In 2005, Nolan's "Batman: Mystery of Shadows" gained a very good reputation, and the Batman movie officially recovered after the fiasco of "Batman and Robin" in 1997.
For Warners and DC, since one of their two ace cards has stood up, the other one can't be hidden. Therefore, at that time, the journey of the renaissance of the Superman movie was started.
In fact, as early as the end of the last century, Warner executives had the intention to restart the Superman movie. They found a lot of screenwriters to write the script, and once extended an olive branch to Tim Burton, the director of the old version of "Batman", even at that time. I also auditioned for Nicolas Cage, but failed to start the project for various reasons.
Time came to the beginning of the new century, and Warner hired "Rush Hour" director Brett Ratner to take over the Superman movie project, while "Mission Impossible 3" director J.J. Abram was in charge of the screenwriting of the project .
Abrams is also very attentive to this. In addition to writing the script himself, he also made various settings for the movie world view for up to three films, including Superman's new uniform, etc. This project is called "Superman: Leap" plan.
Of course, this Superman movie, like Nolan's "Batman", is a brand new series that has nothing to do with the old version of Superman in the world.
However, it is a pity that although the project was going smoothly at first, and even started pre-production + publicity at that time, it was still cut in half in the end.
There are two main reasons.
First, Abrams' script has been set to be completely out of Superman's original work. For example, Superman's hometown of Krypton did not explode. He came to earth to avoid an evil uncle, and even Superman's old enemy Lex Luthor. All were changed to be spy aliens from Krypton, and these settings caused a huge wave of opposition at the time.
Second, as the project progressed, Warner found that according to Abrams' setting, the budget spent on the film was unimaginably high . Just the preparatory work, Warner had already burned through nearly $50 million. budget.
Therefore, Warner Bros. terminated the shooting plan of "Superman: Leap", and director Brett Ratner and screenwriter Abrams also all left.
However, at that time, some of the preliminary work had been prepared, and the announcement of the launch of the Superman movie project had already been released, so Warners finally asked Brian Singer , the director of the "X-Men" series, to restart the project. .
Singer's conception of the Superman movie is completely different from that of Abrams. What he wants to change is the work of "Superman 2", which was a hit more than 20 years ago. In other words, it is to play with feelings . The card is a sequel to the old Superman movie rather than a brand new series, which is "Superman Returns".
However, after the release of "Superman Returns", the word of mouth was quite average, and the box office was quite bleak. With an investment of more than 250 million US dollars, the final box office was only 391 million . It can be said that the loss was quite serious.
Although the Superman movie project has been turbulent for many years and is inherently unstable, the failure of "Superman Returns" is more blamed on the movie itself being "too sentimental".
If you don't follow in the footsteps of the times, how can you have fresh blood injected?
"Superman Returns" was released in 2006, and "Superman 2" was released in 1980, 26 years apart.
In other words, it's not a movie of the same era at all.
The biggest failure of "Superman Returns" is that it did not keep up with the times and is still following the 1980s.
For example, the uniform of Superman, in order to fit the old version of Superman, so red underwear is still worn outside, and the texture of the clothes is like plastic COS clothing.
You must know that even in Abrams' "Superman: Leap", Superman's uniform is already a very textured battle suit, and the red underwear has disappeared, even from a distance, and later "Man of Steel" in 2013 , Superman no longer wears red underwear outside.
Old fans of the "Superman" movie, or comic book fans, would have no problem with this uniform of Superman, but for the new audience of the younger generation, this uniform can only be said to be too LOW .
You must know that it was already 2006. Spiderman, Batman and even the Fantastic Four on the screen, which suit is not cool and handsome? It's easier said than done to convince young audiences of a Superman in a plastic suit and underwear .
The director naturally hopes to arouse the feelings of old fans with this kind of uniform that is similar to the old version of the year + Brandon Ross, the star who resembles the superman actor Christopher Reeve.
But unfortunately, this feeling belongs to the operation of opening a small door and closing a door.
The significance of the Superman suit is not just a set of clothes, but also to see the director's established direction for the entire movie - it was made for fans of the old version of the movie, as for the new audience? who cares?
The mode is also copied from the old version of the movie
In the old version of Superman movies, because of technical limitations, it was impossible to shoot the destructive power and battle of Superman that shook the world. This is the limitation of the times.
However, with the development of film industrialization, it is no longer a problem to shoot wonderful superhero battles in the new century. For example, in 2004's "Spider-Man 2", the fight between Doctor Octopus and Spider-Man on the train was dreadful. Call it a textbook-like classic.
And combat power is originally one of the selling points of Superman, so of course the battle in the movie should not be sloppy.
However, in order to pay tribute to the old version, "Superman Returns" completely gave up the idea of giving Superman a new era of battle, so there is no official battle for Superman in the whole film.
In the old version of the movie, kryptonite appeared frequently in order to prevent Superman from fighting fiercely. After all, as long as this green stone appeared, Superman would be weakened to a level not as good as ordinary people , so a superman who was not as good as ordinary people would be. There is no way to show the destructive battle in the plot, which naturally makes sense.
But you must know that it was a last resort for the old version of the movie to do so. However, "Superman Returns" even took such a road when the budget was sufficient and the technology allowed.
In "Super Return", Superman not only did not have any battles, but when kryptonite came out during the decisive battle, he instantly turned into a human flesh bag , and was tortured by a group of human blood. The scene was still rainy weather. There is absolutely no way to cause any mood swings in the audience.
Old fans may not be so, but new audiences must be confused: "I came to watch Superman fight, not to watch him turn into a sandbag and be pressed on the ground and rubbed on the ground. The people who beat him are still a group of ordinary humans."
Since entering the new century, action scenes have long been an important factor in the success of a superhero movie , especially for superheroes like Superman.
And "Superman Returns"'s handling of action scenes is so simple and "nostalgic", it is obviously a practice of pushing new audiences out of the door.
The story completely borders on the old work
Generally speaking, a successful sentimental movie will not simply stir up old rice, but will add its own innovation.
For example, the previously mentioned "Jurassic World", although the story is set to continue the "Jurassic Park" in 1993, the story itself is brand new and has a certain relationship with "Jurassic Park", but belongs to the "Jurassic Park". Hidden line.
In other words, old audiences will understand and smile when they see it, while new audiences will not understand but it will not affect watching "Jurassic World" as a brand new movie.
But "Superman Returns" is not the case. In terms of plot, it completely follows "Superman 2" 26 years ago.
In other words, the story independence of "Super Return" is very weak, and new viewers who have not seen the old version of "Superman 2" or even "Superman 1" will be confused.
For example, why did Superman leave Earth and only come back now?
Why did Superman suddenly have a child?
Is this heroine Superman's wife? How did they meet?
......
Questions like this are simply too many.
Generally speaking, for a series of movies that completely follow the previous work in terms of plot, the difficulty of arranging the story will increase with the long time interval.
Movies like "Super Return" and "Superman 2", separated by almost 30 years, should not have been set as a complete sequel-oriented story, because not only is the scriptwriting difficult, but also thankless, new audiences are not interested in the story. I don't understand the various settings at all, how can a movie that is only concerned about the old fans get good reviews?
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