Superman Returns…remember that movie? It was a movie that was supposed to welcome Superman into the 21st century, but sadly, it fell short. My diagnosis: modernizing a classic franchising instead of rebooting it with a wussy, emo Superman that didn’t throw a punch.
Bryan Singer publicly talked about about Superman Returns, as well as Man of Steel. I guess many superhero fans out there considered Superman Returns one of the worst superhero movies ever made, and this is how Singer reacted:
Half of that I understand and half of it I never will. It was a movie made for a certain kind of audience. Perhaps more of a female audience. It wasn’t what it needed to be, I guess. I think I could lop the first quarter off and start the movie a bit more aggressively and maybe find a way to start the movie with the jet disaster sequence or something. I could have grabbed the audience a little more quickly. I don’y know what would have helped. Probably nothing. If I could go again, I would do an origin. I would reboot it.
The first mistake was making a sequel and not rebooting for sure. He then talked about a sequel to Superman Returns if indeed it ended up being a success. And he would’ve named it Man of Steel.
That was the title. Actually, my buddy, one of my two best friends, came up with that. We did explore it a little. Just hammering out ideas. I think Darkseid was going to be the villain. It was pretty world-destroying, actually. I ended up having the opportunity to go and make Valkyrie, and I think the studio lost interest at that point. I can’t say it was all the studio’s fault and I can’t say it was all my fault. It just fizzled out.
Darkseid the villain…would’ve been a pretty intense movie, but probably not right for the times. I think huge superhero epic movies with these crazy earth destroying villains wasn’t ready until The Avengers paved the way. He then talks about Man of Steel with kind words.
I am in awe of the world building and the scope of that picture. It’s tough for me. I’m not a critic and it starts to get into a weird thing where one director is talking about another director. I know how hard it is to make a movie, especially one of these movies and especially a Superman movie, and there was so much I was impressed with in that movie. There were things I might have done a little differently just because of the way I view the character. Don’t misinterpret that as me not liking something. It’s not ‘Bryan Singer’s review of Man of Steel’!
I am sure there are many things he would’ve done differently than Snyder, because Man of Steel is by no means a perfect superhero flick. He then talks about Henry Cavill cast as the Man of Steel, and how Cavill has been a frontrunner to play Mr. Red Cape since even before Singer took on the project.
I think Henry Cavill is great. I knew Henry. He and I were friends years ago. Oddly enough, the reason I didn’t cast him was because I was making a sequel to Christopher Reeve and I wanted somebody who embodied Reeve more.
Brandon Routh definitely wowed me with his spot on impression of Christopher Reeve, but the fact that he looked so young killed it for me. He just didn’t resemble Superman like Reeve did, and how Cavill does now. ‘Returns’ wasn’t a horrible Superman flick, it just didn’t need to be a sequel, and fans were craving a Superman with a little more balls. I mean he doesn’t even throw a punch in the movie. They also needed a strong villain instead of Lex Luthor trying to sell land once again.
We can forget about that version of Superman and hope for our current Superman to live on for awhile. Let me know your thoughts about what Singer had to say.
Source: Movieweb