Bryan Singer Wishes "Superman Returns" Was an Origin Story

[CBR News]

The "Superman Returns" director explains why he thinks the movie did poorly, and reveals his original plans for Darkseid in the sequel.


Full article here.

[tabo61]

If he want's to know why the movie did bad tell him to look into a mirror

[Doctor Know]

He had Superman cry and get beat up by some average human thugs in SR, and was planning Darkseid for the sequel? Are you crazy?

[Deadxman]

[Perry]

The link to the story is broken.

I like Superman Returns actually. It's a flawed film—they needed to find a better actress for Lois and all the stuff with Jason needs to be excised. But there's definitely a lot of good stuff in there. Routh made a great Superman, I loved Spacey's Luthor, and Huntington was the perfect Jimmy. The shuttle rescue, Superman's first night back in Metropolis, these were incredible action bits. And the best scene of all for me was watching a Superman who actually tries to save people when chaos hits Metropolis.

[simbob4000]

Superman Returns was a good movie. It isn't saying much at all, but it was better than the last Superman movie. Returns' plane scene is probably something we've going to see some different take on in flying superhero movies for a long time to come.

[Kirby101]

I also liked Superman Returns. Big fan of the Donner films. Liked the continuation of that version.

[Sighphi]

The weird thing about Returns is that is the same and SW TFA.

Returns is a remake of Supes 78 with just an extra 30 minutes of the superkid.
The rest of the story pretty much recalls the original. It's the same as TFA where the story has the same beats but with stuff happening somewhere else. Instead of saving Lane from a falling helicopter Supes saves her from a falling plane, etc, etc.

I guess Supes doesnt have a much pull as SW because it couldn't pull that resequel thing.

BTW, the link leads no nowhere.

[Username taken]

The weird thing about Returns is that is the same and SW TFA.

Returns is a remake of Supes 78 with just an extra 30 minutes of the superkid.
The rest of the story pretty much recalls the original. It's the same as TFA where the story has the same beats but with stuff happening somewhere else. Instead of saving Lane from a falling helicopter Supes saves her from a falling plane, etc, etc.

I guess Supes doesnt have a much pull as SW because it couldn't pull that resequel thing.

BTW, the link leads no nowhere.

Or maybe TFA was a movie people and critics fell in love with and Superman Returns wasn't.

Man of Steel wasn't a great movie (IMO) but it performed very strongly at the domestic box office. I'm not the biggest TFA fan but I can see why people watched (and are still watching) the movie over and over and over again.

Superman might not have pulling power like Star Wars (no franchise does) but he does have pulling power.

[Sighphi]

Or maybe TFA was a movie people and critics fell in love with and Superman Returns wasn't.

Rotten T 76%
MetaC 72%

That's clear good movie territory when it comes to critics.

SR's problem was the people. It didnt bring in enough.
And it is an interesting case since both it and TFA follow the same resequel structure.

[rpmaluki]

I like Superman Returns actually. It's a flawed film—they needed to find a better actress for Lois and all the stuff with Jason needs to be excised. But there's definitely a lot of good stuff in there. Routh made a great Superman, I loved Spacey's Luthor, and Huntington was the perfect Jimmy. The shuttle rescue, Superman's first night back in Metropolis, these were incredible action bits. And the best scene of all for me was watching a Superman who actually tries to save people when chaos hits Metropolis.

I agree with this. I also like that it wasn't an origins story. They tried something different and for that I can't complain. This was the first time I ever hated the character of Lois, they did need to hire a better actress. And I didn't like the Jason angle but love the actor. Giving Superman a son seemed so awkward and clumsy, that was not needed at all.

[Doctor Know]

The weird thing about Returns is that is the same and SW TFA.

Returns is a remake of Supes 78 with just an extra 30 minutes of the superkid.
The rest of the story pretty much recalls the original. It's the same as TFA where the story has the same beats but with stuff happening somewhere else. Instead of saving Lane from a falling helicopter Supes saves her from a falling plane, etc, etc.

I guess Supes doesnt have a much pull as SW because it couldn't pull that resequel thing.

Not just SW TFA, but also Star Trek TWOK/Into Darkness, and Alien/Prometheus.

All of these films essentially tried to remake their respective originals, as well as capture that lightning in a bottle the originals had. Only TFA was successful at doing it though. They all in someway,reused plot points, shot for shot scenes and dialogue lifted verbatim from the previous films, but I think TFA success can be attributed to the juggernaut that is Star Wars and TFA being a fun ride/entertaining movie.


Compare TFA to Abrams' previous film STID, which was also trying to invoke the epicness of TWOK, but ended up falling flat with people. The themes and story of TWOK just didn't work with the new young cast, and Abrams and co (Orci, Kurtzman and Linedolf) didn't have anything new to add. STID came off as a fanfic love letter to TWOK, rather than a genuine sequel. STID also works counter intuitive to the purpose of the time travel reboot. Which was to free up continuity and tell new stories. But on their second outing they try to retell the most popular and famous story of Star Trek, and end up mucking it up. With all the aforementioned members of STID having left the sequel movie, the new creative team for Star Trek Beyond have already communicated they plan on ignoring everything that happened in STID. 3 movies into the reboot Trek franchise and we're already getting a soft-reboot.


Prometheus' problem is Ridley Scott couldn't decide what he wanted the film to be. Is Prometheus a reboot, a prequel, a new direction for the Alien franchise, or a new film that will provide answers to lingering questions from the original 1979 movie; all while trying to capture the ambiance and mystery of the 1979 film? No one knows what Prometheus is. With the Prometheus sequel being titled Alien Covenant, Scott has finally signaled he's ready to embrace that Prometheus was indeed a prequel. This after 20th Century Fox planned to give Neil Blomkamp control of Alien 5, which would have undone Alien 3.


Superman Returns is a lot like STID. In that the film comes off as a fanfic love letter to the previous movie, while not saying anything new or different for itself. Another thing that works against SR is it's epic length and being boring. SR is 2 hours and 35 minutes long, and there is only 14 minutes of action. 5 minutes to rescue the plane, 1 minute at the back robbery, 4 minutes to rescue the city, and 4 minutes of lifting the island of kryptonite into space. To put this into perspective; Avengers 1+2, MOS, CA TWS, and TASM are all 2 hours and 20 minutes long, and TDK and X-Men DOFP are also roughly 2 hours and 35 minutes long. All of those films have a lot more going on for them, than just action, but what else does SR have going on for the rest of it's 2 hour and 11 minute run time? The will they won't they romance? Superman isn't the character we follow in SR, it's Lois. SR should've been called Lois Lane The Movie: Featuring Superman. Routh had few lines as Clark and fewer lines as Superman. SR, like STID was trying to capture the lightning in a bottle of it's predecessor, and strike the nostalgia cords people have for the original film. However, it failed to do that. Nostalgia is great and all, but it only gets you so far.

[chamber-music]

I found Superman Returns incredibly boring and unmemorable.

[simbob4000]

Rotten T 76%
MetaC 72%

That's clear good movie territory when it comes to critics.

SR's problem was the people. It didnt bring in enough.
And it is an interesting case since both it and TFA follow the same resequel structure.

Thankfully Superman Returns doesn't have all the problems, or as many problems, as The Force Awakens.

[Flash Gordon]

LOL no way in hell he could have pulled Darkseid off with the awful Superman he gave us.

Should have done Warworld and Mongul for SR, like the opening of the video game.