RWED question: Should Superman Returns have tackled real-world events?
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Monday, July 24, 2006 19:39
VIEWED: 1826
PAGE 2 of 2
Quote:BUT HE WAS MISSING THE GORRAM 'S' ON THE BACK OF HIS FRAKKIN' CAPE!!!!
Originally posted by SergeantX:
It was the best Superman movie yet in my book.
The little things Chrisisall
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Quote:A superhero is a condensation of the good and righteousness of our mass psyche. The power and ability to do, swiftly and without question, that which our society should be doing to protect itself (through police, courts, armies, etc.), but can't always.
Originally posted by HKCavalier:
There's an enormous amount of denial imbedded in any superhero story
Superhero stories go as far back (and more) as tales of a saviour among slaves in Egypt...
*Reality Check*
In real life, a hero is someone that saves another from suicide, bad life choices, or just lonliness.
They are teachers, friends, spouses.
They just don't wear capes (well, not the mature ones, anyhow...)
Just some thoughts...
Chrisisall, maker of his own Superman costume
(But it was for a student film, I swear!!)
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Quote:Do metal bars count. Last night I got a kick straight to the knee, still feeling that. Then I accidently hit someone in the temple with a forearm strike (seriously they'd caught my kick and I was trying to twist out of the lock, my arm went out and hit them square in the side of the head, nearly brained the guy).
I wonder how many peeps here have actually been hit hard enough by another to induce un-consciousness, or had a nose broken by some knuckles....?
*raises hand*
It's not the fun stuff of the movies, IMHO.
Also if you ever get the chance this is a funny show:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/m/myhero_66602550.shtml
More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.
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I actually wrote up a blog entry on this topic right after seeing the movie. I was finally able to identify why it is that I've never been able to suspend disbelief and get into the Superman story, and yet I cry during the XMen movies. I'd like to post a couple of excerpts from that blog post, if you'll permit me:
Quote:
After seeing Superman Returns last night, I think I've identified why it is that Superman has never been one of my favorites. All its faults aside, there are things about the basis of the entire story that bother me. Superman was originally written so long ago -- 1932, according to Wikipedia -- that a lot of the themes no longer work with our modern world. In the 1930s, the US was largely isolationist. The idea of the all-American superhero worked, because Americans neither knew nor cared what was going on in the rest of the world. Superman could stop all the bad things from happening in Metropolis and readers would buy it, because the readers were largely unaware of things happening anywhere else.
Obviously, this is no longer the case. It's difficult to imagine the Man of Steel flying around saving Americans in Metropolis, when there's genocide happening in Africa, a war in the Middle East, terrorist attacks in Europe, and North Korea developing nuclear weapons. It's also basically impossible for me to imagine 9/11 happening in a world with Superman.
Now I'd like to think that I judge comic book movies on two things: 1. the central angst, and 2. how well the superhero(es) fits into the world as depicted. [...] I would be totally down with a Superman movie set in the 1930s. But early in Superman Returns, we're shown a quick shot of news coverage from the Middle East. Quite jarring, and quite obviously from our real, modern world. And yet never addressed within the context of the movie.
To the first point, Superman's central angst has never really appealed to me. He's the last one surviving from his race (I think -- still haven't seen Superman 2 - 4), and his love for Lois Lane is thwarted by the fact that she can't see past his Clark Kent glasses. Get over it! How many stories have we had about Batman or Spiderman telling their sweeties who they really are? I swear, Lois and Clark are the embodiment of a level of hell -- like Lancelot and Guinevere in Dante's Inferno, never quite being able to reach each other. Just take off the damn glasses already! Show some trust in the woman, for crying out loud.
Now, compare that with XMen. The central angst in XMen is that they are mutants, ostracized from the rest of humanity simply because they were born different. This is an angst I can get on board with, and every marginalized group out there -- from the Jewish community to the homosexual community -- have claimed XMen as representing their cause. [...]
Being ostracized and threatened for being different is something which is very much a part of our real world, and each of the three movies gives us something to apply to our world. XMen 1: "I've heard these arguments before" -- we must be vigilant against the type of treatment European Jews received in the first half of the 20th century; we must not allow genocide to take place. XMen 2: the sequence where the soldiers break into the mansion late at night -- we can work towards peace, but we must be prepared to defend ourselves if the time comes; Prof. Xavier worked for peace, but he still built escape tunnels underneath the mansion. XMen 3: If good people do nothing, the government will eventually take frightening steps to eliminate a "threat"; biological weapons were used against the mutant community, by the US government, and yet where was the outcry?
[...] While none of the XMen movies have directly addressed the problems of our post 9/11 world, the world depicted in the movies makes sense within itself, and makes sense to our modern eyes.
Batman succeeds in similar ways, I think. [...] The central angst is that Bruce Wayne witnessed his parents' murders, and no matter how much money he has, no matter how much good he does, he canNOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I guess I would agree with your entire analysis, Cal.
Superheroes of Superman's magnitude are difficult. I personally didn't think there would ever be a good Superman movie after 2 (How do you top a world-wide battle with three Kryptonians?)
You almost have to imagine a different dimension, where harsh realities don't apply to enjoy the likes of Superman Returns. But then they remind us with a real newsclip like that.
I liked SR, but in a limited, fanciful way.
The first two basically constructed their own world, this latest one tried to touch base with our real one, and that was it's biggest single flaw, IMO.
Pass the popcorn Chrisisall
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Just a...
SUPER-BUMP Chrisisall
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