Superman Forum

either reboot or really send singer back to x-men where he truly did something good.

@NightFang said:

"Now they can get someone who look like Superman. "

Dude, that's all Routh had going for him.

Kids in movies where they don't belong traditionally have ruined the experience for me. I dislike the studio producer's attempts at appealing to a "younger generation" by putting mostly obnoxious, "edgy" kids in films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still or War of the Worlds. They didn't make this kid a jerk which was good, but he still had no place in the "reboot" they were attempting.
I thought Routh was great a Supes. I swear he was channeling Christopher Reeves a few times. I can't say the script was great, it could have been a lot better written. Although Kate Bosworth is pretty, I don't think she filled Lois's shoes well enough.
As for Spacey, while I typically like the guy in roles and we all know he can play a psycho, there is something just elementally wrong with a 4 foot Lex who seems like he's trying to hide a lisp. I don't care what kind of maniac he is, if he's short and seems a little effeminate, I'm gonna laugh at his wacky ass. Lastly, Parker Poesy is just awful - hands down. She was awful in "Blade Trinity (The Abortion)" and she was awful in Superman Returns not to mention the scores of other movies in which she's been cast erroneously. How this woman gets work is beyond me.
I can't believe they used Lex AGAIN in another Superman movie. Spiderman 3 and now Transformers proved giant monsters look cool on screen so why couldn't they do a gigantic robot Braniac? (going by the most popular storyline, a chunk of the Kryptonian supercomputer could have latched onto Supes' ship when he was out looking for survivors from Krypton and he could have accidentally brought it back with him. Then it could have assymilated Earth tech Borg-style and created a huge robot for Superman to punch the guts out of)
Doomsday is a cool idea, but I think killing Superman in an attempt at a reboot (regardless of whether he comes back from the "dead") would not go over well with the general populous that loves Superman, although the fan boys (and fan girls) would LOVE it. Besides they did the whole dead/not dead schtick in Superman Returns - no need to repeat that.

So to summarize in my opinion: Keep Routh, no more Lex unless they can get him right, recast Lois, have the kid accidentally fall into a volcano as Richard, Lois and junior are vacationing in Hawaii, and put some super-powered villains in the next movie for the love of Pete!


- thank you and good night.

Just bring back Kevin Spacey. No one else needs to come back in my opinion. A total recast aside from Luthor is 100% ok with me. Oh, and do Lex in his battle suit, Brainiac and Darkseid, as well. If you need voice actors for Brainiac and Darkseid, go with their animated counterparts Corey Burton and Mochael Ironside, respectively. Can't go wrong there.

I was so happy to see a new Supes film .. I think Routh did fine i didn to like Spacey as Lex. I hated the whole kid thing.

All I can say is that I hope the next Superman movie will be great.

Routh was great as Superman...certainly a worthy successor to Reeve.  The fact that Superman Returns plot was iffy at best is not the fault of the actor at all (though some sequences were great...the airplane rescue - though almost cleche' - was awesome)...bad scripts and plots come from the writer (most actors cannot effectively re-write the script in the middle of filming because he suddenly thinks it sucks)...some blame can be put on the director (for trying to work with a lame plot and not asking things to be changed)...but ultimately if a movie plot stinks it's the fault of the writer, the producer, and the corporate executives who approved it in the first place.

As for complaints about the costume design..Routh DIDN'T design the costume!  That's done by costume designers...to say that Routh was a bad Superman because his costume was "wrong" makes absolutely NO sense as he has NO control (or very little control) over the costume he is given.

I would LOVE to see Routh come back as Superman...and I certainly want Kate Bosworth to return as Lois (to FINALLY have a "hot" Lois in a movie - sorry to all her fans, but Margot Kidder never did it for me - it's all good having Kate there now - and NO even though she's hot too...I do NOT want Megan Fox to be Lois!).

I am also VERY tired of Lex (though he does kind of need to be in the movies at least a little)...while I'm not sure how to "salvage" most of the rest of Superman Returns (the "love triangle was useless and I agree the kid was unnesessary)...it does have a great/easy lead in to having Brainiac appear in the movies.  The "kryptonite contenent" along with all the crystals of Kryptonian knowledge could "morf" into Brainiac and his skull ship...the knowlege backed by a kryptonite power source would be a deadly combo for Superman and may even need  him to accept Lex's help to "outsmart" Brainiac (some of this is inspired by many other Superman stories over the years, but it works).

I think that Routh is a solid actor. There were a ton of things about the movie, in general, that were out of control. They would have to start from scratch at this point. If Tom Welling would be in a Superman movie than it would have to be a continuation of the Smallville series. Only they would have to call it "Metropolis" or something. For the guy hating Dean Cain up there, obsess much?

@xxCellPhoneGirlxx said:

"I would rather have Tom Welling!!but they are already making a Metropolis movie :]"

Where has this been confirmed? Do tell ;) big smallville fan here and keep hearing rumors of a Smallville spin off movie after Smallville is done as well as Tom being inked for 2 more years on the show.

The only rumor I heard was that Metropolis would be a possible spinoff to Smallville which is just a rumor at the moment.

On this topic, I agree with you on Welling being the better choice. For one not sure if some people are aware that Routh is younger then Welling. I always saw Routh as more of a "Superboy" rather then Superman. Tom looks more like Reeve and has the natural light eyes like Reeve(unlike Routh's contacts) Secondly, I guarantee anyone that if Welling got a shot he's always loved and known unlike Routh which will help for a new movie if you ask me. There's TONS of Welling, Superman and Smallville fans alike. Let's just say a hell of a lot more then Superman Return fans I can think of offhand. I will admit though, Routh did do a damn good job impersonating Reeves "voice" which sounded very similar.

That gig about Tom and the costume that some people are bringing up is old news....if Tom is offered the right deal, the fans want it bad enough it'll happen. I mean, at one point he said he didn't want to typecasted as Superman yet he's still doing Smallville....so obviously he feels differently and heard the fans.

When was the last time Welling was in a movie? lol exactly. I think he'll be convinced if this movie rumor winds up being true. ;)

Lastly, I vastly disagree with the acting gig with some people. Welling is a better actor then Routh is if you ask me. If you ask me, Routh was way too soft(even for superman), seemed to get abused at times(maybe it was the script but come on, when Tom's Supes in Smallville has gotten into fights he didn't go down that easy same with Reeve) or used his heat vision or other powers wisely to compensate.

I just felt due to the script and/or Routh's style of Superman look weak at times. Routh isn't bad, but I think Tom is better and has gotten better since the beginning of Smallville til now.

There's also this rumor about the JL movie that Hayden Christonsen will play Superman in that movie possibly. But I don't believe this honestly til it's proven.

lol, ok I'll take that as a no or just speculation. Later

Oh well.

     I think the man to play Kal-El/Clark Kent is....nobody you've heard of, but he CAN act, and he REALLY does look the part (almost as striking as Christoper Reeves, perhaps more so) and his name is....Matthew Bomer.  In case you're wondering WHERE you've seen him before, he was Bryce Larkin on Chuck, before they killed him off in season 2.  I dare you to look at the photo below and tell me, with a straight face, that he doesn't look the part!   Plus, he's got the physique for Superman, which I think Routh lacked, somewhat.  Its a frame/genetics thing, as I feel Routh's plight (its VERY HARD to gain weight when you have a tall/slim build, as he and I both do!).  Also, its important to note that he was actually cast as Superman before!  When Brett Rattner was set to direct the Superman reboot, (which eventually became Superman Returns) he was Rattner's first choice to play Kal-El/Clark Kent!  And while Rattner's X3 WAS terrible, remember that was mostly because the script sucked, not because of his direction.  He was really shoehorned into the script because of Singer's (and his writing team-let's not forget that) defection to direct Superman Returns. 
     There's also a point that has't been brought up at ComicVine, as far as I can see.  No matter what the comic biz thought about the movie, the rest of the WORLD seemed to like it!  If you don't believe me, go to its Wikipedia page and look at the "Reception" column...over 70% of film critics, and just as many "average" fans, from Rotten Tomatoes, scored it AT LEAST 72%.  Roger Ebert, however, noted, as most people on this site have also pointed out, that Routh was trying WAY too hard to channel Christopher Reeves to ever actually succeed in the role. 
     Also, while Spacey tried very hard to portray Lex, he's not really physically intimidating enough to pull off Lex Luthor.  For that role, I'd go with the guy who did such a great job with him in Superman:TAS....Clancy Brown!  Physically, if you shave his head, he's a dead-ringer for Lex.
     

both, destined for the dustbin of history

@MKF30 said:

" @LiquidPrince said:

"I'd much rather have Tom Welling. "

I agree, Welling plays the character so much better then Routh did....not just as "Superman" but as Clark Kent, and even Reeve said that he'd be the best pick at one point on Smallville to take over the mantle of Superman. "

Whenever the show comes to an end, I would prefer to see that cast spun off into the next line of movies. For all of its ambition, Superman Returns left me really cold to both the characters and plot developments; the only cast member I liked was Sam Huntington as Jimmy.

WB needs to do with Superman what they did with Batman, and that is forget the previous movies. Nolan went a whole new direction than the Burton movies. So if they want Superman to be successful they need to forget the campy/lame Reeves movies. They also need to realize Supes can fight someone other than Lex Luthor.
 
If I was in control I would try for a trilogy of his alien based villains like Brainiac or Mongol. Then for the third part Apokolips.