Mini Review - Superman Returns

I know it’s been a while, but we’re back to Superman.

2018 was a year I decided not to cover 2 movies because of the unfortunate and horrific things levied against Kevin Spacey (which continued after I finished writing this, seriously, f*ck Kevin Spacey). But there is a time to separate the art from an artist and refusing to cover them because of one actor is insulting to everyone else involved, so I’ll be doing mini reviews of Superman Returns and Baby Driver over the coming weeks.

Superman returns was intended as a sort of tribute to the Christopher Reeve Superman era, as well as an attempt to breathe new life into the franchise after the horrendous performance of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. It didn’t work out very well, it made only $390m on a $200m budget, thanks to a dismal performance overseas.

Whilst critics tend to like it, most praises came with a few caveats, so let’s dig into the… 2 hours and 37 minutes!!! Holy sh*t, this is a long movie!

#53 Superman IV - The Quest for Peace

I honestly didn’t know which format to use for this one.

I do not like Superman 3, I hope my review during the summer made that clear. I don’t like its overly comedic tone, it’s boring villains, Gus, just generally Gus and the complete waste of any potential in Smallville. Still, it was successful enough to get another sequel, although the changes are much bigger this time.

Let’s start off with the budget, a significant slash from Superman III, that’s because allegedly Golan Globulus, the studio behind the movie, took investor’s money and invested it in other projects. Either way, this movie had a budget of only $17m and boy does that show, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Despite the low budget, the film was a financial failure and the entire franchise was put on the back burner until Superman Returns in the 2000s (I'll cover that one eventually, but given recent allegations against Kevin Spacey, it'll be a while).

This is regarded as not just the worst Superman movie, but one of the worst movies ever made, so why am I conflicted? Let’s take a closer look at hahahahahahahahahahahahaha sorry, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

#49 - Superman III

OK, so Superman 2 was great, wasn’t it? Only bad things to come from here.

Richard Lester is in full control and it’s time for, *sigh* a more comedic Superman movie. They did manage to make their money back but it was critically slammed and the next entry was done with a different production studio and far less money. But that’s a story for another day, let’s take a look at Superman III

#47 - Sequel Month - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Please Note: This review was written before the announcement of Zack and Deborah Snyder stepping away from Justice League to cope with the loss of their daughter. I wish them all the best, however, I'm commenting on a product, and this product sucks!

It’s Sequel Month!

And enough of the mediocrity, let’s get into the pure sh*t. This is Batman v Superman – Dawn of Depression.

Released in March last year, this movie fell short of expectations for a movie that combines DC’s 2 most popular characters, arguably the two most popular characters in comics overall. If Iron Man 3 could reach a billion dollars in the box office, what stopped this? That’s not to say it did poorly exactly, it made over $800m but the scathing reviews, but holding only a 28% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the fact a lot was spent on marketing this movie to the point where this movie only barely made a profit, and considering the enormous $250m spent on the movie anyway.

Zack Snyder original tease for this movie had me exceptionally worried. The Dark Knight Returns is a good story, from a time when Frank Miller could actually write coherent stories. But to take inspiration from this for Batman and Superman’s first meeting struck me as odd, especially given the themes of that book.

Because I’m a glutton for punishment, I’ll be going over the Ultimate edition of the movie, which is around 3 hours long. This is purportedly the one with the most complete story but I will say now, 3 hours is too long for a movie, whether it be Titanic, Avatar or Batman v. Superman; apparently, it got an R Rating in the US too, even though in the UK, it sits still at the equivalent of PG-13.

Lets dive in

4 issue test #40 - Super Sons

Robin has an ego, Jon Lane-Kent has powers. They’re the sons of Batman and Superman and they get on like a house on fire. And by that, I mean the fight that would inevitably ensue between them would leave the house on fire. And boy was it fun to watch them play off each other. Superman did a 2-part story featuring the both of them learning to get along, not extremely successfully, but it’s been hinted since the beginning of Rebirth that they’d be getting a title between them and here it is.

In the writer’s seat is Peter Tomasi who already has experience writing both Robin back from when he was writing Batman and Robin and Jon-Lane Kent from his Superman title. He was the one who wrote the initial crossover, and instigated the dynamic between them. In the art department we have Jorge Jiminez who has a wide range of credits from DC, having done Arrow and Smallville Comics to Earth 2: Society and issues of Superboy and Superman.

Does the gimmick wear or is this a new classic team-up? Let’s take a look at #1-4

Mini Review - Superman II

When I decided to review the Superman movies, I decided to vow not to have them as far apart as I did with the Batman ones. So, yes, this sequel got arranged for April, I’ll be covering III in August and I intend to have IV by year’s end, with Superman Returns in 2018. Batman Begins I’ll be reviewing as part of Neeson month in July and I’ll review the Dark Knight at some point too, Batman vs Superman will be reviewed as part of sequel month in June and I’ll review Suicide Squad in August, which will bring me more or less up to date with the DC movies. I know I’ve barely reviewed any Marvel ones aside from Age of Ultron and Iron Man 3, bear with me, is all I ask with that.

But today we’re looking at Superman II, released in 1980 after the success of the original Superman movie. It enjoyed somewhat financial success making $190m on a $54m budget and is widely regarded as the best Superman movie, or that might just be me, I can never tell. Production wise, Richard Donner was replaced after filming a large proportion of the movie owing to poor relationship with the producer and was replaced by Richard Lester, who conducted vigorous reshoots so he could gain director’s credit. Complicating that was Gene Hackman’s refusal to return for reshoots. Does this patchwork of directors result in a patchwork movie?

Guilty Pleasures #35 - Superman: The Movie (1978)

I’m just gonna put this on-record for everyone. Brace yourselves, this is a controversial opinion that I’m never gonna be able to take back...

Man of Steel sucks and Batman v. Superman sucks. I’ve already gone into detail about what I hate about Man of Steel in my review (plug) and I’ll be reviewing Batman v. Superman later this year. But before we do that, let’s take a look at the movies at the other end of the scale.

Superman: The Movie is one of the best rated superhero movies on Rotten Tomatoes, 93% puts it up there with the Dark Knight, Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man and the Avengers. Note how The Dark Knight is the only other DC movie in the 90+s on Rotten Tomatoes. But we’re not here to judge the ratings, I’m here to judge it for myself, using modern sensibilities because I think it'll be funnier. Let’s dig into Superman: The Movie and see what this has to offer.

4 issue test #34 - Trinity

Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman in the same issue. Sold. Writer: Francis Manapul… ok, expectations lowered a bit.

Look, I have not read a lot of Francis Manapul’s work, I dropped the New 52 Flash after the first issue, I was less than impressed. And I’ve seen what happens when someone tries to do double duty as both writer and artist on the same title, JLA was not a great, sure it isn’t the same writer but the constant delays of a title like this worry me. But DC seems interested in getting titles out at their allotted time lately, so we have Clay and Seth Mann and Scott Anderson doing #3 and Emanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy and HiFi doing the art for #4. Could this ruin the feel of the book? Let’s take a look.

#9 Man of Steel

This is a review I wasn’t entirely sure what review I wanted to do, but in the end I chose rage issues, because despite the fact there are good points to it, there are a lot of problems, that as a comic book fan, I’m not impressed with.

So, let’s dig into Man of Steel without delay