The problem with Superman...

The problem with Superman...

Greetings fellow CBMers! Resident CBMer "LP4" here with yet another riveting and yet vastly controversial editorial piece on my personal feelings about live-action Supermen as of late.

Editorial Opinion
By LP4 - Jun 14, 2011 08:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Superman

The last truly good live-action performance for Superman, many widely consider to be that of Christopher Reeve in 1982- (SupermanII) in recent years we've seen actors trying to portray Superman...and bring their own spin to the mythology.

Here's my personal beef with them...

Superman is a beacon of hope...he is the greatest superhero of them all FOR A REASON.

The following pictures can kinda give you all a glimpse into why I believe Superman has been able to remain relevant and believable to a modern crowd...






I agree with most people here that Superman doesn't necessarily need to be a grotesquely muscle-bound freak. But at the same time he is NO pushover and I feel these pictures captured just how his muscles should look.

My issue now is with his live-action interpretations. So far I feel they've all been very "weak" now I know loads of routh/welling fans are going to come in here and start trashtalking me for voicing my opinion but I'm going to do it anyway...some things just NEED to be said.

I will actually let the pictures speak for themselves...





Now I actually like Tom Welling, I will always be a supporter of the guy. But at the same time...I can see why people got so pissed about the distance shots of him in CGI form. Just seemed really weak.

Now...we have our newest Superman...Martin Richardson...the guy looks like a skinny and creepy child-molester. The fan film already sounded weak with Superman losing his powers and all...(SupermanII anyone?) especially after the BORING, EMO, WHINEY Superman Returns movie we got in 2006. But now with Martin Richardson portraying a creepy-looking Superman, I think I'm going to skip 'Requiem' altogether.

This is why Superman hasn't worked well in live-form as of late...because of the lame decisions by corporate-suits- Singer/Dougherty and Harris- 'Superman Returns'...Peterson and Souders- 'Smallville' and now Gene Fallaize with this 'Requiem' bullshit.

Altogether they just all seem weak...SR, Smallville and Requiem, dear god no wonder people can't take Superman seriously. It's because of stupid filmmakers who THINK they "get" Superman and obviously want to go all artsy with him. Look Superman shouldn't be a difficult character to interpret. Just give us fans a believable actor in the role with a decent script and we're all good.

I shall await the hater-comments...but in all honesty...

when will we as fans ever get to see the REAL Superman? That's a question that needs to be addressed in the upcoming reboot. Because...I'm still waiting to see this guy show up...



And only time will tell if he ever does...
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thebamf
thebamf - 6/14/2011, 8:54 AM
That Alex Ross pic IS Superman. That is the [frick]ing standard right there. Anything less is not acceptable for an icon such as Superman.
LP4
LP4 - 6/14/2011, 9:14 AM
@ZombieCap- Agreed dude!!!

Sadly we haven't seen him on film yet. Maybe...someday.

We can only hope. I mean so far all we've gotten lately are mediocre Supermen.
MoonDoggyX
MoonDoggyX - 6/14/2011, 9:35 AM
Welling and Routh have pretty big builds. Any bigger and the Clark Kent disguise would be too unbelievable... Example: Thor's build would be too big...
jbak368
jbak368 - 6/14/2011, 9:38 AM
Y'know who looks just like the Alex Ross version?
...
Jon Hamm.
Twenty23Three
Twenty23Three - 6/14/2011, 9:59 AM
@LP4 I read a lot of what you have to say on this site, as a superman fan its hard to avoid your opinion but this time I feel I have to disagree. When it comes to a live action Superman I think that a great big actor who is mature enough to represent the Superman in the pictures you have shown just would not have the box office pull to sell a movie. The 3rd picture is probably the closest to what you will get, big but with not the crazy bulging muscles. The general public just wouldn't want to see an Alex Ross Superman.
TheLight
TheLight - 6/14/2011, 11:01 AM
And by September, Supes reputation and legacy will be flushed down the rebooted toilet. What a way to honor our first superhero.
Hellsing
Hellsing - 6/14/2011, 11:13 AM
long as he punch's some on in the reboot I couldn't careless to be honest with how much muscle he has. And seriously stop with the Jon Hamm thing the dude's 5'11, If some ones gonna play superman they should be over 6'1
JorEl77
JorEl77 - 6/14/2011, 11:13 AM
I still think they should have gone with Jon Hamm portraying an older already established Superman in Man of Steel.That last picture here in this article looks exactly like him.Superman is my all time favorite superhero out of both DC & Marvel together,but I'm just not excited about the new movie.It feels too much like Superman 2 all over again.Unless they surprise us with Brainiac towards the end of the movie,my excitement level is just down.
BigK1337
BigK1337 - 6/14/2011, 11:14 AM
@LP4
Considering the fact that Snyder is dubbed a "visual director", I am sure he can somehow get that inspiring feel that Superman have displayed througout all forms of art.

Seriously, the reason behind Superman looking good in art is because he is made for the comics. Zac Snyder is a master at recreating comics into live action movies, and making it look as spectacular as its literature counterpart. This idea will prove that we (the Superman fans)will all get the inspiring Superman on the big screen.
JM4Superman
JM4Superman - 6/14/2011, 11:20 AM
Martin does look like he's going to molest kids and Tom was a punk for not actually wearing the suit.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/UltimateSuperman/news/?a=39421
LP4
LP4 - 6/14/2011, 11:22 AM
@Jbak and HalJordan- THANK YOU GUYS!!! Hell yeah, Jon Hamm FTW!!!

@HalJordan- I like your idea. I wanted Jon Hamm to also play an already long-established Superman with a serious chip on his shoulder! Make him edgier.

@Twenty23Three- No worries dude. That's what this site is for. I respect your well-informed opinions. =D
LP4
LP4 - 6/14/2011, 11:39 AM
@JM4Superman- Yeah dude! lol

He looks hella creepy
LP4
LP4 - 6/14/2011, 12:29 PM
@TheLight- True my friend...Gene Fallaize can eat shit. As a Superman-fan I'm avoiding this garbage. Our greatest and first superhero deserves better. He's the KING of the Golden Age of comics! He's practically...Elvis Presley, lol. Superman is great. Glad all us Superman-fans can come here and talk about this stuff...I needed an outlet lol
Frogman
Frogman - 6/14/2011, 12:54 PM
I don't really expect people to be that excited for Man of Steel yet as we haven't seen anything from it yet because it hasn't even begun filming. It clearly won't be Superman II again. The Dark Knight was far from Batman (1989) or Batman Forever even though it reused villains.

Anyway Cavill has been working out so he will be muscular but I doubt he'll be hugely bulky. This is why we need to be patient and wait for MoS to actually start filming so we can start seeing stuff from it. I can't wait for that first picture of Cavill as Supes.
naterator
naterator - 6/14/2011, 1:15 PM
@LP4 ...I think that the arguement should be more along the lines of "the problem with hollywood on Superman". I know that you and i have had our differences on SUperman and we also have agreed on a number of things however dude i would have to say that this article has got to be your weakest contribution of them all. Its simply a re-hashing of all previous contributuions you have set forth. We all hear you in regards to your HATE towards RETURNS and ROUTH...and SINGER....and DONNER....and and and...so we can all let those arguments rest cant we? On those particular things you and i have strongly disagreed but "its all good"...

HOwever! NOBODY is going to disagree with you in regards to REQUIEM. WHo knew PEE WEE HERMAN was gonna get the part? A better question would have to be "is GENE really a FAN"? Something is terribly wrong here. I do not believe i will be viewing REQUIEM either. this guy is borderline petite.

All i know is that WB/DC really need to pull out all the stops for this next installment. With the faith that thy apparently have in NOLAN,,,,they need to offer a huge budget like that of GL and truely give us something amazing....since SUPERMAN still IS the POSTERBOY for the companies,,,is he not?
LP4
LP4 - 6/14/2011, 3:01 PM
@naterator- Superman Returns sucked. ZERO action, ZERO suspense (give up on that plane scene, it wasn't that great really) the movie just sucked. Kevin Spacey with his mole of a gf? Give me a fu*king break.

I hated Superman Returns for GOOD reason. It RUINED Superman.

This isn't my weakest contribution, I am going to continue battling against the Singerites and Routhites for the rest of my life.

Sorry if unlike YOU I actually want a GOOD film for Big Blue for once. Something that ISN'T donner, something that is NEW and FRESH. Something with some ACTION. Superman actually throwing a fu*king punch would be nice to see. I guess you prefer to see a movie where Superman is just sitting around sipping tea, right? Yeah. [frick] that.
ar8898
ar8898 - 6/14/2011, 3:16 PM
Superman should look like a MANLY MAN, not a skinny gay guy in a costume. He should be a buff and confident badass, not a twerp like the guys in the above pics. I hope that the recent pictures of a buff Henry Cavil will finally give us fans the live action Superman that we have wanted for years. Not a bodybuilder but definitely a guy with form.
LP4
LP4 - 6/14/2011, 3:20 PM
@ar8898- Yep, hopefully dude! Thanks for taking the time out to see my editorial. Hopefully we get the MANLY Superman. Alex Ross would've been a great way to go...Superman was aged...but not too much, he was manly, buff and more assertive. That's how a Superman in a film should be.

It's people like naterator that don't seem to want anything NEW with the Superman films. He'd rather they stuck with the Donner stuff...brought back routh, toned down the action (pfft!) he loved Superman Returns for god knows what reason!

Superman Returns was the ultimate ass-raping of our beloved hero. It's people like naterator that just want the Superman franchise to be run into the ground with crappy, boring films.

My favorite comicbook Superman? Alex Ross all the way-

THIS is a REAL Superman. Not the mess we had in 2006...little wimpy superboy getting kicked and strangled in the mud by kevin spacey and [frick]ing KUMAR. -_-
LP4
LP4 - 6/14/2011, 3:27 PM
Perhaps I was being a little too rough on naterator. I think i know why him and I are such polar opposites when it comes to Big Blue. Naterator is older than me...he probably grew up more with the Donner films. Those movies were classics...yes...but they were BORING AS [frick]. I'm sorry but they were. I read somewhere where someone stated that the Donner flicks were more focused on the romantic side of Superman. Yeah romance that explains why the movies were so f'n boring.

I on the other hand was born in 1986. So i grew up in the 90's with the animated Superman series. In that show, Superman was MANLY...he fought and fought HARD. He fought fist-to-FIST with Darkseid...he fought a lot in that show. That's probably why naterator and i are so different. We were both instilled with different opinions from our upbringings. He prefers the more character-centered aspects of Superman movies. I just happen to want more action and overall FIGHTING.

Thank God Snyder is on board as director.
naterator
naterator - 6/14/2011, 4:09 PM
@LP4....a little rough? nah...you just dont understand. you want a Superman will all action and no depth. Yes i am older than you but i dont want to see boring Superman movies. The Donner flicks were superb and epic for their time. Returns continued the Donnerverse....and it served its purpose....it captured his RETURN. I just see potential where you do not. A sequel to Returns could have been epic and exactly what you were looking for. BUT because you didnt get what you wanted the first time around you demanded a rebooted and unfortunatly WB has agreed to do so. NOW with the reboot in progress and the cast that has been chosen...i am VERY EXCITED to see what comes of it and i hope to god it doesnt FLOP and i dont think it will ....i believe it will be epic....but what i want is there to be an epic TRILOGY and not just an epic STANDALONE....if all this is a standalone i hope that they will bring ROUTH back to move forward with a few mnore movies and also JLA with BALE and REYNOLDS....i guess what im saying is that movieng forward it either needs to be with cavill or routh ,,,,not another new face.
ar8898
ar8898 - 6/14/2011, 4:19 PM
Bottom line is that we have already had several films about Superman drooling over Lois Lane. It's time to kick some ass! This is the most powerful man in the universe, it's time to see what he can do.
Twenty23Three
Twenty23Three - 6/14/2011, 4:26 PM
I personally can deal with either big and bulky Superman or a Routh sized Superman, because in my mind I can justify both body types for the Man of Steel. Want to know what I feel needs to be changed/ gotten rid of? (braces self for the rage of the Superman purists) The spit curl. I can understand the suit being all bright and old fashioned, it shows he is not a man to be feared to the general public, but the spit curl really should be gone it just looks ridiculous to see in the 21st century.
LP4
LP4 - 6/14/2011, 4:30 PM
@Splenda- Thanks dude. I know a lot of people love the donner stuff but i mean...yeah they were classics but they were [frick]ing boring as hell. First film Superman didn't hit anything because it was land-grabber lex. 2nd film he did fight a bit with Zod but the fight scenes really weren't that good because of the time period it was released in. Then Superman Returns again...he didn't hit anything because YET AGAIN- land grabber lex.

It needs to stop for christ' sake!!! Can we PLEASE get a good Superman film for once???!
ar8898
ar8898 - 6/14/2011, 4:30 PM
I don't mind the spit curl as long as it looks somewhat natural. It looked good on Chris Reeve but Brandon Routh's spit curl didn't look natural at all. You could tell that it was forced and it looked absolutely ridiculous.
LP4
LP4 - 6/14/2011, 4:37 PM
@naterator- Dude give it up- Routh is DONE. He did the dylan dog job and every reviewers i read so far has trashed routh as being "wooden" in the film...as per usual. I read a magazine in Target and it talked about the reboot and it mentioned routh as being "wooden" and "uncharismatic".

In any case, yeah I didn't get what i wanted out of the first Singer-Superman film because the film SUCKED. I waited nearly 2 [frick]ing decades for a new film only for it to be Superman, not throwing a single [frick]ing punch and just not doing anything the entire time, he was forgettable in the movie. Kevin Spacey was the REAL star in that film and Lois' husband was in my personal opinion the REAL hero in that trashy film.

2 decades of waiting for a new Superman film only to see Superman being kicked and strangled by Kevin Spacey and KUMAR??!

Are you [frick]ing kidding me?

For a guy who says he loves Superman, I'm amazed you support SHITTY movies for that guy. I'm amazed you'd prefer they run the Superman franchise into the DIRT.

Well for your information naterator- Donner is finally FINISHED. Stick a fork in him, he's DONE. NO MORE. NADA. ZIPPO.

He had his nearly 3 hour homage film at the expense of Superman's own dignity.

Sad thing is even the casting was pathetic. Singer casted for Chris Reeve. He didn't cast for SUPERMAN. He admitted it in 2006 that he chose Routh only for his uncanny resemblance to Reeve. It is a SUPERMAN movie, not a CHRISTOPHER REEVE movie. Cast for SUPERMAN not Reeve. Stupid singer.

And yeah routh doesn't look that much like reeve anyway. Maybe yeah if i squint my eyes and tilt my head a certain way i can see a slight resemblance. ;P
LP4
LP4 - 6/14/2011, 4:49 PM
Let me put it this way...

if i wanna see a movie with a guy talking about his feelings the entire time, i'll go see "Dear John"

But if I wanna see a guy KICKING serious ass and saving people, then I'll see a Superman movie.

In fact...Dear John had more action than Superman Returns. That is sad.

@naterator- Oh and one last thing- I NEVER said i wanted the movie to be all action and no story. You're being a little douchebag by putting words in my mouth. I want the film to have action AND story. It's got to balance BOTH, it can't have one overriding the other. You admitted you loved Superman Returns, well SR was ALL story and ZERO action. So there you go, you don't want action in a Superman flick- PLAIN [frick]ING ENGLISH.

Well you got your boring trash heap movie. Time for you to stop being so selfish and let other people have the movie they've wanted and waited so long for.
JDUKE25
JDUKE25 - 6/14/2011, 8:07 PM
Honestly, I could care less about how off the Clark Kent disguise appears if he's really big. I want to see a BIG Superman. Besides, there's guys that have a big build walking around all the time. Just because he has a big build shouldn't throw the Clark Kent disguise down the drain.

I go to the theater to see SUPERMAN flying around kicking tail, throwing punches, displaying his full strength. NOT to see Clark Kent roaming around with his personal problems. Yes that helps with the story, but isn't the main thing I want to see. I don't want Superman's look to come in to jeopardy because it may make CLark Kent's disguise a little unbelievable.

P.S. Thor's build is around the appropriate size that Supes should be, if not bigger.
LP4
LP4 - 6/14/2011, 8:09 PM
@JDUKE25- Dude I totally agree with you man. We've had 10 years of Clark Kent already and no Superman. I'm hoping for that reason alone, Snyder won't prioritize the need for Clark Kent over the need for Superman in this movie.
LordHuck
LordHuck - 6/14/2011, 8:45 PM
Please don’t ever post older Jim Lee Superman art and suggest that is how a live action Superman should look. Lee is a great COMIC artist. Jim Lee exaggerates human anatomy. He often draws human characters with impossible proportions.

That pic wit the bullets you posted is a prime example. Superman’s forearms are wider than his head, by a lot. No Human on the planet has or will ever look like that.

Jim Lee does not draw Superman in a way that a Human Actor could portray.

Most of those other pics are not of Superman wearing a costume. There are of a NUDE Superman wearing only briefs, boots and a cape. His skin is painted blue and the \S/ painted on too. No fabric on this planet is tight or sheer enough to show that much muscle definition.

Only the 3rd and last pic are remotely achievable, by any human actor.

LordHuck
LordHuck - 6/14/2011, 8:57 PM
As far as a convincing Live Action Superman in the Alex Ross vein. I have only ever seen one actor who could have pulled it off, problem is..he is 84 years old now.

Clint Walker. A little tall at 6’5” but otherwise he would have been perfect.



Photobucket
Caedus137
Caedus137 - 6/15/2011, 3:31 AM
Im sorry...have I missed something? Who's that last bloke and where's Henry Cavill?
TheLight
TheLight - 6/15/2011, 7:59 AM
@LP4

Glad we all can talk about the greatest superhero ever to have been drawn.

@LordHuck

He would have been a perfect Kingdom Come Superman.
naterator
naterator - 6/15/2011, 11:42 AM
ok Loopty Poo 4 year old.

at least i comment on your articles...oh and apparently you doo doo too.
Nearly half of the comments on here are yours. at least you can agree with yourself.
LP4
LP4 - 6/15/2011, 2:38 PM
@naterator- Ok gay-tera-Tard

You the ultimate hypocrite. You campaigned for routh and singer to return to do a sequel to Superman Returns. You BASHED me for wanting a reboot like this.

You and the rest of your buddies are the ultimate hypocrites.
naterator
naterator - 6/16/2011, 2:34 PM


NatDuv
NatDuv - 8/28/2011, 8:20 PM
@LP4, I'm not quite sure if you know this, but the only Superman movie to have nothing but "kicking butt and saving people" was Superman IV...and look how much that one sucked.
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