Wow I compel rely disagree abou the personality of the two Superman characters in each flick. Brandon's superman was bored and monotone and lackluster. Henry's Superman was quite and depressed but atleast there were character traits even if you don't like them. He also became more engaging as the movie went on and he was no longer trying to hide. I also feel Henry had better non verbal communication than Brandon; neither Clark or Superman talked much but Henry at least showed more with his eyes face and body. Perhaps the cause of this was because Brandon was wearing contacts.
Totally with you there dude ! Henry didn't have to talk that much, but his frowns and body language spoke volumes more than Routh's -they might as well have dressed up a store mannikin in the superman costume.
Cavill's Superman grunted and groaned and bellowed whenever he made a strenuous effort ( holding up the collapsing oil rig, smashing Zod through the grain silos, smashing into Faora, flying up the gravity beam, the list goes on).
He was quite an emotional Superman, and I thought he did a great job of communicating without long speeches - Superman's all about deeds not words.
Also, I feel compelled to weigh in on this:
I guess what really ruined this movie were the cliches and since the audience have been begging for Superman to punch someone they just over did it in the third act. .
Dude, glad you enjoyed Superman returns ( I hated it) because at least someone went home happy from that film.
However, I have a small issue with your criticism of MOS involving too much of Superman punching people, which a few other people have raised as
well.
Have you read many Superman comics ? Generally, it's about a guy who protects humanity from threats on a massive scale. And when Brainiac, or Darkseid or Doomsday show up, ready to obliterate the Earth, what's Superman's primary method of removing the threat ? He punches them. When Bizarro or Metallo get out of line and start
tearing up Metropolis, POW ! It's punching time. If Mongul shows up and
pulls some of that **** he did in coast city, what does Supes do ?
BAM ! he punches the bejeezus out of that big yellow sucker.
I kind of lost touch with Superman for a while (being a big fan of John Byrne's work back in the 80's) so last week I had a read of Superman, Brainiac by Geoff Johns ( yo Goyer, some great source material here for a movie !) anyway, when Brainiac threatens Earth, and Kandor and is just generally
being a big green pratt, what does Supes do ? POW ! He punches the hell
out of Brainiac, problem solved, planet saved. Good to see that things haven't changed that much in nearly 30 years - punching is still very much a feature of Superman comics.
You're right, it isn't a very sophisticated way of doing things, but boy it's quite satisfying - I wish Supes had punched Zod a few more times, he certainly had it coming.
Again, glad you enjoyed Superman returns, but that version of Superman didn't work for me at all. I thought that Singer emasculated the Man of Steel
(Superman is stupid enough to land on an Island made of Kryptonite ? Come on !) The worst thing about the film, is that Singer didn't have the guts to put his own stamp on the film - he just made it as a love letter to Richard Donner and Chris Reeve. Don't get me wrong, I loved those films, even the really **** ones, but Singer tried to make a Donner/Reeve film without either of them, and it came off as a sham of a travesty of a pale imitation. Time had moved on, and Superman needed to as well. At least Snyder and the gang had the balls to reinterpret the character, keeping all the traditional elements but sharpening them up to give Supes a 21st century feel.
This is not at all to criticize your opinion, I see from your post that a lot of the stuff I hated, was actually stuff that worked for you in SR. That's cool,
just venting my spleen. Hope you enjoy the next Superman film as
much as you enjoyed SR.
Peace.