*** Official SUPERMAN RETURNS Discussion Thread - Page 9

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Actually, I really liked the irony of Luthor finally getting his own beachfront property. It also didn't bother me that there was no final confrontation, since Superman probably assumed he launched Lex into space.

But I definitely think the hospital sequence went on for too long. Speaking of which, did it bother anyone else that the doctors ripped his suit so easily? (I know it's a minor quibble, but it jumped out at me for some reason.)

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James,

Superman was weakened, almost to the point of death, by exposure to Kryptonite. Wouldn't the fibers of his Kryptonian costume be likewise weakened?

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No, Metropolis and NYC are two different places, but it seems like they are the same place in the first two movies.

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We will hopefully see a directors cut of Superman Returns. While it was quite a long movie, I'm sure Bryan Singer has much more footage to flesh out the story even more. I watched the trailer, and it has Supermans Krytonian ship moving through large canyons of Krypton. I think Singer probably shot an entire Superman exploration scene of a dead Krypton planet, but probably had to cut it because of time issues.

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gotta say, one of the things I was most dreading was the "I hope this little incident hasn't put you off flying..." speech that I knew was coming.
But to my surprise, I thought it worked exceptionally well, as both homage and more importantly, in the context of the story here. Routh had the appropriate twinkle in his eye so that while he is talking for the benefit of everyone else, you get the feeling that the words have an ulterior emotive intent (to me he was expressing "wouldn't it be great if we could just go back to the begining...before I lost you").

In fact I was shocked how well it played there.

most of the other line swipes I didn't have affection for, and don't look forward to hearing again, but this worked for me big time.

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I just checked box office mojo and SR is only up to 32 mil. Im worried.

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Yeah, the BO isn't exactly lighting the world on fire. I think the ceiling is around 250. If it doesn't at least clear Batman Begins, Warners will be worried. But I also don't think Warners was seriously expecting a profit on this one. Not with all the history and the pre-prod expenses.

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For those who have the soundtrack, is the theme when Superman & Lois are flying in there? Checking the track titles I don't see it. Surely it's there though. Might be my fave of the whole movie. Loved the score.

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this movie also.

a close up of the map luthor made, showed metropolis to be right were NYC is.

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Definitely, even if not stated, in the Chris Reeves Superman movies, Metropols = NYC.

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Tim,
I left the score at work (I took Thursday and Friday off for spring cleaning). And I've been dying to hear it. But I'm fairly certain it's there. Check out the www.soundtrack.net review. They'll know for sure.

Cory, about two minutes are dedicated at the beginning to Lex's sugar momma. While there is a great joke there...I think the whole bit could be excised. Who cares how Lex got that stuff. I have no idea how he got the stuff in S:TM, and it never mattered

I liked the rehashed flight speech as well. Especially after that scene. Especially with Lois there.

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Yes, at least in the old Reeve movies. There was a shot of Metropolis on a map in this new version, but it went by too quickly for me to determine if Metropolis was in NYC's spot or if they moved it to a slightly different location on the East Coast.

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I think it's wise to wait for the weekend returns to gauge the BO on Superman Returns. 32 Million on a Wednesday and Thursday isn't too shabby, but it's not blowing anyone away either.

Tim, look for the Lois and Superman flying music on the last track of the soundtrack.

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Did he have a ship to go to Krypton? Is it revealed in the novelization? I think there was some ship or rock formation when he crash landed, but I wasn't too clear on it.

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He went back in the crystal ship which we saw crash land on the Kent farm( in what I thought was a amazing scene)

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this film is a real odd duck though, and its hard to peg down just who is the real intended audience. For a certain age set, Superman will be forever un-hip. Probably the closest he will ever come to being cool to them is the scene where he gets shot in the eye, otherwise they will just pass on the property altogether (as seems to be the case with the opening numbers). For the youngsters, the 'museum piece pacing' combined with the concerns of family, genetic and emotional lineage, etc (told from an adult POV) are probably going to alienate them.

I actually dig that the film seems to have a primary audience of middle aged people in mind- loss, regret, absentee parentism...its just a damn shame the film expends the bulk of its screen time trying to duplicate beats and plot points that were done better already.

It would be shocking to think that WB would hesitate to greenlight a sequel, but even if/when they do you have to wonder where they will go as Singer has really painted this into a corner.
For better or worse the kid is now a thematic element that needs to be paid heed to, at least if Lois is to continue to serve as a major supporting character.
Otherwise we'll get Superman 3 again "didn't you hear Clark, I'm off to Barbados with Richard and the little munchkin for a vacation"
but the other (probably more likely) alternative is to drag out the soap opera (eventually killing off Richard or the kid).

Anybody know what other movies Singer really liked as a kid so we can get some idea of what to expect for the sequel?

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Lets face it once Pirates opens next week, Superman will be history pretty much. Man I didn't expect it to do so poorly.

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I dunno how well Pirates will do. Its no longer a novelty- and if it carries on the tradition of the first films bloat combined with a story that doesn't resolve itself until another movie (and from one review barely even begins to coherently establish its story in this one)- then its pretty much up in the air as far as legs for that one goes.

Its obvious SR isn't going to set the world on fire at the BO, but it will be a big seller on video, and it will, I expect, become the first huge killer app for the HD formats- and if Blu-ray still has problems producing Bd50s at that point, its release on the other format could help comfortablely entrench it for the next few years at least.

I think the film will have ramifications larger than the BO haul would suggest when all is said and done

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Sir, the weekend isn't over yet. It's pretty tough to gauge a movie's financial success on two weekday numbers returns.

As pessimistic as some people are coming off about Superman Returns, how many of you DID NOT have a good time at the theater watching the film? At the end of the day, is that not what it boils down to? Any movie has shortcomings in the eye of the beholder, it's impossible not to.

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Friday estimate is $16.2 million.

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I saw it yesterday at the theater at 12:15 and the theater was virtually empty. My wife and I along with 4 other people, and that's it. I was very surprised.

I liked the movie and give it about an 8.5. The two main problems I had with the movie were:

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

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Hey, at least they didn't invent any new powers, like the fickle finger of levitation, Zod used in Supes 2.

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Doubt it'll be the first killer app. Too many big interim releases. King Kong and Batman Begins are my first "killer" apps, but they haven't shown up yet. Superman *IS* going to look incredible in HD, though.

As for how Supers could lift the rock...a few reasons. One, he bathed in the beautiful yellow sun for a few minutes before heading back. Fresh charge. Two, perhaps he started UNDER where the crystal started so took a while for the radiation to reach him (once he got it into orbit). Three, water attenuates radiation somewhat, so there is a little more protection.

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KK and BB will be big, no doubt- It feels like everyone with a player is waiting for them- but having had a regular dvd release already, I think that has siphoned off a bit of the steam. When Superman hits in the fall, it will be a brand spanking new release, just in time for the Christmas selling season.

Of course if the bo is seriously tepid to begin with...


Has anyone heard if SR will be mastered from the digital files or from a conventional film based source?


Ok I saw this shot in the last trailer, and I was really only expecting it to be seen in the film because in and of itself it was a pretty visual- I was delighted to see that the sequence actually had context. Again one of the rare times the film did something I hadn't seen before in some form or fashion, and did it supremely well.

The more I reflect on this film, the more I'm reminded of Smallville and my feelings about that series in general. There are some things that series did that are still what I consider A++, out of the park interpretation/adaptation/medium modifications- as good for this particular character and unverse as for any other I've seen.
And yet the overall majority of what I've seen from the show just makes me cringe and grind my teeth- not even so much that its out right bad, as much as its repetitious, time consuming wasted effort that sells itself like it is continually new and continually wonderous. in the 5 seasons, there is a truly spectacular 10-20 hour mini series to be found.

So after all this bitching and kvetching, if the theaters are as empty as the bo figures indicate, I may have to hit it again tonight

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Did this film need a different villain? Any thoughts?

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48 Mil in three days probably isn't the start that WB is looking for; I certainly thought it would make somewhere in the 100-120 mil range by the end of Sunday. Now it looks like I was dead wrong, and that it will be a feat in itself to score 100 mil by Sunday.

P.S. Happy Birthday Chuck

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di anyone notice thescene in the Planet offices when superman was on tv and clark just happened to be standing under the tv in the same exact pose.

jason was looking at this and clark looked at him funny or coughed, or something.

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http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?...eviews&Id=9105

I thought this was interesting.

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"One, he bathed in the beautiful yellow sun for a few minutes before heading back. Fresh charge"

Another scene I really liked.

"di anyone notice thescene in the Planet offices when superman was on tv and clark just happened to be standing under the tv in the same exact pose"

Yes I chuckled at that.

" I may have to hit it again tonight"

Tomorrow morning for me.

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I loved this movie - I'd give it a 9/10 with the point taken off mainly for the costume and I think it could have been edited a little more tightly. I didn't like the idea of a kid but there are lots of directions they could go with this - at some point he's gonna start realizing that he's a bit different and Clark is going to want to teach him his heritage.

Has anyone mentioned when Lois and Perry are trying to find Superman in Jimmy's bad photo? "Look, up in the sky" "It's a bird" "It's a plane" Hilarious.