The people responsible for making and marketing Superman Returns are doing absolutely everything right, from hiring one of the best comic book movie directors out there to the magnificent trailers they've cut for it. I fully anticipate enjoying the movie consummately and without any of the reservations I felt about X-Men: The Last Stand (and writing a glowing review of it, too).
That said, I've made a couple of observations about the movie, having followed its online (and onscreen) trailers pretty faithfully (though not so obsessively that I was willing to pay good money to see trash like Poseidon) that put a different kind of smile on my face.
Anyone who knows me knows that I have been a fan of Spider-Man for almost as long as it took to get a Spider-Man movie made (very minimal exaggeration there). I was practically rabid when the first Spidey movie broke box office records and became the highest grossing movie of the new millenium back when it was released. I am a fan of both of the web slinger's onscreen adventures, in particular Spider-Man 2.
Having seen SM2 as many times as I have, I've noticed a lot, and I mean a lot of similarities between its storyline and general craftsmanship and that of the upcoming Superman epic.
For a quick rundown: In SM2, Mary Jane was engaged to John Jameson, son of Daily Bugle publisher Jonah Jameson. In SR, Lois Lane is engaged to the nephew of Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White. In SM2, Peter Parker/Spider-Man struggles with his own frustrations. In SR, Clark Kent/Kal El/Superman struggles with the fact that the world apparently doesn't need him anymore (although in SM2 part of his problem is his decision to turn his back on the world even though it does need him).
Admittedly, Singer and company have made no secret about their dilemma of how to make Superman relevant to an audience that has warmed up to angst ridden heroes, foremost of whom would definitely be Spider-Man. But I didn't think they'd even go for similar plot devices.
Even the superficial similarities are there: Sony Picture Imageworks, the company that is making Superman fly on the big screen for the first time in almost twenty years, is the company that enabled Spider-Man to swing through Manhattan. I mean, they could have just as easily have gone with ILM, or even the new king of the visual effects roost Weta Digital, but they went for SPI, based largely, if not solely, on its track record with iconic superheroes. A close look at Superman's spandex shows that there's a certain texture to it, the way James Acheson designed Spider-Man's tights in a very peculiar way.
It's particularly gratifying for a Spider-Man fan like myself, in the same way that Pepsi lovers must have loved Coke's flavor shift twenty years ago, to see the makers of Superman trying to make him more like Spider-Man to sell him these days. It's funny considering that if Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster hadn't come up with Superman in 1938, Spider-Man, in all likelihood, wouldn't even exist. Even the most fanatical Spider-Man devotee knows that. In the same sense, the original Richard Donner Superman served as a huge inspiration for Sam Raimi's Spidey movies. I guess it's cyclical somehow, the way George Lucas was inspired by Japanese epics to make Star Wars, which in turn inspired a lot of Japanese anime and manga creators to make a whole slew of space-epics over the next several years.
The marketing push for Superman Returns has it poised to be potentially the biggest movie of the year, and not the runner-up to the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel a lot of people were predicting, and if the movie is anywhere near as good as the trailers are, it will truly deserve that title. Still, it gives me an odd sense of satisfaction to know that no small part of the movie's success will spring from all the lessons the filmmakers learned from the trails blazed by Sam Raimi and his Spider-Man crew.
Also, if Superman Returns should go on to break records, it'll be with some eager anticipation that I'll wait for Spider-Man 3 (out next year) to top them. Hehehe...
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