Welcome to YouTube Tuesday where I choose from an assortment of Superman related clips from YouTube and share them with y’all.
This week I thought I would wind the clock back to 2006 and remember a time when Superman Returns was something Superman fans were looking forward to and not something that brings up the venom and bile. First up is the teaser trailer.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5DMCd7hv1w
I vividly remember seeing this trailer and getting very, very excited. The Marlon Brando narration was very cool and what I saw of Superman made me very happy. What I liked most of all about this trailer was the shot of the people of Metropolis looking up into the sky. I had never seen that in a big-budget Superman film before and it just made me a very happy Superman fan.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4IOoyrfi0s
The second trailer and the one that gave us more of a look at Superman in the film and once the Superman music kicked in I was all about this movie. The excitement was there and we got to once again see certain shots of Superman that we had never seen on the big screen before. The two clips that really got my attention back then were the shot where Superman is just flying over the crowd on the street and the shot where Superman spins around on his back and starts using his heat vision. I remember thinking something like, “Damn, this thing is going to be good.”
Shortly before seeing the film I caught this international trailer and it is straight up my favorite of the lot.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y95dGOrXQQ
My reaction to this one was, “Holy crap!” Seriously, there was so much awesome in this trailer it’s not even funny. The choral music in the beginning, the action shots, especially Superman walking into the hail of gunfire. Everything about this trailer made me think this was going to be a great Superman film and that last clip had me sixteen different kinds of happy.
He took a bullet to the eye. I hate to repeat myself but that is just something we had never seen before.
As neat as it is to look back on these trailers I can’t help but feeling that we were kind of lied to. Sure there was an emotional undercurrent to them that would lead you to believe that there was going to be some serious introspection on the part of Superman but at the same time the second two were action freaking packed with Superman doing all kinds of Superman type things. I think this is why I was so disappointed in the movie. I can’t place the blame of feeling misled at the feet of Bryan Singer directly because I don’t know for sure that he cut these trailers together but man they really wanted us to think this was going to be a summer blockbuster and it turned out to be kind of an indie film version of Superman with a couple of great action pieces.
Very sad.
Here’s hoping the next one is a lot better and also here’s hoping they keep Routh because I really liked him in the role.
Tomorrow…more fun stuff from the vaults here at the Fortress.
More to follow…
Darned if my reaction (to that international trailer, especially) *still* isn’t, “I can’t wait to see that movie!” Sigh.
To be fair, I did watch SR back-to-back with S:TM and SII-Donner for the first time a few weeks ago. It made SR look quite a bit better, being able to follow some of the thematic connections through immediately on the heels of each other. I still don’t like creepy-stalky Superman; I still think both Routh and Bosworth are far too young for their roles; I still think no woman as smart as Lois supposedly is would bring her son onboard that yacht; and I am still ambivalent at best about Jason’s paternity. But, by the same token, I am still taken by Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luthor as well as — oh, her name is escaping me — the Miss Tessmacher analogue; I still love that plane rescue sequence; and I really like the new Jimmy Olsen. So, it’s a funny mixture of great and disappointing.
Thanks for posting these, though — they do get me excited, four years on, and remind me why I love this character. “You say the world doesn’t need a savior; but every day I hear people crying out for one.” 🙂
Where is your review for SR? I’d love to read it.
I went in to this movie with an agenda to enjoy it. I’d had reservations about Singer, Routh, et al, but I hoped for the best.
I’d spent a bit more than 3/4’s of my life up to that point and so this wasn’t a small thing for me.
What we got was Blandon Routh turning in dull, wooden, lifeless readings of old Christopher Reeve dialogue, and drab and colorless sets and costumes.
I love the Star Wars prequels. Love them. But when that piece of crapola Singer movie came out, I was all at once suddenly able to more closely identify with the people who felt betrayed by Episode One. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m never getting over it.
Some wounds just go too deep.
Michael, It seems we share similar feelings about this movie. I had high hopes that after 20 years and many false starts we were finally going to get a well thought out big budget Superman movie. I think in a way we were set up to be disappointed because of the “quality” of Batman begins and X2. I know I felt at the time that Warners were finally getting it right and putting someone good at the helm. Unfortunatly Singer’s whole take on the character seemed off. I can accept the leaving earth element I enjoyed exile in the comic, but unless you read the novel or the prequel comics his reason for leaving was never explained. The costume was just not right and I think this was a major thing that turned many fans off, the size of the S, the neck line and the “tighty reddies” were just all the wrong size. I actually think Routh was good in the role for what he was given to work with. I’ve now watched him on Chuck where he played a “heroic” character for part of the season and he really is likable and has the qualities to play his own version of Superman that isn’t tied to Reeve. I still think Kate Boseworth was to young and just didn’t have the gravitas to play Lois. Langella as Perry was great but he had to little screen time, Jimmy was good to. Spacey as Lex was good but again tied to Hackmen. I honestly hopped his Lex would be more Scary quiet evil like Spacey’s character in the Usual Suspects. If you take out the Kid and Perry’s Nephew the movie would be much better. Overall the movie had great action scenes and just like Superman 3 and 4 has its good points and bad points. I still don’t feel like he’s been done quite right in live action. I think the best out of comics version is still the animated series.
Al
Michael, I hadn’t seen that international trailer before. And you are right. “Holy Crap!” That’s a trailer for a great Superman movie.
That first teaser was and is absolutely amazing. The gravitas of Marlon Brando’s narration lends such an epic weight to what you see that when you spend ten minutes watching Luthor and co. slowly destroying a train set you wonder just what the hell went wrong.
The international trailer is the one I saw (thanks to living in the UK), and it just sums up everything that was great about Superman Returns (well, almost everything – the plane crash/returning Superman sequence is one of my favourite bits of any film), from Luthor yelling ‘WROOOOONG!!!’ to some absolutely beuatiful shots of Superman in flight – my favourite is the one where he arcs around the Earth with his back to the planet – to that brilliant moment when he gets shots in the eye and doesn’t even blink. Luthor even has a great menace in the trailer (grabbing onto Superman and telling him to fly) that felt strangely diluted in the finished film, despite Spacey’s great performance.
I’ll miss Routh as Superman, as I honestly felt his performance to be very subtle and nuanced, and far more intelligent than most people expected from a Superman film. And dear God, please keep Christopher Columbus away from the Superman franchise. Please. Please.
Please.