Superman Returns With SR's dissapointing Box Office, is the "Geek Golden Age" over?

[casketmouth]

They could easily bring in LexCorp next time if they so desired. Lex has billions now, and it's not like they can pin "New Krypton" on him anyways. I'd set the next movie a good 5 years after this one, have Richard White die in the interim ( He is a pilot of small planes...how easy is that? Although I did like him in SR and thought he didn't do the easy thing of making the "other man" unlikable so the audience hates him ) and have Clark reveal to Lois that he's Superman and proceed from there.

And while I'm sure there will be more comics movies ( too many are in development now to be out and out canned ) I am afraid that Warners will start to take a Batman Forever route on future projects like WW, Flash and G.L. I really thought they were moving in the right direction creatively with Batman Begins, V for Vendetta, and Superman Returns ( And to a lesser extent Constantine, although Keanu in that part is still plain wrong ) We'll have to wait and see.

Keanu wasn't bad, but Depp could have done it perfectly since the artist took him anyway as the model for the character.

 

[Lestat74]

Keanu wasn't bad, but Depp could have done it perfectly since the artist took him anyway as the model for the character.

Man, Johnny Depp would have been perfect. He would have had NO problem dying his hair blonde and we all know he can do a good British accent. *sigh* Oh well...

And I like your idea about Brainiac attaching itself to Superman's ship on his visit to Krypton...they DID film all that return to Krypton stuff, if there is a sequel then thats a good way to intoduce Brainiac. The ship is still buried out there, and I'm sure Lex might go looking for it...especially since we know he's obsessed with Advanced alien technology.

But if they do do a direct sequel and not a re-boot, they ain't gonna kill the kid. Too much story potential and they are not gonna kill a kid in a PG-13 movie. especially if it's Superman's son.

 

[casketmouth]

Man, Johnny Depp would have been perfect. He would have had NO problem dying his hair blonde and we all know he can do a good British accent. *sigh* Oh well...

And I like your idea about Brainiac attaching itself to Superman's ship on his visit to Krypton...they DID film all that return to Krypton stuff, if there is a sequel then thats a good way to intoduce Brainiac. The ship is still buried out there, and I'm sure Lex might go looking for it...especially since we know he's obsessed with Advanced alien technology.

But if they do do a direct sequel and not a re-boot, they ain't gonna kill the kid. Too much story potential and they are not gonna kill a kid in a PG-13 movie. especially if it's Superman's son.

I know they wouldn't kill the kid, but just major wishful thinking. Or you know what would even be cooler? actually really cool?!! is if richard, beeing almost the same age as supes, really IS braniac and planned all this from the first time the ship landed on earth. Richard would be the highest form of artificial intellegance ever created and yes that would mean this thing slepped with Lois and killed of the real richard and borowed ID or something. Would be cool if the child is REALLY brainiacs home grown kryptonian and the asthma would be something of a defect. Lois is the first to successfully deliver one and now richard has played along very well. Which would explain the richard scene of being fishy about Clark's hight and stuff, just testing lois. Then of course the big climactic battle would occur in a third movie or something while this introduces other villains while unravelling brainiac.

I can come up with something waaaaaay better but it was on the spot thinking just to erase the idea of superman having that son this early into things and it would create a HATE for brainiac and Superman would have more meaning to fight rather than the occasional saves here and there.

 

[David33]

SR is a flop because its a bad movie,with a bad script.

 

[Lestat74]

SR is a flop because its a bad movie,with a bad script.

*rolls eyes*
That's some deep insight there. Care to elaborate? On second thought....that's ok.

Let's not turn this thread into a I Love/Hate Superman Returns. There are plenty of other threads for that.

Let's please try and stay on topic and not get all High School.

 

[dpm07]

The only thing that went wrong here was that Singer had no idea what WE wanted, just what HE wanted and that always fails a movie.

This sums everything up very well. Singer really had a very poor interpretation of what he thought would be a great representation of Superman. His bland fanatical fetish and insistence on doing Superman the way he did and connecting it with S:TM as well as making Superman have a son, and providing little action, a lack of a supervillain, and really a poor idea to what has made Superman great in the past few years (DCAU) has really hurt this film. Nolan wasn't stupid, and neither was Raimi. Nolan knew the DCAU had been important for Batman's resurrection on film, and he took aspects to make it work. Singer on the other hand, barely glossed over STAS and the DCAU in his Up, Up, and Away documentary, as if it were barely worth mentioning, when in fact, it has provided some of the best written stories and I don't mean kiddie stories, but genuine stories with adult themes that he could have taken aspects of and put on-screen.

The sad testament to humanity is that WB has sunk so much money into Superman and Singer's warped idea of a vision and the goofy writing of his whack pack, that they'll probably go ahead with a sequel in the vein of Singer.

I don't think the Geek Golden Age of heroes is over though. One can look at POTC and see that it still continues. It's just that Singer is out of touch. I think he needs to go back to Hawaii with Harris and Daugherty, and contemplate things.

What Superman needs is a reboot. What Singer and his whack pack of Harris and Daugherty need, is a boot out the door.

 

[Weadazoid]

The Golden age is not over.

Spiderman 3 looms and may be a bigger money maker then the 1rst.

Iron Man if treated correctly.... and part of me think Favreau can do it can be a kind of Batman for Marvel.... Brooding Billionare...human just uses his toys.


Ghost Rider from my perspective looks amazing... and may really surprise people.




Batman Begins is more of a success then Superman returns.. WB could have a huge money maker on thier hands with Blae and Nolans next effort.


X3 much like X2 was just increadibly frontloaded with die hards so while it had a huge opening and it will be a top 5 grossing comic book film

Spiderman
Spiderman 2
Batman (89)
X3.


People are still wainting for the next Spiderman..... clearly while having the background to do it..Superman did not attract the same fan fare.

When Spiderman came out it seemed as though everyone was telling me I had to go see it.... and I already had and the a conversation would start.

 

[DA Harvey Dent]

I don't think its over. Its not that more good movies need to be released, but rather movies that the public wants to see. Crap movies make big bucks all the time b/c people hunger to see them. Conversely, good movies fall short at the BO b/c no one is interested in seeing them. Hollywood just needs to cater to people's interests rather than assume that just b/c a character is a historic icon - people will want to see it.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

The superhero movie boom isnt over. Superman just came a little late to the party, and then puked in the punch bowl....

 

[Bad Superman]

The superhero movie boom isnt over. Superman just came a little late to the party, and then puked in the punch bowl....

YO HOWNED!

 

[Barry Allen]

*rolls eyes*
That's some deep insight there. Care to elaborate? On second thought....that's ok.

Let's not turn this thread into a I Love/Hate Superman Returns. There are plenty of other threads for that.

Let's please try and stay on topic and not get all High School.

Try as you might, Lestat, people will always jump on the "r0fl0lz, SR iz t3h sUx" bandwagon.

 

[WormyT]

What Superman needs is a reboot. What Singer and his whack pack of Harris and Daugherty need, is a boot out the door.

LOL!

The superhero movie boom isnt over. Superman just came a little late to the party, and then puked in the punch bowl....

LOL!

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

I think the genre's fate rests on the success or failure of My Super Ex-Girlfriend...... everyone cross your fingers...

 

[Bad Superman]

I think the genre's fate rests on the success or failure of My Super Ex-Girlfriend...... everyone cross your fingers...

The genre should die. . . . . .

 

[Steelsheen]

I think with the underwhelming Box Office of SR, we may be seeing an end to the "Geek Golden Age" we've been so lucky to live in. I'm 32 years old, and I remember back in the 80's and most of the 90's, all the fanboy "dream projects" were just that...unlikely figments of our imaginations. The Lord of the Rings was deemed "unfilmable". George Lucas had moved on from Star Wars, it was over. We kept reading about potential movie versions of our beloved comic books in the pages of Wizard Magazine and before that, Amazing Heroes ( yeah, I go back that far...sue me, I'm old ) But they never happened. All we got were campier and campier seuqels to Batman an childish tripe like Steel and Spawn.

And then the Matrix happened. And then the idea that a sci fi "comic book" movie ( in theme if not in fact ) could be great and commercially succesful wasn't a crazy one anymore. Then X-men happened, and instead of making it another campfest, Fox got Bryan Singer, an actual director with pedigree, to make a real film out of a comic book. Then Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films went through the roof. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings proved that not only was it filmable, it could be made into a damn fine series of films. Even Hulk, while dissapointing in many ways, dared to treat the subject matter with seriousness. Sure, there were dissapointments...the new Star Wars trilogy couldn't compare to the originals, and Fantastic Four and Daredevil weren't what I'd call Oscar quality, and that's putting it mildly. But they happened. The idea that there would even be a Fantastic Four movie and a Daredevil movie would have been a pipe dream when I was a kid. ( And I'll go as far as saying both those movies are better than just about any of the 90's super hero films ) Sometimes I still can't believe they made a Hellboy film. Who whould have thought that back in the day?? And Batman Begins once again proved a comic book movie could be made with the same quality and integrety as any Oscar nominated film. And because of that, Warners trusted Bryan Singer to make a Superman movie with the same seriousness as Nolan gave Batman.

But now it looks like that gamble has not paid off, and I'm pretty sure that the suits at all the studios are gonna balk at more adult oriented takes on Super Heroes, especially with more family oriented stuff like Pirates gobbling up everything else around them. This bodes ill for those of us who were excited about seeing real quality films made out of comics. Warners has got to be freaking out about Wonder Woman, Flash and especially the Watchmen right now. And Jack Black should be getting a call anyday now for a more Comedic family friendly Green Lantern *shudder*

One good thing is that Marvel is in control of their further movie output, so hopefully they won't let anyone dumb them down. But even they are gonna feel the pressure to do so now.

But in any event, this really was a "golden age" for us geeks in many ways, maybe we should have appreciated it more while we had it. We all knew it had to end sometime.

Discuss....

great post dude. although its like a cold shower on our comic book love affair.

its been one of the oldest struggles in Hollywood: how to get genre films to be taken seriously and still make a buck. for years its doing well with the latter, now its making good strides with the former but the BO is getting affected. you'd think the young fans of yesteryear would be older now and thus a market for credibly made genre films, but kids who loved genre films back then doesnt necessarily translate 100% into the matured target audience now, a lot of the adults have lost interest in the genre that has captured their interest as a child, hence perhaps the less than remarkable performance at the BO.

you also have to consider that there will be a saturation point on the audience for comic book films in particular. the reason why Superman 1978, Batman 1989 and Spiderman has been so successful is that during their run comic books movies are relatively rare, now just about every year we have at least one comic book film coming out, so you cant really blame the GP to start thinking "its more of the same".

 

[The Guard]

On what level did SUPERMAN RETURNS actually fail? I know that it didn't provide what fanboys want, but what movie ever has, really? Saturation point? Please. There's no "saturation point" for stupid fart-joke movies, romantic films, action films, biographies, etc, so why should superhero movies be any different? History shows us that if you keep handing people something vaguely new, they will usually keep buying into it in large numbers. SUPERMAN RETURNS was no different. It's still making money, and will continue to do so. Superhero movies are far from over. What should be over is the expectation that they will all make insane amounts of money, a la SPIDER-MAN and SPIDER-MAN 2 did. They won't. Except when DVD sales are factored in, at which point it will become clear: they're still cleaning up. But we still have at least one Batman film to look forward to, SPIDER-MAN is still going strong, and there's nothing to say adaptions like 300 and 100 BULLETS won't be amazing movies in their own right.

And that list of things Chris Nolan provided in BATMAN BEGINS is laughable.

 

[LostSon88]

And that list of things Chris Nolan provided in BATMAN BEGINS is laughable.

List?

 

[ReptileOrion]

I apologize if this turns into a rant...

At times I'm fed up with some of these directors of certain films. Granted a lot of them have gotten it right these days. Christopher Nolan, Robert Rodriguez the list goes on.... I hate directors who want to totally take the a character into left field just for the sake of being different. They act like making a "comic book film" is going to put a stigma on them or something so they have to make it artsy or some crap like that. Just do your homework on the character, make a few tweaks if you need to, and go make a solid film. Bryan Singer films (X-men, Supes) just annoy the hell out of me at times. Instead of trying to root everything in realism just go make the bloody film.

 

[Red Mask]

I think the genre is as much a factor as the rest, like marketing, casting. Between Superman Returns, King Kong, and Titanic, you can always bet on genre's like the Titanic.

 

[The Guard]

When did Bryan Singer try to root everything in realism? He made a movie about a man who lifts continents and flies.

 

[ultimatefan]

To answer the question, it´s not over, there are still sequels to Spider-Man, Batman, and some of the projects in development can turn out good. But some eyebrows will be raised at the genre, no doubt.

 

[TrailerCues]

Nah

If the Box Office 2006 of Superhero Movies show anyting future Superhero Movies will simply be like 5 to 10 Minutes of Story the rest action.

 

[ReptileOrion]

When did Bryan Singer try to root everything in realism?

In X-Men

 

[Lobster Charlie]

The Geek Golden Age never happened, guys.

Aside from Spiderman and Batman Begins, we aren't left with a whole lot of good comic book films these days. They still suffer from what they've always suffered from---Hollywooditis, and an unwillingness to capture the true essence of the characters they are presenting on screen. It's just now the movies cost more, and look and sound better than they used to.

The X-Men series is a pretty limp trilogy when you really look at it. Those characters never really got their just dues. The Blade series fell apart after the first one. Hellboy was fun, for an obscurish character. Superman is a mess. Fantastic Four was a miss, even though they did get a few things right. Punisher was decent, but not nearly as brutal as it should've been. Daredevil, another miss. They are ALREADY redoing The Hulk, as well they should be. And I'm one of the few Sin City fans that did NOT like Sin City the movie.

See where I'm heading with this? Very rarely does Hollywood get regular movies right. Comic films have proven to be no different.

The key issue here is that Hollywood's standards, as far as scripts, casting and directing are concerned, have slipped drastically during the past 20 years or so. Its hard to get qualified screenwriters to take our characters seriously. We have the bells and whistles and CG effects, but we still haven't got the writers and the right directors to tackle the subject matter. The suits thought it'd be wise to just hire these new "art house cinema" guys, since indie film was the hot thing for a little while. But they needn't go there.

In my eyes, the Geek Golden Age will arrive when they get over half of these types of films right. They haven't yet. For every Spiderman 2, you get Fantastic Four, Punisher, and Daredevil. For every Batman Begins, they give you a Superman Returns, Elektra, and Hulk.

The Geek Golden Age will be measured against the success or failure of Batman 2 and Spiderman 3.

 

[D-Bone]

The Geek Golden Age never happened, guys.

Aside from Spiderman and Batman Begins, we aren't left with a whole lot of good comic book films these days. They still suffer from what they've always suffered from---Hollywooditis, and an unwillingness to capture the true essence of the characters they are presenting on screen. It's just now the movies cost more, and look and sound better than they used to.

The X-Men series is a pretty limp trilogy when you really look at it. Those characters never really got their just dues. The Blade series fell apart after the first one. Hellboy was fun, for an obscurish character. Superman is a mess. Fantastic Four was a miss, even though they did get a few things right. Punisher was decent, but not nearly as brutal as it should've been. Daredevil, another miss. They are ALREADY redoing The Hulk, as well they should be. And I'm one of the few Sin City fans that did NOT like Sin City the movie.

See where I'm heading with this? Very rarely does Hollywood get regular movies right. Comic films have proven to be no different.

The key issue here is that Hollywood's standards, as far as scripts, casting and directing are concerned, have slipped drastically during the past 20 years or so. Its hard to get qualified screenwriters to take our characters seriously. We have the bells and whistles and CG effects, but we still haven't got the writers and the right directors to tackle the subject matter. The suits thought it'd be wise to just hire these new "art house cinema" guys, since indie film was the hot thing for a little while. But they needn't go there.

In my eyes, the Geek Golden Age will arrive when they get over half of these types of films right. They haven't yet. For every Spiderman 2, you get Fantastic Four, Punisher, and Daredevil. For every Batman Begins, they give you a Superman Returns, Elektra, and Hulk.

The Geek Golden Age will be measured against the success or failure of Batman 2 and Spiderman 3.

Correct. It's not just comics. How many times does a studio make a movie adaption of a beloved book that winds up to be a turd.
What does the audience usually say on the way out of the theater?
Eh, the book was better.