The Eradicator said:
I think the hate thrown at SR here is just borderline ridiculous. It's amazing how so many people turned on Singer the way they did.
It's one thing to dislike SR, but its another to continuously give it some really unwarranted hate. One would think that this was a "Batman and Robin" like disaster, when it clearly wasn't.
I don't think it's any more ridiculous than the love thrown at it by those who rank it highly in this thread. People like different things. People obviously respond to differnt types of movies. It's like any other movie and it will garner a reaction. The vehemence of the detractors I think is driven more by the fact that people already feel they know the character and when SR delivered a Superman that they didn't recognize by his action we said, "Hey, that's not right."
If your exposure to Superman is mainly from the other films, the reaction might be different, but I think that long time comcs fans have a more extreme reaction to the film b/c we already know the character.
It seems clear that SR did not hit the mark for everyone.
Personally, the superficial aspects of SR were better than any other Superman film, but the substance was the worst.
In the end, substance will always hold more weight than style.
So, if you don't like the characterization, or story of SR, you will rank it lower on the poll than the other films. I think there are a lot of issues with actual filmmaking as well, the whole 'requel' idea is just stillborn. The vauge history concepts detracts and confused more than it adds.
If you are comparing it to Batman and Robin in terms of quality, then I think you are looking more at campiness than at the essence the characers. Sure the Batgirl in B&R was stupid, and the whole opening sequence was painful to watch, but the character still acted like Batman. Maybe if SR was not about SUperman it would have been better received, but b/c it's SUperman people have an idea of how he should act and fathering a child out of wedloc, being directly responsible for all the conflicts in the film is just not quality SUperman storytelling. The essence of his character does not revolve around cleaning up his mistakes, that's not what drives the character.
In this sense I think it is worse than Batman and Robin. As a film it may not be as cheesy or corny, but it fails to get the essence of Superman's character. I could watch B&R and get beyond the corniness for two hours, but I can't get beyond a Superman that acts as he does in SR, as Superman I could never respect as a nother man.
