Singer is capable of directing excellent movies, such as X-Men II and The Usual Suspects. I believe he missed the mark on Superman Returns in terms of characterization and pace, but I had no doubt he would regain his footing with Man of Steel.

Perhaps he’ll stay on as a producer? He does very good work on the producing side of things as well.

Hope this isn’t true, if only because it means the haters win.

The first problem with Superman Returns is that it wasn’t juts a tribute to the Richard Donner Superman film, it was in many respects a remake even to having Lex Luthor wanting to grab real estate and make a fortune. Keeping Lex Luther the way he was in the movies in the 70s and 80s didn’t work at all as the modern comic book and animated series mega-industrialist version is much more interesting than the minor crook he was in the old movies. There’s also the problem with the fact that Superman Returns peaks early with the airliner rescue sequence as nothing in the rest of the film is half as interesting. The aspect of his having a son who is his only link to dead Krypton was good although I don’t think it was such a major plotline that it was necessary to have it completely left out of the paperback novelization and the comic book adaptation of the film as this just made those tie-ins useless for people who enjoy such things.

She also writes that filming of George Miller’s Justice League probably will be delayed until have the Hollywood writers strike is resolved.

Comic fans need to pray that this abomination is delayed forever. No good can come it. Think Catwoman, only more expensive and more detrimental to comic book films.

I think it’ll be too bad if Singer doesn’t come back. I liked Returns and if you didn’t, it’s just because you hate Superman Christ and are going to hell.

There is doubt that Singer is good director.

The problem was the horrible script.

Singer’s best work has been with writers who are independent.

I think Warners (whether Singer sticks around or not) needs to go the “Batman Begins”/”Casino Royale” start from scratch route and start building a whole new continuity for Superman just like those films did for Batman/James Bond.

Anyone else think that is a good idea, or am I just crazy?

I think it was more of an issue of the script and sticking to close to the Donner film without much progression. Lex sucked and they should have made him a great villain and updated his character. But I think that Singer is getting the blame for poor planning on the execs part.

The previous points about the movie having scenes very similar to previous scenes from the 70′s Reeves films strikes home. There was nothing epic about Returns and I think most of the audience felt it was anti-climatic, myself included. I’m really looking forward to the next movie and hope they load it up with some much needed action like Doomsday or Brainiac. With CGI commonplace these days I can’t see the budget not being able to accommodate the much needed special effects. It’s weird how X2 was so good and Singer’s Superman just felt so empty.

I thought the special effects were more real, I mean I saw the original in the theater when I was a kid, and I left believing a man could fly, I did get the same feeling again, and I got goosebumps hearing the old music.

However, storywise….ugh. I mean Kal Penn gets interviewed by WIZARD and explain his role for the magaizne, and I am thinking “Wow the anti-Jimmy Olsen for Lex Luthor ! AWESOME!”….I see the movie and the guy had what 5 lines? I hate when magazines do interviews with the actors that claim to have large roles but really don’t (Entertainment Weekly did it with Ghost, Niobe, and Persephone from Matrix, WIZARD and Star Wars Insider did it with the Young Boba Fett who really contributed nothing). Overall, the hype on secondary characters was all in all lame.

Second, I once heard Kevin Smith speak about the big continuity glitch involving Superman’s kid. If this movie is supposed to take place after Superman 2, and Clark gives Lois the forgotten kiss memory loss thing, why doesn’t she think twice about how she eventually had Superman’s kid afterall?

Kevin Smith brought this up at the New York Comic-Con last year, and other than “Why didnt the Emperor just clone a new Anakin to train, or a new Anakin to transfer limbs too, or why does Obi-Wan survive Darth Maul’s high ground advantage in Ep I but Anakin gets ripped aprt in Ep III when Obi-Wan has the high ground?” This Superman kid thing is baffling! Maybe Smith had an axe to grind because his story wasn’t looked at, but he discovered a very valid continuity loophole. If it wasn’t Mephisto, it probably was a Superman-Prime wall-punch.

Maybe he made a deal with Mephisto through Singer’s Marvel connections and using magic made nothing happen prior to Superman 4! POOF! But then Reeves would be alive then right? Okay all joking aside…..

But seriously, I liked the special effects, I really believed in this day of CG that a man could fly, the story was lame…really lame. I read all the versions they spoke about doing. And Hollywood never seems to car about what the fans really want and think. Just tell a damn good story with people who can act and direct and sell it ! Singer leaving, not surprised, better to leave now unscathed than actually be a man and fix something or try to finish what you start…XMEN 3 anyone? I mean am I the only one recalling him saying that the Liberty Island incident in XMEN had something to do with XMEN 3? Oh wait, we won’t know cause he left, tooo bad !

Just make a good movie someone please!

Out!

oh yeah, how can be privileged and post on the message boards?

On the balance, I think this is bad news. No, Superman Returns was not a great movie but Singer is a very good filmaker. So in the end, while he may have stumbled on the first film, I’d rather have him on the second then some hack. I guess it all depends on who will film the second.

This is a real shame if true. I really enjoyed Superman Returns, even though it had its flaws (Lex Luthor needed better characterization, and it was a bit too loyal to the Donner movie), and I was really excited to see what Singer had in store for the followup. There was a lot to enjoy about the movie, and I really hope a proper sequel doesn’t get canned because a vocal pack of fans are pissy that “Superman didn’t hit anything!”

Evan, why is it that if someone honestly feels like SR was a crappy movie (and I’m one of those people) that they must automatically be labeled a “hater”?

If you liked SR, fine. I’m glad you did. A lot of people didn’t for a variety of reasons (too many for me to go into here), and the film underperformed. It didn’t bomb, but it fell far short of what WB expected, especially considering how much promotion they pumped into SR compared to what they did for Batman Begins.

They weren’t happy, and a lot of fans weren’t happy. For that reason, they might decide not to make a sequel. And that’s fine by me. I think the JLA film is a bad idea too, but that remains to be seen. I’d prefer a reboot of the Supes franchise, ala what Marvel’s doing with the Hulk.

I don’t hate Singer. I really liked his two X-Men films, as well as The Usual Suspects. He was simply misguided in his love for Donner’s Supes films, and using it as a template for his. Believe me, I would love to see a great Superman movie, I just don’t think we’ve gotten one yet.

It appears the majority of us liked Singer’s X-Men movies, but agree that his Superman Returns fell very short of expectations. As long as he doesn’t team up with Shoemaker to direct the first Superman and Batman movie, I wish him the best of luck in every other endeavor he undertakes.

Long Live Superman The Movie!

Yes, but this is explicitly a continuation of the movie series, not of Smallville or Lois & Clark or the comics. Hence it uses the movie characterizations.

The movie problems can be summed up in one sentence…Superman never threw a single punch.

No, that’s the problem with fanboys with a limited view of the genre. It’s not an aesthetic flaw, and I’ll remind everyone that he didn’t do so the first time around either.

A Superman film shouldn’t have to be beholden to every bit of Superman-related media out there- Singer choose to follow the movie continuity, and that’s a valid choice.

As for him leaving- the lure of home in this case would be pretty strong. That’s partly what he battles throughout, the tension between his adopted home of Earth and his “true” home- hence the climax of the film being him literally shrugging off “New Krypton” and falling to Earth.

It’s not a perfect film, but it’s a lot better than most people here at the ‘Rama give it credit for.

Gotta disagree about the leaving Earth thing. I can understand Supes being curious about it, but I don’t see him giving up his adopted home, a world he’s sworn to protect, on a whim over what MIGHT be out there.

Again, if this is to be the “real” Superman 3, it sure flies in the face of his promise to the Prez, and it creates serious questions over how soon he left and what he knew/didn’t know about Lois being pregnant.

Regardless… To each their own, Evan. If you got something out of it, that’s great. I just think a lot of people did not. Again, the film did moderately well, but it was not the blockbuster WB expected. That, and the generally negative fan response makes it easy to see why WB may not bother with a second go-around for Singer.

That said, they’re delusional if they think this hastily thrown together “JLA Babies” film is going to be well received. The article referenced above is interesting in that they say filming may wait until the strike is over. I assumed that was always the case, since I didn’t think that the final, shooting script had been completed yet. If it is, it’s even more hastily put together than I thought (I didn’t think it was fully case either… Who’s supposed to play Batman?).

And it makes the statement that they want Chris Nolan to make another Bat-movie disingenuous, seeing how they’re stepping on his franchise with this JLA project.

Damn. I loved Superman Returns, and was/am anzious to see what happens next with the super-kid. Maybe dick Donner will return? We can only pray.

i hope this is just a rumor, i thought they did a great job with the orig Sman returns

Everyone knows the origin? Not entirely accurate, since there’s been multiple re-tellings of it. There’s no definitive one version. They all more or less go the same, but some have very significant differences.

Personally, I’m partial to the Animated Series version, tying Brainiac to Krypton’s destruction. I also enjoyed the new “Last Days of Krypton” novel by Kevin Anderson. He brought a number of elements from both the Donner movie and the comics together.

Anyhow, my point is that there’s no reason not to tell it again. I say, do something closer to the Brainiac story and make that the focus of a new film that reboots the franchise. They could even bring in the animated plotline of Brainiac and Luthor (temporarily) forming a partnership.

Look at it this way… Batman Begins told the Bat-origin yet again, and that’s an origin that’s generally doesn’t vary as much with each retelling. But it worked, and it served the overall plot of the story too. Re-boot Superman, keep the origin brief but important to the tale (not the long, dull, dragged out telling the Donner film did), and make it a Superman for the 21st century.

YAY! That Super-kid is gone!

OK I loved Superman Returns. It was fantastic. There I said it. What kills me is that while people keep getting upset that SR retread the ground of the first Donner fillm, everyone was tickled pink to watch Batman’s origin ONE MORE FREAKIN’TIME. How boring is that? Singer moved away from the origin so people don’t have to constantly see it. You people who gripe about SR and then praise Batman Begins should rethink that. Oh and not once did I hear Superman say he didn’t have to save someone. Batman was totally out of character at that moment.

I’d love to see a “Phantom Edit” take on Superman Returns in which all of Lex’s scenes are edited out or edited down to the bear minimum. The movie is great save for any scene with Kevin Spacey in it.

I remember Wizard asking Spacey if he and Routh tried to stay away from each other on set and Spacey said something like, “No, that’s just silly. Come on… this is a comic book movie. Its not Shakespeare or something.” It was clear he approached the movie as a complete joke and his horrible, nails on chalk board performance is a testimony to that.