Superman Returns: Post-Movie Discussion (SPOILERS)

[ToasterOnFire]

I thought it was okay. The Superman casting was excellent, loved Spacey as Lex, but I thought it was too long, not enough action and/or a feeling of suspense was missing, and I was bored by the Lois/Superman scenes. I loved the original Lois because of her sassiness but I thought it was missing here.

Glad to see that Lois's beau wasn't painted out to be a jerk and that they didn't go for the cliched "Lois dumps the guy now that Superman is back" plot. The Son of Superman story has lots of potential.

Did anyone else catch the cameo of Richard Branson (owner of Virgin Airlines, major proponent of commercial space travel)? He was one of the astronauts - I recognized him by his accent and facial scruff.

[Blue Banrigh]

Did anyone else catch the cameo of Richard Branson (owner of Virgin Airlines, major proponent of commercial space travel)? He was one of the astronauts - I recognized him by his accent and facial scruff.

I noticed him. I remember seeing him on one entry of Bryan Singer's video blog. I wonder if they approached him or was it the other way around.

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

I noticed him. I remember seeing him on one entry of Bryan Singer's video blog. I wonder if they approached him or was it the other way around.

It was Journal Entry #7- The Call

[HarshCritic]

I hated Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. (Spelling?) He wasn't evil enough for my taste. I just thought oh that is Kevin Spacey trying to be Lex.

[HarshCritic]

I found it hard to take Lex seriously, and I wanted to because there is a certain dignity that I get from Lex in the comics, unlike say, the Penguin.

He was suitably evil, but still more cartoonish. I found Smallville’s Lex to be more believable, which is sad.

And I found the entire Clark/Lois storyline boring.

I was thinking the same thing. I like Smallville's Lex soooooo much better. He wasn't evil enough for me. He didn't have any great supervillian lines.

[GenHammondsBarber]

The movie was excellent.

Now out of the 3 major super heroes--Superman is my least favorite. I kept waiting to be disappointed and before I knew it the movie was over and I enjoy every second of it. I won't give a full all out review.

I will save those for the upcoming stargate season, but if you have not seen it it is worth seeing.

[ladysarah]

I was thinking the same thing. I like Smallville's Lex soooooo much better. He wasn't evil enough for me. He didn't have any great supervillian lines.

I thought for sure he would throw Kit out of the chopper. Now the Lex we know would do that, but no, not only does he surround himself with idiots, he can't even eliminate them effectively.

*sigh* Oh Lex.

[the fifth man]

Personally, I really enjoyed the movie. I thought it was a nice addition to the first two Superman films.

[Giantevilhead]

The Luthor from Superman: The Animated Series would have been a much better villain for Superman. In fact, shows from the DC animated universe are far superior to the DC live action movies. Even when I was watching Batman Begins, which was probably the best DC movie, I just kept thinking about how David Warner's Ra's Al Ghul from the Batman Animated Series is way better than Ken Watanabe and Liam Neeson.

[White Knight]

The Superman movies and their characters - and I'm talking specifically about Lex here - are based on the earlier era of comics, while the animated Superman and the Smallville series were based on the later era.
Before the big 1985 retcon of Superman Lex Luthor was a classy, pure evil scientific genius who was out to destroy Superman and dominate everything he could. After the retcon Lex was a corrupt businessman who, as the head of LexCorp, was not above commiting or arranging all manner of criminal acts in order to further his own ends.
The original Superman movie was made in 1978 and as such all the characters are based on the comic incarnations of that time - ergo, Lex was the campy yet ruthless evil genius. Since Superman Returns follows on from that continuity, Lex is of course similar, however Bryan Singer took pains to make him less campy since his film would be. Personally I like the businessman version of Luthor better than the evil genius version, but they didn't really have a choice as to how to portray Lex in the movie.
That said, I reckon that the next Superman film should make an effort to move Lex from the evil genius to the corrupt businessman by having that be a big part of the story.

[ladysarah]

.
The original Superman movie was made in 1978 and as such all the characters are based on the comic incarnations of that time - ergo, Lex was the campy yet ruthless evil genius. Since Superman Returns follows on from that continuity, Lex is of course similar, however Bryan Singer took pains to make him less campy since his film would be. Personally I like the businessman version of Luthor better than the evil genius version, but they didn't really have a choice as to how to portray Lex in the movie.
That said, I reckon that the next Superman film should make an effort to move Lex from the evil genius to the corrupt businessman by having that be a big part of the story.

Lex didn't come across as being a ruthless evil genius or a corrupt businessman.

I was a child when I saw the original Superman movies, so I wouldn't really know too much about that. But Lex seemed to more like the Penguin. A crime boss, albeit one who likes good music.

But yeah, I get where you're coming across. It would be interesting to see Lex in a more socially acceptable position in the next film, because that's part of the reason Superman can't put him away for good and why he's such a good adversary.

Especially when Lex was President. I also find myself having sympathies for Lex's position on Superman, because really, the world really doesn't need Superman and Superman is potentially the most dangerous thing for humanity. Not some human megolomaniac.

But heh, I'm a Batman girl and I like the comics more.

[White Knight]

I was a child when I saw the original Superman movies, so I wouldn't really know too much about that. But Lex seemed to more like the Penguin. A crime boss, albeit one who likes good music.

My understanding of all that is that when the producers greenlit the original Superman film they had envisioned it as a much campier, funny film, like the 60s "Batman" series. Director Richard Donner compromised with the first film, mixing the serious elements and the campier elements and making characters like Luthor a lot sillier than he would've liked (the narcissism and pretentism, the idiotic sidekick, all the stupid wigs, etc). But when Donner was making Superman II he set about making it a very serious film.
The producers didn't like that so they fired Donner and brought in a new director, Richard Lester, who went the campy route and even went so far as to bring the principal actors back in to reshoot their scenes in a much stupider way (Gene Hackman refused to do any reshoots for Lester, which is why a body double was used in many of the slapstick scenes with Luthor in Superman II).

I hope that shed some light on...something.

[ladysarah]

I hope that shed some light on...something.

Yeah, that's helps a bit. Poor Hackman. Luthor is quite a juicy role for any actor - to get that role and then have it all campy would be a blow.

I liked Spacey playing Lex, and I think he did quite well in some scenes and a couple of lines which I loved but I think a lot of his potential was lost.

One of the problems I had with Lex in this film was his inconsistency, he was cartoonish sometimes but then when he turns around and stabs Superman, that's intense, that's Lex at his most vicious, but it comes out of nowhere. We never got any indication that Lex hated Superman that much, well, other then canon, I mean, yeah, hates Superman, but we never really got any of that intensity before in the movie.

It was bizarre. And then afterwards he's back to his cartoonish self. I got a bit of whiplash from that.

[Blue Banrigh]

One of the problems I had with Lex in this film was his inconsistency, he was cartoonish sometimes but then when he turns around and stabs Superman

I didn't really get that impression of Lex being cartoonish, except for that one time in his bathrobe where he went 'Wois Wane?'

What were the other times?

[ladysarah]

I didn't really get that impression of Lex being cartoonish, except for that one time in his bathrobe where he went 'Wois Wane?'

What were the other times?

The island in the end, when he's trapped on the island with Kitty (and why, what's the attraction to that stupid bint), which was entirely played for laughs. His campy henchmen, the way he treated them.

Overall he wasn't very sinister, I never got any sense of 'oh, this is Lex, he's one scary mother..' except with the stabbing.

Just another crime boss surrounded by morons with another very lame attempt to take over the world. Not the arch-villain, intelligent, twisted Lex I like the most.