Making a Better Superman Returns

[BH/HHH]

Superman Returns, a movie with great moments but overall lacking that extra something that makes a Summer blockbuster. Fans are divided on it, some love it, some hate it and then there's those like me who think it's simply OK.

I will always view Superman Returns as a missed opportunity. Now while Warner Bros were hoping for it to be successful enough to spawn sequels it wasn't. Now don't get me wrong the film was in no ways a failure, it made plenty of money and it was actually received quite well critically. But it failed to bring Superman back for a modern age and instead of a sequel we had to then wait several years before Superman was rebooted in Man of Steel. I don't even think Superman Returns had to be financially successful enough to spawn sequels but it did have to be a good movie. Personally I don't mind the idea of one off film set in the Donnerverse that caps it all off. Think it Superman Returns were actually a great movie that didn't succeed aswell as WBs wanted would it be better?

So let's say we have the ability to time travel and make some changes to the film. Wouldn't that be great? Now I'm dropping in some ground rules here. We must keep the ideas of Superman Returning and keeping it inline with the Donnerverse (so that means keeping things like the John Williams theme, the crystal Fortress etc) but Anything else is subject to change...

So establishing that what would you change about the movie and why? You can even just give a detailed plot description if you so wish.

 

[STARMAN]

The actual concept of Superman being gone for 5 years and returning to the world is not bad. I actually read the full shooting script with scenes not in the movie but it wasn't that much better.

I guess I would keep act one overall. It's a decent set-up culminating with the plane rescue. Sometimes I think they could have had a more dramatic opening scene. Originally they shot the scene with Superman in his ship searching for Krypton. But not much happened.

Act 2 is where the film begins to really drag. I would have eliminated the kid. Superman and Lois can have a child together but not necessarily under the circumstances they created. I would have had more back and forth between them, with their relationship warming up over the course of the second act.

The second act needed a better action sequence than the out of control car driven by Kitty.

Even if I keep Lex's silly land plot for act 3 I would have given him the power suit to fight Superman. In some incarnations giving Lex a power suit wouldn't fit but I think it could have worked with that one.

Superman in the hospital drags on and bores me. I would eliminate that.

The end of the film almost comes to a complete halt. It's too slow and soft. I would have a new last scene, depending if this was the final film to cap the Donner universe or one supposedly kicking off a trilogy.

Overall, the pace of the movie is poor and the script is weak. So even with some new ideas you would need the film to be quicker, a little more action, and some much better dialogue.

 

[Flint Marko]

More action would have gone a long way. Taking out the kid is also a must. That's honestly all I'd need.

 

[Jochimus]

I would be tempted to re-create the three-act structure of STM with a story that also takes place over the course of a number of years, taking some of the more morally-complicated aspects of SR and either gutting them entirely or streamlining them just for sheer straightforwardness...

Act 1) Brainiac, Brainiac, Brainiac. To that end I'd have fused Cary Bates' Superman V script with Kevin Smith's Superman Lives, excised Luthor entirely and all that Death of Superman crapola that's been plugging WB's toilet since the '90s, and established that Superman's absence from Earth is due to having been captured by Brainiac and trapped powerless inside the Bottled City of Kandor for five years. As for how Superman ran afoul of Brainiac in the first place, it would also be established that as the result of the Zod Squad's rampage in SII various governments have demanded action be taken to prevent further Kryptonian incursions, thus making Superman a controversial figure, so to stem off increasing hostility the President orders Superman to make the three-year journey back to the Rao star system to make sure there isn't anything else in that direction we should probably know about. Also, Superman's crystal ship - since it would actually appear on-screen this time, possibly for more than one sequence - would be a little more tricked out, capable of firing crystalline probes off toward each of the 28 known galaxies *koff*sequel fodder*koff*.

Act 2) As the above means that a total of EIGHT years would have passed, Lois' son would be the same age. Named Sam (after his grandfather), we learn that the boy is having a bit of trouble acclimating to school and other activities where he'd be around other kids his age...then again, you probably would too at that age if your X-ray vision keep inopportunely kicking in and making everyone you looked at look like skinned corpses for half the day (a little MOS creeping in there). As you could guess, this means that Lois has known for some time that Sam is Superman's kid (I figure she'd have found out similar to how Jonathan and Martha did in STM; at age 3 the kid lifted up her real car to retrieve a toy one). The lack of appropriate father-figure, therefore, means Lois has more or less retired from the Daily Planet and has made a successful living as a crime novelist, which grates on Perry's nerves since he thinks she should be out being a reporter. Old habits die hard, though, when this mysterious alien cyborg promising to protect Earth in Superman's stead rubs her the wrong way...especially when said cyborg begins to take an unhealthy interest in her child...

Act 3) Superman Returns. With the aid of fellow Kandorians including Van-Zee and Ak-Var - who in the process sacrifice the chance to be returned to normalcy in order to prevent another civilization from suffering the same fate as theirs - Superman escapes Kandor and returns to normal size...but five years being exposed to Kryptonian environmental conditions have seriously tamped down his powers, basically to 1938/Golden Age levels. That isn't going to stop him from going after Brainiac, though, after the Coluan has hijacked the Planet building, nearing completion of downloading every bit of knowledge on Earth there is and prepares to shrink Metropolis (drawing power out of Earth's sun and threatening to destabilize both it and Earth's orbit around it...in fact, does this little bit of cosmic double-jeopardy sound like it may have already happened once before?) and preparing to genetically harvest Sam. The kid's got other plans, though, which correlate pretty conveniently with those of the guy in the blue tights and red cape that just showed up that his mom's always been going on about...and they better hurry, too, because remember those governments that demanded action against further alien assaults? Well, at least two of them have nuclear capability, and have decided now might be a good time to put it to use (which I KNOW absolutely sounds familiar...hey, it beats turning the world back yet again t.

I'd probably have cast the picture a bit differently - I'd have been down for Steve Martin as Perry White, for one, and as he did test for the part at one point prior I'm not so sure I wouldn't have cast Cavill there and then - and tried to get Williams himself to do the score just to see what he would come up with for Brainiac (I imagine it wouldn't have been too far removed from the eerie music used in the Zod Squad's trial or even that used for the Green Crystal). Plus I think Superman having a kid can work if you do it well (Chris Kent, Jon White, etc.), and SR just plain didn't.

 

[Loki882]

-Keep in the "Superman searching for Krypton" scenes that were deleted.
-Have it be that scientist detected signs that there might be LIFE stull left, as opposed to just bits of space debris floating around (the former gives Superman much more reason to go off and look).
-Have Superman TELL people (including the woman that he supposedly loves) that he's leaving (Reeve's Superman would have held a press conference about it first, and this is supposed to be the same guy).
-Remove the kid.
-Remove the "Lois is a bitter scorned woman" nonsense.
-Actually let us get inside Superman's head and give us his POV on things.
-More action.
-Have Superman and Richard White (yes you can keep him) actually bond. You could do something like have Richard's love of flying be inspired by Superman. Like he saw Superman fly and wanted to be like him, or that flying is when he feels closest to being like Superman, or something. And ditch the insufferable love triangle crap while you're at it.


And lets not forget. give Lex a different scheme. Like he's spent the last five years slowly amassing political power (having managed to get out of prison on a technicality) and pretending to be "reformed." Meanwhile, he's secretly causing chaos around the country to further his rise. He then creates a new villain (be it Metallo, or Parasite, or Livewire, or whomever) to take on Superman directly. That way, Superman has to deal with a physical threat while also trying to expose Lex's corruption (which is where he, as Clark Kent) and Lois could team up to investigate.

And also, reveal that Lois remembers their little romp in Superman's tin foil love nest. Either the stupid memory erasing kiss wore off over time, or it never worked to begin with and she was just pretending like it did. She also remembers that Clark is Superman.

 

[Rowsdower!]

I'd start by casting an actual actor as Superman and give him more direction than, "Stand there silently and look like Christopher Reeve."

 

[MydnightPhoenix]

Saw there was a new thread and it wasn't about bashing the DCEU or Zack Snyder and got excited.

I would keep the kid, recast Lois Lane (just like with MOS). And force the writers director etc. to pick one course and stick with it. SR was a sequel, remake, and reboot all in one and it was as confused as the audience. I don't need to see Brandon stumbling around pretending to be Christopher Reeve parroting his same lines or getting stuck in doors again.
Get rid of Lex Luthor not only was Kevin horrible but his ploy was the same one as Superman '78!
Like with Cavill and MOS the directors and writers need to allow their Superman to be an actual person so he can connect with the audience.

 

[Loki882]

I think that Brandon could have been a decent Superman (he's actually pretty charming and fun on the DC CW shows). But A. He was too young at the time, and B. They didn't give him much to work with.

 

[STARMAN]

Most of the suggestions I make are tweaks within the narrative of the film. If you start changing villains or recasting then you're talking more drastic changes. Even under the best circumstances Bosworth was wrong but Routh could have been acceptable.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

The biggest change I would make is recasting Lois.

Brandon could have worked, despite his inexperience. He's incredibly likeable and his real life personality is very Clark Kent-esque (he's wonderful as Ray Palmer/The Atom) but he needed a mature, experienced actress to play off of (who could perfectly embody Lois Lane) to really anchor and sell their relationship/story, to the audience (like Chris Pine did with the similar inexperienced Gal Gadot).

The role should have gone to Keri Russell (she was the runner up)...

From a narrative standpoint, removing Jason from the story, altogether.

If your making a final film/one-off, that's one thing, but attempting to relaunch the Superman franchise after a twenty year hiatus and giving Superman and Lois a son, right off the bat, was not wise. They wrote themselves into a corner.

Those are the big two...


(Everything else could have worked, with what they had, baring some different writing and editing choices.)

Still, I'll always have a soft spot for this movie and there's alot of good stuff in it.

 

[godisawesome]

Okay. Considering Bryan Singer's love for the original Superman movie, there's two ways I see this: one that feels like a simple answer that keeps the cast, crew, and overall outline the same, and a more thorough overhaul. The simple answer wouldn't necessarily solve some of the interpretation problems I have with Donnerverse Superman, while the second would.

Simple Solution- Literally just make the whole film a remake. Same cast. Same director. Same art direction. Even some of the same scenes. Just remove all references to previous films, and remove the kid storyline. Also, go ahead and have Routh and Spacey stop doing impressions of other actors and just *act*. Bosworth and Routh could work great as up and coming reporters; Routh's shown he has an excellent dorky-yet-endearing nature all his own, and Bosworth honestly feels like she'd be a great ambitious freshly graduated Lois. And Spacey's still really good in SR without getting full freedom, so just imagine what would happen if he got full reign with the character.

More Thorough Overhaul- Keep the idea of Superman being gone for a while, but have Superman driven off planet by Brainiac teaming up with Luthor to run an anti-Superman media campaign where Clark tells Lois about it before hand and she knows who he is, but neither of them know about her pregnancy. So when Clark gets back, instead of having scorned Lois Lane, there's a whole other subtext and issue with Clark feeling guilt for leaving Lois pregnant, still loving her, and her being more legitimately torn between two loves. Also, just to screw with the audience, Brainiac hijacks Richard White as a drone Superman has to fight. And the film ends with Luthor backstabbing Brainiac to gain his intelligence and he then plays it off as being possessed the entire time and starts "LexCorp."

Oh, and in general, I'd follow the rules about Post-Crisis Superman characterization for his personality, his supporting cast's personalities, and his powers for both pitches: at no point should his powers and weaknesses fluctuate as wildly as they did in any Donnerverse films. No turning back time, no effective date rape kiss, no inconsistent reactions to Kryptonite, and no lifting a solid continent into space.

 

[Superchan]

SR had the same problem as MOS/BvS when it comes to superman IMO, namely the film gave us our first mopey, emo, dialogue challenged superman of the 20th century and that IMO is what sank the movie. Superman was a cardboard cutup of a character with zero charisma and so no one gave a hoot about the character and the challenges that it faced.

Going back in time I would've told Bryan Singer to recast Lois, take out the silly kid angle and add a physical villain.
Superman leaving and returning to a changing world where his popularity has waned is a interesting concept that mirrors real world events.
It would've been interesting if they used the basic kingdom come concept of superman leaving and returning to a world where violent anti-heroes reigned supreme (the concept was used again in Action #775) where he'd have to fight for humanity's moral future and prove to the world that he (and not the antiheroes) the true man of tomorrow.

 

[Awest66]

In my opinion, They really should have just used that as an opportunity to reboot Superman sooner. That way having Brandon Routh as Superman would've made a lot more sense.

 

[Lantern Venom]

I always thought it was a bad idea to have Superman "return." If he's humanity's sentinel, he should accept that Krypton is gone and be even more motivated to save Earth from the same fate. The idea of Kal leaving for five years, and all of the lives lost during that time, never sat well with me. It was Superman giving up his power to get busy with Lois in Superman II all over again. It just doesn't fit Kal's personality. Man of Steel got it right when Superman declared, "Krypton had its chance!"

The costume needed more updating than it got. Whether or not they chose to keep the red manties, the cheap tights look didn't help Routh's believability.

Lex Luthor works better in long stories, and that's been part of the challenge of putting him into a 2 1/2 hour movie format. Superman needed a physical threat and more memorable visuals instead of just stopping another Luthor Kryptonite-centric plan. SR would have been fine with Luthor being the reason that a villain like Brainiac, Metallo, Mongul, etc surfaced on Earth to give Kal a beatdown.


I don't think Superman Returns was the disaster that its critics say it was. However, the homage angle was the wrong way to go. It should have done everything to modernize and differentiate itself from the Donner films rather that just slap on a new paint job.

 

[Fincher]

Okay, first, Superman needs a good reason to leave in the first place. Second, Superman and Lois weren't together at the end of Superman II.

So Superman is doing his Superman thing, and Lois still wants to be with him, and he's finding it hard to not be with her because he loves her, but the reason why he made her forget in the first place is still there. An opportunity to go into space on some mission to help mankind presents itself, and he goes because he can't bear to be so close to her but not be with her, and he doesn't tell her before leaving because he can't tell her why.

He comes back, and she's with someone else, and he's happy for her in theory, but the old feelings return between them. Some threat happens which could be Brainiac, or it could be Lex Luthor as long as it isn't a real estate plot. There's no quoting of movies this is a sequel to. Lois discovers he's Clark Kent and learns what happened in Superman II, but she convinces him they can make it work with them being together and him living his dual life, The End.

 

[DrCosmic]

Act I
Setup: Superman is in space, discovering that his planet really is in pieces, but he finds something on a moon, a satellite base, and investigates it to learn more about the destruction of Krypton, and Kryptonian DNA, and a clue that leads to Braniac later.
Theme: You can never go back to where you came from
Initial Incident: Superman returns home, saves Lois in the plane sequence
Debate: Superman discovers he has a son, and that neither his son, nor Lois, nor the planet, nor the rest of the world seem to need him at all. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor is living high on the hog off of items plundered from Superman's fortress, however, one he experiments with causes a blackout.
Big Event: A blackout sweeps the city, and Superman and the Metallo bots commanded by John Corben, Luthor's head of security, are saving people from out of control automated devices. Superman is held as a vigilante, and asked to stop.
Act II
Fun & Games: Superman is forced to save people cleverly and incognito, and constantly avoids Corben and the police, cleverly using his prestige and kindness in order to stop crimes ("have you tried asking nicely?") while dealing with people resenting his absence, not having saved people and the like.
B-Story: Clark spends some time with Lois and Sam/Jon/Chris/Conner/whatever on a very awkward date, where Clark can't get through to the kid who is disinterested in Superman, and more consumed with his devices
Midpoint: While Superman is trying to put his life back together, Lex Luthor's device goes out of control and reveals itself as Brainiac,
Bad Guys Close In: Luthor and Brainiac debate, struggle for power, as Brainiac takes over the Metallo force, Metropolis, and infects the world. Superkid is captured, and Lois and Superman have to team up to try and infiltrate his estate.
Act III
Crisis: Lois is caught, Superkid throws a legendary tantrum that only a superpowered kid who feels abandoned by his father can, and Brainiac's Kryptonite Metallo's finish the job and start up a growing New Krypton landmass using the information Clark retrieved from the ruins of Krypton.
Darkness: Superman is beaten senseless by Metallos, stabbed, poisoned, but Lex Luthor rescues him
Showdown: Superman faces down the Metallos with cunning, and help from his son after he wins him back and promises him, and by extension, the audience to be the kind of hero he can look up to, even if he can't always relate to everything in his young son's life.
Resolution: Brainiac spaced. Superman, Lois and Superkid, at home, kicking it, Luthor agreeing to save his conflict with Superman for another day. Clark gets his job at the Daily Planet back as a traveling correspondent.

 

[metaphysician]

While keeping as much of the structure of the movie as possible. . .

I'd change the focus utterly by having Clark and Lois actually married, *before* he left for space. And they know damn well whose kid he is, because he was born before Clark left. The central drama is about reconnecting with the family he was separated from for so long.

To make this work, I'd need a slightly better reason for the trip then "We found Krypton", but that's not too hard. Likewise, Luthor getting out of prison. . . well, honestly, lets just have him do a prison break. That works fine. Maybe he didn't bother breaking out because Superman was gone for years.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

More action would have gone a long way. Taking out the kid is also a must. That's honestly all I'd need.

Same here. Love the movie as is but the kid is problematic and I think one more major action sequence and a fight scene at the end would have pleased people more in general.

 

[Rorschach2012]

Routh and Spacey were great. I probably prefer them to Cavill and Eisenberg. So I'd keep them and ditch Bosworth. Less emphasis on romance, and get rid of the kid. More emphasis on action with a Lexosuit/Superman battle at the end.

Do we have to keep the Donner link? I would keep the Donner music and tone but I wouldn't adhere to Donner's continuity. I wouldn't want Lex to start out as a criminal in the eyes of the public, I'd go for the corporate villain Lex

 

[STARMAN]

Spacey had potential to be a really good Lex Luthor.

 

[Lily Adler]

The actual concept of Superman being gone for 5 years and returning to the world is not bad. I actually read the full shooting script with scenes not in the movie but it wasn't that much better.

I guess I would keep act one overall. It's a decent set-up culminating with the plane rescue. Sometimes I think they could have had a more dramatic opening scene. Originally they shot the scene with Superman in his ship searching for Krypton. But not much happened.

Act 2 is where the film begins to really drag. I would have eliminated the kid. Superman and Lois can have a child together but not necessarily under the circumstances they created. I would have had more back and forth between them, with their relationship warming up over the course of the second act.

The second act needed a better action sequence than the out of control car driven by Kitty.

Even if I keep Lex's silly land plot for act 3 I would have given him the power suit to fight Superman. In some incarnations giving Lex a power suit wouldn't fit but I think it could have worked with that one.

Superman in the hospital drags on and bores me. I would eliminate that.

The end of the film almost comes to a complete halt. It's too slow and soft. I would have a new last scene, depending if this was the final film to cap the Donner universe or one supposedly kicking off a trilogy.

Overall, the pace of the movie is poor and the script is weak. So even with some new ideas you would need the film to be quicker, a little more action, and some much better dialogue.

I'm still of the belief that Lex using the crystals to build weapons of mass destruction and selling them to war lords to rebuild his wealth would have been better.

 

[STARMAN]

Yeah. There were several ways to make better use of those crystals than creating an island and selling the property.

According to Dan Harris, they originally wrote Lex testing the crystals in the artic and creating another FOS which Clark sinks. They felt the sequence was too big that early in the film and set it in the basement and turned it into a train set.

 

[Awest66]

Routh and Spacey were great. I probably prefer them to Cavill and Eisenberg. So I'd keep them and ditch Bosworth. Less emphasis on romance, and get rid of the kid. More emphasis on action with a Lexosuit/Superman battle at the end.

Do we have to keep the Donner link? I would keep the Donner music and tone but I wouldn't adhere to Donner's continuity. I wouldn't want Lex to start out as a criminal in the eyes of the public, I'd go for the corporate villain Lex

I agree with pretty much all of this.

 

[STARMAN]

The other days was SR's 11th anniversary and it sparked a very brief back and forth between comic book writers Bryan Q Miller who defended it and Dan Jurgens who was highly critical of it. Screenwriter Zack Stenz tossed in his two cents, probably the most balanced, quickly stating he didn't hate it but found it a bit boring and wished it had more ambition than being a love letter to Dick Donner.

 

[Boy Scout]

Get rid of the kid, add in at least two more set pieces (Superman should've fought someone or something), and ditch the love triangle.