The 411 –

Although I don't consider myself a Superman fan, of the comics or the movies really, I still seem to own most of them. And I can't really switch off Superman or Superman II if it's on TV. I also have a bizarre inclination to enjoy Supergirl. I don't even dislike Superman Returns even though it seems to be cool to do so on the internet. There is no such thing as a perfect film…especially in the superhero genre. Batman has the added ability to stay more grounded in reality. In some ways that makes him easier to do. He doesn't have any special powers. Nor do his opponents (mostly) and that's what makes them interesting. Superman is far harder to do realistically, as shown in III & IV when the budget was lessening. I think the biggest problem Superman suffers from is there are only so many ways to play the character. Batman and his bad guys give you a chance for more range and variety. Having said that Reeve absolutely nails Superman, Clark Kent AND can play Superman as a bad guy. It really is a pity the Salkind's couldn't just let Richard Donner do the series his way…I think there would be no debate then over which superhero franchise was the best (until Nolan comes up with a third Batman film of course).