This is how I hope the new trilogy goes: The rise and fall of Superman. Tom Welling as Superman, though I loved Routh, too. Part one: Lex Luthor can be a present threat and villain IF they do Rosenbaum's Lex and get rid of Hackman's archetype. Part two: Darkseid. 'Nuff said. Part three: Doomsday. If done right, Superman's death would be like a train wreck. There wouldn't be a dry eye in the place. Warm and fuzzies all around, and then BOOM! You feel like your insides have been kicked out. And I hope they keep that alternate forties feel that Returns had. You have to admit, whether you liked the film or not, it had some beautiful set designs.
Honestly, I'd hate to see Darkseid and Doomsday. They would only get re-imagined and come out looking horrible much like Deadpool or worse. Superman has several enemies they could use without reaching the ZOMG! levels of those two characters. Metallo, Parasite, Toyman, and Bizarro should come before Darkseid and Doomsday. Plus, all those characters can include Lex Luthor as the mastermind behind them without Lex being the main villain for once.
Lobo would be great too, if they could do him justice. And yes, Ryan Reynolds is one reason why I am skipping Wolverine altogether. These companies need to get a clue and hire directors that actually give a crap about the subject matter they're working on like Favreau. He's an actual fan. And the final product was beautiful and perfectly executed.
I think metallo would be awesome. They could actually have Lex incorporated (because he has to be) by creating Metallo. Or introduce Prof Hamilton and STAR Labs creating the Parasite.
I'd rather they keep Routh, Spacey and Co. and forgo any sort of reboot. Like others have said, have Lex be behind one of the more earthly villains and go from there. I liked Returns, even the whole father<->son kid angle. I wasn't all that interested at the time and the bad word of mouth didn't help matters, so I waited for DVD, and then waited some more. Routh was great, although better as Clark than Supes as LoT said earlier, but I totally bought the idea that it was the same character as Reeve; Spacey was better than Hackman, not that I ever disliked Hackman's Lex before. I watched the ever-lovin' shit out of the first two Superman movies as a kid at the dawn of VHS, before I got all jaded and decided the character sucked, and Returns practically had me at the credit sequence alone. I consider it to be a proper part 3 that makes up for the ridiculous III and IV and can serve as the final movie of a trilogy. I'd rather they just go forward from where things stand, but I'll watch a reboot and judge it on its own. If they do reboot though, do it like The Incredible Hulk and don't blow the first hour on the origin. Coupla flashbacks scattered about and/or credits montage is enough.
This lex luthor is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy over played as a movie villain I mean is there a movie where he's not the villain? Also how about a credible costume that joe shmoe movie goer would want to see as opposed to another lame ass version of superman's lame ass traditional costume. Be bold there are a few "Super" costumes that aren't totally lame "God Fall", and the last red and blue Kon El costume before switching to plain clothes. I prefer it without the jacket though.
I agree with many of the things stated in this thread, but I don't think anybody wants to see a different Superman costume. By this point, the Superman costume is something you do not mess with. It's iconic, like Spider-Man's suit. I was among the army of rabid fanboys that nitpicked every little nuance of Routh's costume and decreed that the costume was a failure. Little did I know that the movie had bigger problems. A wholly new costume will be quite hard to swallow, in addition to the gargantuan effort it will take to actually get people interested in Superman again. If the movie must have a new costume at all, I rather prefer the way Superman Returns did it. Superman seemed to wear a gray costume as a space suit. The cartoon movie Superman: Doomsday had him wear a neat black-and-white costume when he returned from the dead. I don't mind temporary costumes, but to change the hero's regularcostume would go too far in Superman's case.
He wore something just like it in the return of superman when he was recharging I think it necessary. kids and long time fans are the only ones who even like the "iconic" costume. Part of the batman movie success formula is taking only the most basic of concepts from the iconic costume and making something not lame out of it thus we have a series of batman armor costumes begins and DK had pretty cool one. Superman doesn't need armor but he does need to not be lame and his classic costume is nothing but lame. They can keep the colors, cape and S shield those are the basics but they have to make something good out of those elements.
I think they've done everything they can with Luthor, the franchises refusal to get away from that has hurt it some I think. Movies, and comics too. They need to remind people why we should care about Superman, and that's through Clark Kent. And brooding through a window while he plays peeping tom to his ex ain't it. Needs a big villain too, sadly Supes rogue gallery is kinda lame... Metallo'd be as good as anybody I can think of, and could even offer some kick too, although the constant Kryptonite cheat in pretty much every single Superman movie is so tired now something something that is tired.
Superman III. I liked Superman Returns. I loved Brandon Routh. I was just sad that Singer's love song to Donner's film was a retread in some places. Even seeing it as a soft reboot, catching the plane as Superman always seems to do to introduce himself to Metropolis and Lex's real estate schemes wiping out one of the coasts of North America... yeah, it was a little much. But the film was still very enjoyable. I'd like to see a sequel, but moved on a couple of years, and not featuring Lex so much. While he's a great villian in these films, I want to see someone (other than Nuclear Man) who can pose a physical threat to Superman. Have Lex pulling the strings, by all means, as the brains of the operation, but have someone who makes Superman go all out rather than just... "Haha! I could kill you just with my heat vision, but I won't because I represent an ideal."
Superman Returns was only good up to the point where it was hinted at that he has a son.....with super-strength.....and asthma. That was quite horrible. Also, I personally didn't think Spacey was a good enough Lex. He just wasn't "evil genious" enough for my taste.
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I'm just hoping that this reboot isn't a complete retelling of the Superman mythos AGAIN. If my mother knows the backstory behind Superman, it doesn't need retelling. It's been told and retold in comics, cartoons, etc. for years. In the Dark Knight, no one had to explain the Joker, where he came from, why he was the way he was, since he was a fully-formed character upon his arrival. Plus, he is famous enough that he needs no introduction. It's the same with Supes. They need to begin it with Superman as a fully-formed entity, since we've had eight seasons of Krypton and Smallville on the small screen. And Routh's suit needs to stay. It was great.
It would never fly, no pun intended. They tried changing his costume(and powers) in the comics a few years back. I personally liked the white and blue suit and energy powers. But apparently the public outcry was so bad that they changed him back to normal by the end of that year. So if it was that bad over a change in the comics, changing his costume for a movie would probably be worse. Some superheroes are just too inconic to mess around with like that. Superman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Wonder Woman, The Flash...etc.
The way I see it, there's a nice and easy villain who can be worked into the origin story, without the reboot. Brainiac. Take the current comic incarnation - with his legions of drones, his skull ship, his own hulking persona - and make him the villain of the film. Not only would you get the origin in there - by showing Brainiac's attack on the planet Krpton and causing its destruction, directly or otherwise - but you've got plenty of scope to show Superman in a fight. Brainiac drones, lots of robots for Superman to smash. Brainiac himself could fight on more than one level, using the brain drain technique to try to play on Superman's own failings and weaknesses, giving a chance to develop the character, and show Superman as more than just someone with powers, but the determination and righteousness to make good on them. Now, another thing a new Superman movie ought to do is play on Superman's personality. There's an ideal character arc you could bring to bear. Superman fails to save someone early on. He's fighting a villain, a bank robber or something mundane. He stops them, but in the process, a couple of innocent civilians are hurt / killed / paralysed for life. So Superman starts to doubt himself. "I've got the powers to change the course of mighty rivers. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive. But when it really counted, all that power meant nothing." It's the kind of juicy plot thread that could help to flesh Superman out as a character with mortal failings, still super-powerful, but at the end of the day, a man all the same below the surface. And in the Brainiac mind-attack sequence, you could have this resolve itself by Superman realising that the difference between him and Brainiac is because he is human, and not a machine. And that is why he will defeat Brainiac without fail and save the Earth. That's roughly how I'd do it anyway.
Cheetatron, Galaxy Convoy: I have to defend the Superman costume here. Batman and the X-Men's suits change every few years because, well, these characters aren't immortal. They need to change their suits every once in a while to spice things up. EG, Cyclops might need to fight a Sentinel so he'll get the anti-laser costume or something. If Batman needs to fight Mr. Freeze, he'll put on the anti-freeze costume. Superman is immortal. He's like a walking, talking American flag. He doesn't need any specialized suits because his skin is tougher than Batman's toughest armor. All attempts to mix things up a bit and change iconic costumes such as Superman and Spider-Man have met with failure. It might seem arbitrary why, for example, Spider-Man's costume is sacred yet Batman's costume can change, but it is what it is. Just about the only well-received alternate Superman costume that comes to mind is Alex Ross' Kingdom Come (alternate universe) costume, which is almost identical to the classic costume anyway, except for a different S-symbol. And I'm sure that costume would not receive such a warm welcome if DC tried to make it the current continuity's costume. You can change some parts of the costume. Routh had a 3D, small chest-S, and Reeve had a big 2D S. 90s cartoon Superman and Routh had no S on the cape. Routh's cape went into the neckline, and Reeve's connected to the shoulders. Book Superman's cape flows over his shoulders entirely like the capes from 300. There is variation. However, changing Superman's costume is unacceptable to many Superman fans, including me. Those who think the classic costume is "lame" probably aren't the demographic the Superman movies are targeting anyway, so I don't think WB will lament the loss of business. The problem with the Superman series is not Superman himself. There is nothing broken about Superman. The formula worked since 1938, and it continues to work in the comics, the 90s cartoons, and (I believe) some future live-action movie that has yet to come out. The problem does not lie with Superman's costume or his powers. Changing Superman's appearance and personality is the wrong way to go. The right movie must create the right story, atmosphere, and tone that make people care about Superman again. Singer changed Superman too much by introducing Superman's son, and he inserted these characters into exactly the same story we saw in 1978, and it apparently killed the Donner/Singer continuity. Fox went too far changing, well, all the mutants' personalities and powers, and they changed Wolverine from a Sean Connery-esque killer into a harmless Roger Moore-esque positive role model leader-guy. It would be a mistake to change Superman to fit some industry standard that will please studio executives. To make the opposite example, Nolan did not change Batman's psychology one bit. Nolan changed everything else. Gotham became from a noir city to a neon light city to, shock, a real city. The villains used to be gimmicky caricatures, and Nolan made them into real people. Nolan did not change the characters' psychology, but he changed the world they live in. As a result, I don't think anybody thinks Nolan's continuity is disloyal to Batman's spirit. I'm not saying we need to put Superman into a realistic Nolan-y world, but the next movie needs to craft a story that makes Superman real, not to change Superman into something unrecognizable, like Jackman's Wolverine. Misatokitty: Ah, Superman III. Lex was still kind of the villain in that one, too. Robert Vaughn's character was a blatant Lex ripoff, complete with a sidekick ripoff of Ms. Teschmacher.
Comics being the medium aimed at and purchased almost exclusively by the only demographics that like the costume seems like a pretty bad benchmark for what the movie going audience will like. Don't you think? I'm with you though the electric costume was way better but I wouldn't want to se it as anything other than temporary in the movie universe The ultimate universe proves you could do a lot with the looks of "iconic" super heroes and still be successful with the demograpics that liked the looks of said iconic heroes. The succesful comicbook movies have done the same and proved movie going public likes/prefers less lame costumes. Combine this knowledge together and you have yourself a winner
Yeah...you did notice that Ult. Spider-man's is exactly like his 616 costume. The Hulk isn't redesigned at all and Cap's uniform is nearly identical also. The big three iconics of the Marvel universe had little to no changes made to them. But Superman's costume is far from lame BTW. It is classic just like Spider-man's costume. But really your conjecture of the lameness of Superman's costume in relation to other comic book movies is simply that...baseless conjecture. Though I would really like to know how the current comic movies have proven that the public doesn't like so-called "lame" costumes. How exactly have they done this?
