The Superman Look: Shaping Superman

[lujho]

I think any decent natural looking curl would be in the shape of an S anyway, as long as he's got wavy hair which he should. People don't draw the curl in the comics to look like an S because he's Superman... they draw it that way because that's what it would look like. If his name had always been Hyperman, the curl, would still always have looked like an S.

As long as it doesn't look forced its fine.

When Superman has straight hair and the "curl" is actually more of a stray strand, like in the picture of Brandon's screentest upthread... then it actually looks kind of lame as well - almost as much as the contrived whirly-curl he ended up with.

 

[Greenshirt]

No. Leave it the way it is.

 

[lujho]

No. Leave it the way it is.

You're right. I take it all back, Superman's hair SHOULD look *****ing ridiculous and Clark Kent should look like a shaggy, floppy haired college student.

 

[The Sage]

I agree with whatever Luhjo and DorkyFresh says on this matter.

 

[sepharih]

i know a lot of people are complaining about the suit, but one of my biggest complaints about Supes's appearance is actually his haircut/hairstyle. he looks perfect as Clark, but i think we all agree that he looks a bit like SuperBOY instead of SuperMAN and i don't necessarily think it's his face that gives his boyish looks but his hair. i seriously think they need to give him a trim for the sequel...look how much of a difference a haircut can make...

who here agrees and who here thinks i'm nuts and who here thinks this is a dumb thread?

As they say, the devil really is in the details. Well done! The new haircut definitely helps to make his features more pronounced and gives him a far more mature look.

 

[dark_b]

maybe the short hair looks better on superman. but the long hair is better to make a big difference between clark and superman.

 

[ROBOCOP CPU001]

I always thought his clark kent hair was to help his deceet..by the way it hanged over his face..

fork it..lets just have him slick it back like george reeves and not change it at all when he becomes the man of steel.

 

[DorkyFresh]

first, lemme thank everyone for posting in the thread and a special thanks to those who agree.

Yes. Give him wavy hair. Make it shorter, especially back and sides. reverse the part.

Have Superman's hair be loose and tousled and Clark's be neat and in place. The movie pretty much did it the opposite way around - as did Lois and Clark.

For heaven's sake, have keep the hair (except Superman's forelock) away from his forehead. Keep it back and show the hairline. I don't know why they comb it down over half his forehead like that, it looks so lame. Reeve had the same thing in the first 2 movies.

In other words just make it like the vast majority of Superman comics in the last 20 years - that is to say, NOT STUPID.

The key thing is, Superman's hair is Clark's hair, messed up. Not the other way around, and not some ridiculously contrived... contrivance of hairgel and fake curl.

Kirk Alyn had it right. Not QUITE the right style but the right idea. Natural curl as Superman, nice and neat for Clark.

THIS is far closer to what Clark should look like:

Looks so much better - and mature. Just make it wavy (which would not be as obvious in this Clark mode), reverse the part and mess it up as Supes.

The problem is that the film-makers simply don't get or understand how it's meant to be. I can't see how you can surround yourself with Alex Ross art and not see "hey, the way he draws the hair actually makes sense AND looks good" but that's the case. They seem to WANT Clark and Superman to look stupid, as was the case with Superman 1 and 2. For Christ's sake, Sueprman is NOT have meant to have long hair, and you can't just slick it down to try and make it look short.

If no pictures show up in this thread, check out this gallery for the shots he did for GQ Magazine:
http://www.brandonrouth.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=118

awesome observation, lujho, and i totally agree. they need to do away with the Superman Returns hairstylist and hire whoever did Routh's hair for THAT photoshoot. his hair is almost perfect there...the only thing that would make it better is if he had the signature curl.

 

[November Rain]

The only problem i see with the hair cut is that there are a limited number of styles they could use to pull of clark.

they need the hair for clark to make him seem less threatening since he is of a large size. to portray that innocence within him.

maybe the problem is that they are playing him still at too young an age and a newer clark should be reinvented with the films, a somewhat more serious tas type reporter.

so my point is with long hair, you can get a good clark and get away with a decent supes. With short hair you get a good supes but i'm not sure a believable clark can be portrayed that wouldn't share a striking resemblence to his alter ego

 

[DorkyFresh]

good point November Rain...they should let Routh's hair grow, shoot all the scenes with Clark, trim his hair, then shoot all the scenes with Superman seperately, hehe.

but then again, i dunno $#!+ about making a movie...i just know visuals.

 

[November Rain]

good point November Rain...they should let Routh's hair grow, shoot all the scenes with Clark, trim his hair, then shoot all the scenes with Superman seperately, hehe.

That's a ****ing great idea.

I'd be happy with that, best thing said so far.

 

[DvilDog]

its sad that I had never thought of that. That would be perfect. Shoot all the scenes with long hair then with short. Of course then Im sure you would have people complaining about that as well. Guess you just cant please everyone. I do like that idea though. Maybe they could pass it off as a wig or something. I just think that Supe's hair should be messed up and wind blown because hes flying everywhere. You can have the part have the waviness. You can even have that s curl if you want. But the only problem i had with the hair was the fact that everytime I saw him as Supes i was like jeeze man did you just get out of the shower again? I would hate to see his bathroom jeez. How much hair glue does he need. Everytime he has to fly back to his crib to fix his hair before he goes to save the plane or lift nk into space? but then again what do i know?

 

[November Rain]

to be honest, if it's as short as the one in the first pic, i doubt anyone would really even notice the difference, they'll just put it down to restyling.

 

[Hades]

Disguise wise, I don't think the hair really matters because Supermans disguise is pretty unbelievable no matter how long or short his hair is.

t:

 

[DrMylesOBoogie]

You guys complain about every everything from this movie.

It's because there is so much to complain about.

 

[November Rain]

Disguise wise, I don't think the hair really matters because Supermans disguise is pretty unbelievable no matter how long or short his hair is.

t:

but hair can help portray what type of person somebody is,

so it's not really about keeping up with the disguise but getting across the point that public clark, private clark and supes all act differently and subtely with hair cuts this can come along.

I mean look at spidey 3, tobey gets a emo haircut to bring across the symbiote's affect on him. Does it drive the plot in any way? Course it doesn't but it quickly portrays a certain attitude, enough for the audience to get a change in mood of a character.

that's all pretty much what we're talking about here.

It's just that for brandon's films, the hair required for each role differs quite a bit (you can't get away with the way it was done with reeves) so hence the discussions.

I think it's all viable.

 

[Mentok]

His normal hair is black and short... They should just go with that.

 

[Mentok]

Now that is Superman about to beat the crap out of Metallo/Darksied/Brainiac/Bizarro.

 

[Karea07]

Yeah, fake curl is dumb

 

[DrMylesOBoogie]

Now that is Superman about to beat the crap out of Metallo/Darksied/Brainiac/Bizarro.

Carefull now if Singer sees this he might get carpet tunnell syndrome.

 

[lujho]

What I will also add is that if they can't be bothered making Routh's hair wavy - then ditch the bloody curl alltogether, because it's just stupid as it is.

Have Clark's hair neat like it is in the pictures I posted and have Superman's loose with straight choppy/messy locks hanging forward. It is occasionally drawn like that in the comics.

But better to go the whole way and give him wavy hair.

 

[Eros]

i dun think its the hair that bother you people, but the actors smaller physique compared to the comics and cartoons portrayal of superman.

 

[DorkyFresh]

i dun think its the hair that bother you people, but the actors smaller physique compared to the comics and cartoons portrayal of superman.

i dun tink you should be tellin us what we tink.

Routh's physique is the least of my complaints. he was in perfect shape IMO. only if his neck were thicker....but i have more problems with his hair and costume than his build.

 

[Super Kal]

dorkyfresh?... you had a problem with the suit?

 

[DorkyFresh]

kak, i've told you before that i have. i like it, but there are many things i would change.