A Superman truly fit for modern movies

[james_davis_nicoll]

As mass murdery as the new Superman is, I don't think he is dark enough. I think it would have been edgier if it turned out Kryptonian visitors inspired Aztec myths thanks to their need to eat the hearts of photogenic children to power their abilities; Kal could feel very badly about having to zoom back to the Metropololis Orphanarium to get another power-up; it wouldn't just be pointless gore but characterization.

I don't see things working out well for young Jimmy Olsen in this version.

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Smallville was his first major fight. And he was additionally constrained by the fact that NorthCom wanted the fight contained to Smallville.

As for that closing scene at the Planet, I wonder. Might be "soldiering on" humour at work from the POV of the characters.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

There's a wide shot of the Smallville fight that makes it clear the fight is devastating a street that's literally a block over from an empty cornfield. Did NorthCom insist that the action be contained to city limits?

Anyway my problem isn't that he couldn't take the fight away, it's that he doesn't show any particular awareness or concern about the devastation. Not even a half-second shot of him going, "No, not Main Street!" or "My God, Mr. Billings!" Or later, in the makeout scene I mentioned, he and Lois could instead look around and think, "Jesus, look at all this." He never shows much impact unless it's Lois or his mom being threatened. And again, this isn't a criticism of Superman's inner character, but of the filmmakers' thought processes and how they think character motivation works. It's of a piece with the Snyder interview I linked to in the previous thread, in which he explains that he didn't think Superman's aversion to murder would be adequately explained unless he tried it first.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

*face-palm*

Wanna bet those scenes got dropped at some point between script and final edit lockdown?

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

My feeling is, if Snyder's the kind of filmmaker who thinks, "we don't have room for this concerned reaction shot, we need twenty more minutes of punching each other through buildings!" he's the kind of filmmaker to whom those scenes never occurred in the first place. Of course he didn't write the script, but still I'd be surprised.

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

Having watched several Snyder movies now—Dawn of the Dead, Watchmen, and (to my shame) Sucker Punch—exposing the inner lives of the characters seems to come across less than "this is an interesting visual." That needn't be awful; from what I read, that was one of Kubrick's main concerns because he'd come out of lighting.

Snyder might, as a person, be concerned with the characters—I don't know him. Any concern doesn't really come through in the films, and is less evident with each film: I have no idea about 300, one could argue it was scripted into pieces like Watchmen and Dawn (it is rather the heart of horror), and I don't remember a thing about Sucker Punch except an abiding rage that attractive visuals had been wasted in service of nothing.

I had hopes for Snyder, but he has not fulfilled them.