We Need to Talk About Superman

I don't want to know how he feels about leaping tall buildings, I just want to watch the man fly

A few nights ago I saw Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and left the theater kind of frustrated. I did not hate the movie like the gang of obsolete film critics so desired, I actually thought the movie was mostly enjoyable. What was so frustrating was the way actor Henry Cavill and director Zack Snyder treated the Man of Steel. There was no humor, very little humility, and no awe to the last son of Krypton. These problems were in Man of Steel and they were present once again in Batman v Superman (I will not keep writing the full title, you know what movie I am talking about). Once I took a few days to think about the movie, and tell my closest friends all about it, I started to realize that Cavill and Snyder were not ruining my love for a big screen Superman, the actual Man of Steel is what is wrong.

I adore Superman. He is far and away my favorite comic book hero. As a member of Generation X I grew up with the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. I even remember seeing the third and fourth films, and not hating film forever (they are horrible movies, do not see them). I was willing to give anything Superman a pass. By the time the "Death of Superman" comic series came out I was too old to be buying comics, but I bought those stories. I watched Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and played the horrid N 64 game. While many of my peers were moving on to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I was watching Smallville.  In more recent years I have started to seek out Superman comics again. I am very fond of graphic novels like Red Son, Kingdom Come, and All Star Superman. Anything related to Superman and I was interested. I was especially interested in any movies that would feature the boy in blue with a red cape.

In 2006, almost twenty years after Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, we finally got a new big screen adventure for the Man of Steel. Superman Returns hit the theaters a year after Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale redeemed the film version of the Dark Knight with Batman Begins. Many people, myself included, were hoping that director Bryan Singer and actor Brandon Routh could bring the big blue boyscout into the 21st century. Unfortunately Superman Returns was a fairly boring rehash of the Richard Donner / Christopher Reeve vision for the last son of Krypton. The only new power given to the Man of Steel was the ability to be a deadbeat dad to a very confused child. Superman Returns was not considered a critical or box office success. The 20th century version of Kal-El was not ready for 21st century audiences.

In order to create a Superman for the modern movie goer, Warner Brothers tapped The Dark Knight Trilogy's Christopher Nolan to produce and Watchmen's Zack Snyder to direct the latest reboot. Relative unknown Henry Cavill was tasked with bringing to life a modern look at Clark Kent / Superman. Man of Steel opened in the summer of 2013 to tepid reviews and fairly good box office. Many of the critics disliked the movie because of it's lack of humor and the overall darkness that surrounds one of America's earliest comic book heroes. The final destructive battle between Superman, General Zod, and the other Kryptonians is often held up as the biggest failure to Man of Steel. How many people died in Metropolis? Why did Superman not take Zod to the moon and fight? Why did Superman kill Zod? I was part of the chorus of people asking these questions. I was blaming Nolan, Snyder, and Cavill for smearing the good name of my favorite superhero.

This brings me back to Batman v Superman and my overall frustration. Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder, and Henry Cavill once again presented us with a violent and dour Superman. Even Clark Kent is humorless and jerky. I found myself getting bored and annoyed whenever Superman, and his friends like Lois Lane and Perry White were on the screen. Whenever I saw Batman/Bruce Wayne, or Wonder Woman/Diana Prince, or Alfred, I was enjoying a great movie. I personally loved Ben Affleck's performance as a violent and unhinged Dark Knight. Jeremy Irons is now my favorite Alfred ever. The little bit of time Gal Gadot gets as Diana Prince, and the criminally less amount of time she gets as Wonder Woman, are incredible. My only real problems with Batman v Superman were the parts with the Man of Steel. That was frustrating because Superman is my favorite of all the heroes. He is the best of the Super Friends, the greatest of the Justice League, and the comic book hero all others should be judged by. Why can I not get a good Superman on my big screen?

The week before I went out to see Batman v Superman, I watched Man of Steel again. I really enjoyed the movie. It had been a couple of years since I first saw it in the theater, but I feel like time has been good to that movie. The opening scenes on Krypton are awesome. Russell Crowe's Jor-El and Michael Shannon's Zod are great takes on classic characters. The action scenes are easy to follow, and quite exciting. The plot is well executed and the character motivations make perfect sense. I really enjoyed Man of Steel, I just did not care that much for Superman. Then I figured it all out. It is not Bryan Singer, Brandon Routh, Zack Snyder, or Henry Cavill that are ruining Superman. It is the character of Superman that is ruining these movies.

In the comics Superman is all powerful (most of the time) and all good (again most of the time). The Christopher Reeve films focus on Clark Kent and how he fits in a world he barely understands. The best characters in Superman I and II were Clark Kent and Lois Lane. A show like Lois and Clark was more like the 1960's Adam West Batman. The best character was Lois Lane. Smallville focused heavily on the characters around Clark Kent and explored what Superman meant to them. The best character was Lex Luthor. Superman Returns focused on nothing new and interesting and every character was worthless. Do not waste your time on this movie. Many of the great Superman comics looked at what it meant to be the Man of Steel, not who the man actually is. Red Son imagines the last son of Krypton as someone who represents truth, justice, and the Soviet way. The best characters are Lois Lane, Wonder Woman, and Batman. Kingdom Come shows us an older and bitter Superman who is ineffectual because he is out of touch, a Superman who needs his friends. The best characters are Wonder Woman, Batman, and Magog. All Star Superman has the Man of Steel facing imminent death, and it is a joyful and celebratory journey. The best characters are Lois Lane and Lex Luthor. Superman stories work best as a light hearted affair, or one of philosophical ruminations. The greatest stories about Superman focus on the people around him (mostly Lois and Lex), they focus on how Superman effects them personally.

I am not frustrated with the people bringing Superman to the big screen, I am frustrated that these people keep trying to make movies with Superman as a main character. The last son of Krypton is more interesting because of what he is to others, not because of who he is personally. Superman is super because of his unmatched power, and unmatched humanity. That does not make for a very interesting protagonist. Why does Batman distrust someone like Superman? That is an interesting tale. How does Lois Lane deal with being in love and having a relationship with someone like the Man of Steel? That is a story worth telling. How does the existence of Superman effect genius sociopaths like Lex Luthor? I would leap tall buildings to see that particular film. The people who are directly impacted by the Superman have the more interesting stories to tell. They should be the main characters in any film concerning the big blue boyscout.

We need to accept the fact that there will never be a good stand alone Superman movie. The character is too much a part of our cultural identity. When producers like Christopher Nolan, and directors like Zack Snyder try to give the Man of Steel some depth, we end up with a dour film and have a Metropolis leveled. Batman v Superman was a great film when Superman was not the focus. The final climatic battle saw the Man of Steel working with the Dark Knight and Princess Diana of Themyscira, and it was glorious. We could see Superman's awesome powers being complimented by the two other heroes. Superman is my favorite comic book hero ever because of what he means to everyone else. His purity does not need to be tinkered with. DC can own the superhero world by focusing on everyone else. We will always know that Superman is in the back ground to help out. The world of superhero movies is better off with the Man of Steel backing up all of the World's finest.

RD

RD is the Head editor at SeedSing. He will keep seeing Superman movies, and he will keep reading Superman comics, because Superman is the best. Do have a better superhero? Well let us know.

Batman v. Batman v. Batman. A Millennial View on the Dark Knight

Just hanging out waiting for a new Batman movie

With the new Batman and Superman movie coming out soon, which I'm not looking forward to, I went back and watched almost all the "Batman" movies and I have to say, at least for my generation, the Christopher Nolan trilogy is, hands down, the best.

Don't get me wrong, I love the two that Tim Burton did. He created a visual of Gotham City that was 100 percent what I imagined it looked like. Michael Keaton as Batman was absolutely phenomenal. Those movies were great. Keaton was awesome, Jack Nicholson as the Joker was great, Christopher Walken was good, Michelle Pffeifer was very good looking and played Catwoman very well and Danny DeVito's portrayal as the Penguin still scares me to this day. Those were all very good, but they were before my time. I didn't see them until I was in my teens, so I didn't understand the relevance and revival of the "superhero" movie. Tim Burton brought the superhero movie back from the dead after the disaster that was "Superman 3" and "Superman 4".

The first Batman movie I saw, and was excited to see, in the theaters was "Batman Forever". I was excited about this, not for Val Kilmer as Batman, but the fact that Jim Carrey was cast as the Riddler. I also thought that Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face was a weird choice that could be either good or bad, no in between. Needless to say, "Batman Forever" was a disappointment. I did not enjoy anything about this movie. Kilmer was very blah as Batman, Tommy Lee Jones was downright terrible as Two Face and Jim Carrey just couldn't find the common ground between the campiness of the TV show, starring Adam West, which I really enjoy, and the seriousness of the real world that Batman lives in. He tried, but he failed. I was pretty upset that I wasted my parents money and my friends time by making them see this movie with me.

Then, Joel Schumacher made the god awful "Batman and Robin". This movie has been beaten to death, and rightfully so. "Batman and Robin" is an abomination. It is one of the worst movies that has ever been made. Everyone knows it and everyone agrees. It's a pile of garbage. Every decision from the director, writers, producers and actors is baffling and terrible. It is so, so bad. But, the one good thing that came out of the trash heap that is "Batman and Robin", they had to completely scrap whatever Schumacher had planned next and basically start all over again.

They waited a pretty long time, but in 2005, Christopher Nolan released part one of his trilogy, "Batman Begins". This movie came out around the same time that "Star Wars Episode Three" came out. I think readers and listeners of the site and podcast know which movie I was more excited about. But, I didn't really know who Christopher Nolan was. I had heard of him and had seen the movie "Memento", which is great, but I was a bit concerned how he would handle a superhero movie. I also didn't know all that much about Christian Bale. I hadn't really heard of him at that point. I knew he was in "American Psycho" and that he was in the very underrated "The Machinist", but other than that, I couldn't have picked him out of a lineup. So, I was cautious with my optimism about the new direction. Then, I saw "Batman Begins" and it totally revived the Caped Crusader from the dead. This was a very good, well written and well acted movie. What I enjoyed most about the new direction was the fact that Nolan didn't focus on making a superhero movie, instead, he made a crime drama that happened to have a superhero as the main character. Nolan also brought to life how psychotic and how weird Batman truly is. I mean, as a child he saw his parents murdered and then he grows up to become a vigilante that dresses like a bat. That's pretty insane. Nolan and Bale brought that to life. Nolan's version of Gotham was darker than Burton's. He took what Tim Burton created and improved on in dramatically, in my opinion. I love Burton's vision, and he created this world, but Nolan made it better. I also really enjoyed that Nolan didn't feel that he had to have a big time villain as the bad guy in part one of his trilogy. Sure, Ra's Al-Ghul was there, but Scarecrow is the bad guy in this movie and he is terrifying. The scenes where he makes people go crazy are very scary and when Batman turns the tables and infects Scarecrow with craziness, one of the coolest, yet scariest scenes in a movie that I've ever seen. Nalon also set up that in the next movie the Joker would be there. Also, before I get to the next movie, Gary Oldman is awesome as Commissioner Gordon. Great casting choice.

A couple of years later, we got "The Dark Knight". This movie is a masterpiece, a la "The Godfather" or "Goodfellas" or even a movie like "Heat". Nolan took the crime drama and used it so perfectly in "The Dark Knight". This is such a wonderful, classic movie that my son will look back on like I look back on "The Godfather". Bale is, once again, tremendous as Batman. He exudes the psychotic, yet classy side of Bruce Wayne so well. He toes that line to perfection. But, the absolute star of this movie is Heath Ledger as the Joker. I mean, he won an Oscar for this role. How many "superhero" movies can claim that they have an Oscar winner? Ledger's portrayal of the Joker is timeless. He is crazy and ruthless and solely focused on his goal of destroying Gotham City. Scenes like when he makes a "pencil disappear", classic. Or, when the movie opens and there's the big bank robbery and bad guys are killing other bad guys, awesome. The scene where he slides down a mountain of cash, pours gasoline all over it and burns it, wonderful. His cronies look at him with a bewildered look and he plainly and straight faced tells them, that he doesn't care about money, he only cares about destruction, is so great. But, the best scene is when he is in the jail, talking to Batman telling him that they are the same person, I mean, the speech he gives is incredible and the viewer finds themselves agreeing with the Joker. Batman is crazy and it took a speech from an equally crazy villain for all of us to realize it. Batman and the Joker are the same person, with the only difference being that Batman claims to fight for justice, where the Joker just wants destruction. It is such a bummer, on so many levels, that Heath Ledger passed away, because his version of the Joker could have appeared in the third installment of the franchise. He was never killed in "The Dark Knight", in fact, Batman refuses to kill him while holding over a ledge, instead pulling him back and making him suffer the consequence of what he's done and what he has created. "The Dark Knight" is legendary.

I didn't know how Nolan would follow up his true gem, but I feel he did an excellent job with "The Dark Knight Rises". I know it's hard to follow a masterpiece, just look at "The Godfather Part Three", but Nolan did it right. In "The Dark Knight Rises", we were introduced to the real Bane, not the stupid one in "Batman and Robin". This Bane, played by Tom Hardy, was a well thought out character that had a backstory and everything. The great thing about Bane, he was very similar to the Joker, where they both wanted the same thing, destruction of Gotham, but they both tell Batman that they are the same person. Batman is just as crazy as the Joker and Bane and it took Nolan telling us this in two movies and I love it. Bane is such a cool bad guy. This movie had another great opening scene, where Bane and his cronies hijack a plane mid air, is so cool. I was immediately on board for the next 2 and a half hours. I couldn't wait to see where they took this movie and how they ended it. It was so good the rest of the way. Anne Hathaway was very good as Catwoman. Gary Oldman was crushing it again as Commissioner Gordon. Joseph Gordon Levitt was very good as John Blake, AKA Robin. Marion Coittilard was good as the villain Talia Al-Ghul. but, no one was as good as Tom Hardy as Bane. He was the absolute star of this movie. And, much like "The Dark Knight", I found myself siding with the bad guy, Bane, in this movie. I actually wanted him to "take control" and to crush Gotham City. I really enjoyed "The Dark Knight Rises", no, it's not as good as "The Dark Knight", but it's damn close.

Christopher Nolan revived Batman from the dead. Christian Bale did his part, but it was Nolan's directing and writing that really made these three movies great and made them classics for my generation, the millennials. I will watch these movies for the rest of my life, and I will enjoy more each time. Nolan made relatable bad guys that people have rightful reasons to root for and I love that. These three particular Batman movies are classics and will be talked about for the rest of time when superhero and just flat out movies are talked about. They are the best.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He will tell you all about on tomorrow's installment of the X Millennial Man Podcast, make sure you lend your ears. Read more from Ty on his twitter @tykulik.