:: Captain's Personal Blog ::

Stardate: Monday, September 30, 2002

R-E-S-P-E-C-T ---- A post I wrote to Ain't-It-Cool-News.com. It's about the new Superman Film.

You know what? I'm a pretty strange guy. I'm a Superman fan. I can take certain changes in the character, others I am not too fond of.

I am a BIG fan of John Byrne's revamped history of Superman. So much so, that in the recent RETURN TO KRYPTON II storyline, when that history was threatened, I was a bit upset.

My feelings on the "Pre-Crisis" Superman are this: It was a great springboard for the new stuff. Look at it as a whole. It was (at best) a convoluted mess that eventually created a character with outrageous villains, because they were the only ones good enough to beat him. How do you stop a guy who shugs off a nuclear blast and can juggle planets? Plus, if a man can move so fast as to break the time barrier, why can't he be everywhere at once? These are just some of the smaller examples of why Superman, circa 1985, was in a bad way.

Aside from making Superman weaker (a welcome change) Byrne emphasized the fact that Superman is, in essence, a living solar battery (thank goodness we no longer had to deal with "red sun guns.") Also, if he couldn't store the energy, how could he really travel the universe?

Past that, Byrne erased the one question that always plagued me. When did Superman decide to tell the world that he even had a secret identity? The glasses-as-a-disguise bit works much better when you consider that no one is trying to find him.

Finally, there was the all-important change of realizing that Superman was not disguised as Clark Kent, but that Clark Kent was disguised as Superman. Clark did not have to be a bumbling boob, he just had to be an ordinary guy, because that's who he really was and had always been. It was also these stories (which sometimes included the no-longer-dead Ma and Pa Kent) which truly set the new stories above the stories of old.

With little exception I also like Smallville. DESPITE THE FACT that Metropolis now appears to be in Kansas, right next to Smallville. This is probably THE BIGGEST sticking point with me. I have come to accept the fact that Lex and Clark were friends as teens. To me this could lay the groundwork for the most realistic representation of their adult relationship and why Superman really wants to get Luthor. Maybe it is also about a sense of betrayal.

What's the point of all of this? Simple. What the honchos at Warners and what any writer REALLY needs to do is pay the respect which is due to the character. This was something the Richard Donner did, and Richard Lester did not. VERSIMILITUDE was key. Why? Not because the audience wants to see the dark, nitty gritty world. It's because the fantasy and allure of characters like Superman is to wonder what if they existed in OUR WORLD. Not some imaginary world with multi-colored characters walking around. Superman in the real world is what the audience wants.

In a way, I think that is what makes the Businessman Lex Luthor so appealing. As a Mad Genius, Supervillain, there wasn't much to the character. Is losing one's hair really a reason to want to kill someone? No. A thirst and a quest for power are much heartier. I once took an acting class and was taught the term "Por Las Buenas." It's the sense that when you play a character you must realize that no one BELIEVES that they are bad. They are doing something to achieve some good, even if it is only for them. Any villain who says "I am Evil!! Evil will be supreme" is unrealistic or insane. And what's more frightening? A person who hurts and kills because he is insane, or one who does so despite his "sanity?"

The people at Warners need to make a good movie. Donner got it right because he knew this (although I'm still not OVERLY thrilled with Gene Hackman's Luthor because he fits the older mold -- No offense to Hackman who did a marvelous job.) Keep Superman who he is. The Last Son of Krypton, who is raised by Human parents with Human values, who merely strives to do the best he can.
:: J 9:55 AM [+] ::
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