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Superman: The Movies I, II, & Donner Cut
I loved Superman when I was a little girl, primarily because he looked like my dad, and everyone knows that dads have super powers! My best friend and I used to play Superfriends. We constantly fought over who got to be Wonder Woman. She usually won because she had Wonder Woman underoos, and I didn't. I had to be Firestar, who was reportedly Spiderman's girlfriend. (Not true, but we were little kids and as a red-head she was clearly Mary Jane's alter-ego. I also believed that Wonder Woman was Lois Lane's alter-ego, and that one of the major complications in the Clark Kent/Superman/Lois Lane/Wonder Woman relationship is that they BOTH had secret identities and were hiding their alter-egos from one another. Almost like Cat Woman/Batman, but on the right side of the law.)
So, it comes as a surprise to everyone that I have not seen the Superman movies. I fixed that problem this weekend watching not only Superman, but the SII: Richard Donner Cut, and SII: Theatrical release.
This is what I have to say:
* Chris Reeve is a brilliant comic actor. Clearly he is having a ton of fun with Clark Kent. Some how he plays it without disrespect for the material, kind of nudge-winking the audience who is in on the joke.
* I liked the second part of the first movie. (Clark's childhood before he becomes Superman.) The images they used really captured the mood. Iconic. However, I've always found Krypton to be boring (and in this case, really cheezy) and the Superman portion of the film also seemed a little silly, mostly because Lex Luthor is really lame.
Somehow, over the years, Lex Luthor has transformed from being a sleazy, petty criminal, to a captain of industry. In the movie his real estate schemes and stupid henchmen and molls remind me of Batman, the television show's, punny villians. To me, Lex should be a lot more powerful, and more difficult to indict in various crimes. I really enjoyed the Superman: Animated Series portrayal of Lex, (an African-American captain of industry) and (as much as I hate to admit it) I really liked the first two seasons of Smallville because they really caught that mid-western ethos, and the friendship between Clark & Lex has all the overtones of great tragedy. (I stopped watching at Season 3, it just got too absurd.)
So I'm coming into Superman with all sorts of other baggage, most of which is not related to the comic books. (Which have never really interested me much. I mean Superman/Clark Kent is so square! I've always liked the sexy shadow elements of other, darker, heroes.)
However, some time this year (when I was going through my period of heavy dreaming) I realized that the pathos of Superman is that he's the only one of his kind. This is something that SII plays up with Clark's bid for mortality (which doesn't actually make much sense narratively.) And I believe that this pathos is one of the reasons Superman remains iconic. This is the aspect of the hero people relate to, "I may look like a mild mannered reporter, but really I'm a special person who is the only one of his kind."
Okay, back to the movies:
Superman I was kind of long and cheezy, but basically I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Chris Reeve and Margot Kidder really make the movie. Gene Hackman is disappointing, and what can one say about Marlon Brando? I'm just impressed he can get through that dialogue with a straight face. I think one of the things that everyone loves about Brando is that he is constantly given opportunities to chew scenery and so rarely takes them.
I watched Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut next because everyone told me that it was the better cut. I'm not sure I agree. The Superman/Lois relationship is better defined (I love the "I'll bet my life that you're Superman" scene better in this cut, when she falls from a building, followed by the "I'll bet your life that you're Superman" scene in the dressing room. It's very tricky and gives Lois a harder edge making her both overly trusting, and recklessly fearless.)
But the film is much longer, more serious, and the ending they decide on is too similar to the first movie. The kiss-of-forgetfulness ending in the theatrical release has problems (as Donner points out, Clark should never kiss Lois, only Superman), but it's such a great scene! It also gives excellent reason why Lois must NOT know Superman's identity. It creates a very clear vulnerability for an otherwise tough character. I'm guessing, however, that one of the problems putting together the Donner Cut is that they didn't have the option of reshooting anything. Given that difficulty, the Donner Cut is a pretty impressive piece of work.
The other major difference of the Donner Cut is that Brando's bits are put back in. It better establishes the father/son relationship that's softened by the alternate appearance of Superman's mother in SII. Jor-el sets up a bianary opposition between "you are either Superman and live totally alone, or you love someone and have to be totally vulnerable and human" that represents not necessarily a true choice, but the Jor-el's inflexibility, need to control people and always be right, and lack of understanding about the human condition. (Something which Clark, having lived among human's, better understands.)
Superman's decision to essentially disobey his father and become mortal makes him incredibly vulnerable, not just physically, but emotionally. He has no support in his attempt to become human and live a normal life. Lois doesn't love the human Clark, she loves the invulnerable Superman. Other choices exist, but they aren't available to him. In otherwords, becoming human doesn't make Superman any less alone.
(However, neither movie does a very good job of explaining how he gets his powers back.)
So, I liked all the bits that were re-introduced to the Donner film, but I enjoyed the lighter tone and shorter-length of the theatrical release. (To be honest I skipped most the scenes with Kryptonians, who looked and acted like escapees from the renaissance festival.) The opening sequence of SII: Theatrical with terrorists in the Eiffel tower, was also fun.
So, overall, I enjoyed myself and mostly did a lot of thinking about why Superman has stayed with us so long. I am not planning to watch SIII or SIV (both sound terrible, though some long-repressed memory of Superman squeezing a lump of coal into a diamond surfaced, suggesting I might have already seen one of them). However, these films gave a lot of context for Superman Returns that I saw last summer and found incredibly disappointing. (Lex's lame plans involving real estate, a wooden Superman/Lois relationship, the baby subplot, does Lois know his secret identity at this point? I can't remember, though the Clark/Superman return seems like a dead giveaway.) I'd hoped it would be like Batman Returns a re-imagining of the origin myth. It was not.
Still, for my money, my favorite Superman remains the old cartoons, in which Superman is constantly averting environmental disaster (I still remember one about pollution, which was making the planet really cold, so Superman blows all the smog away and tells everyone to stop polluting. This is what I think about anytime global warming comes up.) and has a strong socialist, everyman, message fighting sleazy capitalists taking advantage of ordinary people. He saves Lois who is constantly falling from high places (Wonder Woman can't fly, remember?) and there's heat, but he's a gentlemen, and there's no complications.
(The Donner cut shows Superman in bed with Lois in the Fortress of Solitude. He has silver sheets, which is kind of weird, and they make love prior to his losing his mortality. It introduces the question we should not be asking: What's sex with Superman like? and How would it be different with a fully-mortal Clark Kent? The Donner cut also features a scene where Lex and his Moll show up at the Fortress (via hot air balloon, navigational problems, anyone? Do all prevailing winds end up at the Fortress of Solitude?) and the Moll complains about needing to use the restroom, which she ultimately finds as one of Jor-El's windy recordings ends with the sound of a flushing toilet. "I found the bathroom," she caws. This introduces another question we should not be asking about Superman and the need for running water in the Fortress of Solitude. I mean, even if Superman goes like everyone else, shouldn't Krypton technology have surpassed running water, particularly in the arctic?)
Anyway, I think that's enough about Superman for one day. Comments, anyone?
So, it comes as a surprise to everyone that I have not seen the Superman movies. I fixed that problem this weekend watching not only Superman, but the SII: Richard Donner Cut, and SII: Theatrical release.
This is what I have to say:
* Chris Reeve is a brilliant comic actor. Clearly he is having a ton of fun with Clark Kent. Some how he plays it without disrespect for the material, kind of nudge-winking the audience who is in on the joke.
* I liked the second part of the first movie. (Clark's childhood before he becomes Superman.) The images they used really captured the mood. Iconic. However, I've always found Krypton to be boring (and in this case, really cheezy) and the Superman portion of the film also seemed a little silly, mostly because Lex Luthor is really lame.
Somehow, over the years, Lex Luthor has transformed from being a sleazy, petty criminal, to a captain of industry. In the movie his real estate schemes and stupid henchmen and molls remind me of Batman, the television show's, punny villians. To me, Lex should be a lot more powerful, and more difficult to indict in various crimes. I really enjoyed the Superman: Animated Series portrayal of Lex, (an African-American captain of industry) and (as much as I hate to admit it) I really liked the first two seasons of Smallville because they really caught that mid-western ethos, and the friendship between Clark & Lex has all the overtones of great tragedy. (I stopped watching at Season 3, it just got too absurd.)
So I'm coming into Superman with all sorts of other baggage, most of which is not related to the comic books. (Which have never really interested me much. I mean Superman/Clark Kent is so square! I've always liked the sexy shadow elements of other, darker, heroes.)
However, some time this year (when I was going through my period of heavy dreaming) I realized that the pathos of Superman is that he's the only one of his kind. This is something that SII plays up with Clark's bid for mortality (which doesn't actually make much sense narratively.) And I believe that this pathos is one of the reasons Superman remains iconic. This is the aspect of the hero people relate to, "I may look like a mild mannered reporter, but really I'm a special person who is the only one of his kind."
Okay, back to the movies:
Superman I was kind of long and cheezy, but basically I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Chris Reeve and Margot Kidder really make the movie. Gene Hackman is disappointing, and what can one say about Marlon Brando? I'm just impressed he can get through that dialogue with a straight face. I think one of the things that everyone loves about Brando is that he is constantly given opportunities to chew scenery and so rarely takes them.
I watched Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut next because everyone told me that it was the better cut. I'm not sure I agree. The Superman/Lois relationship is better defined (I love the "I'll bet my life that you're Superman" scene better in this cut, when she falls from a building, followed by the "I'll bet your life that you're Superman" scene in the dressing room. It's very tricky and gives Lois a harder edge making her both overly trusting, and recklessly fearless.)
But the film is much longer, more serious, and the ending they decide on is too similar to the first movie. The kiss-of-forgetfulness ending in the theatrical release has problems (as Donner points out, Clark should never kiss Lois, only Superman), but it's such a great scene! It also gives excellent reason why Lois must NOT know Superman's identity. It creates a very clear vulnerability for an otherwise tough character. I'm guessing, however, that one of the problems putting together the Donner Cut is that they didn't have the option of reshooting anything. Given that difficulty, the Donner Cut is a pretty impressive piece of work.
The other major difference of the Donner Cut is that Brando's bits are put back in. It better establishes the father/son relationship that's softened by the alternate appearance of Superman's mother in SII. Jor-el sets up a bianary opposition between "you are either Superman and live totally alone, or you love someone and have to be totally vulnerable and human" that represents not necessarily a true choice, but the Jor-el's inflexibility, need to control people and always be right, and lack of understanding about the human condition. (Something which Clark, having lived among human's, better understands.)
Superman's decision to essentially disobey his father and become mortal makes him incredibly vulnerable, not just physically, but emotionally. He has no support in his attempt to become human and live a normal life. Lois doesn't love the human Clark, she loves the invulnerable Superman. Other choices exist, but they aren't available to him. In otherwords, becoming human doesn't make Superman any less alone.
(However, neither movie does a very good job of explaining how he gets his powers back.)
So, I liked all the bits that were re-introduced to the Donner film, but I enjoyed the lighter tone and shorter-length of the theatrical release. (To be honest I skipped most the scenes with Kryptonians, who looked and acted like escapees from the renaissance festival.) The opening sequence of SII: Theatrical with terrorists in the Eiffel tower, was also fun.
So, overall, I enjoyed myself and mostly did a lot of thinking about why Superman has stayed with us so long. I am not planning to watch SIII or SIV (both sound terrible, though some long-repressed memory of Superman squeezing a lump of coal into a diamond surfaced, suggesting I might have already seen one of them). However, these films gave a lot of context for Superman Returns that I saw last summer and found incredibly disappointing. (Lex's lame plans involving real estate, a wooden Superman/Lois relationship, the baby subplot, does Lois know his secret identity at this point? I can't remember, though the Clark/Superman return seems like a dead giveaway.) I'd hoped it would be like Batman Returns a re-imagining of the origin myth. It was not.
Still, for my money, my favorite Superman remains the old cartoons, in which Superman is constantly averting environmental disaster (I still remember one about pollution, which was making the planet really cold, so Superman blows all the smog away and tells everyone to stop polluting. This is what I think about anytime global warming comes up.) and has a strong socialist, everyman, message fighting sleazy capitalists taking advantage of ordinary people. He saves Lois who is constantly falling from high places (Wonder Woman can't fly, remember?) and there's heat, but he's a gentlemen, and there's no complications.
(The Donner cut shows Superman in bed with Lois in the Fortress of Solitude. He has silver sheets, which is kind of weird, and they make love prior to his losing his mortality. It introduces the question we should not be asking: What's sex with Superman like? and How would it be different with a fully-mortal Clark Kent? The Donner cut also features a scene where Lex and his Moll show up at the Fortress (via hot air balloon, navigational problems, anyone? Do all prevailing winds end up at the Fortress of Solitude?) and the Moll complains about needing to use the restroom, which she ultimately finds as one of Jor-El's windy recordings ends with the sound of a flushing toilet. "I found the bathroom," she caws. This introduces another question we should not be asking about Superman and the need for running water in the Fortress of Solitude. I mean, even if Superman goes like everyone else, shouldn't Krypton technology have surpassed running water, particularly in the arctic?)
Anyway, I think that's enough about Superman for one day. Comments, anyone?