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Author Topic: Superman: the new movie - 2012  (Read 12663 times)
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nightwing
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« Reply #8 on: May 02, 2011, 02:56:03 PM »

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Why the insistence the Fortress should be "alien" and "futuristic"? Kent grew up in a house much like you and I did, and I cannot imagine the interior of his Fortress wouldn't be some sort of a nod to the interiors of the culture he was raised in. There may be a Kryptonian wing, sure, and a lab, and a computer room, OK.... But would he create this creepy, cold, alien, crystalline environment where nothing looks comfortable or warm or homey...?

Well of course the short answer is, because he didn't build it, Jor-El did.  Jor-El calls the shots in the Donner films, and Kal is a little boy eager to please his daddy.  He never really comes into his own; even when he defies his Dad to turn back time, it comes off as petulant and willful; for all the affection the audience might have amassed for Lois (in my case, not much), the fact remains that Jor-El is right and Superman is wrong; interfering with the course of human events for personal, selfish reasons starts you down a slippery slope, and isn't "heroic" at all.

And yes, I know Jor was dead when the Fortress was built, but it's all magically constructed from Clark's "tube of Prell."  Jor-El packed it into the crystal like they pack those expanding washcloths into a pellet.  Kal just throws it in the snow.  If that's all it took to build a home, I'd be a leading architect by now.

Movie Superman lives in an ugly, uncomfortable alien warehouse because that's where his Daddy wants him to live.  If he was going to -- or able to --  build something of his own, who knows how it might turn out.

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I personally think there's a case for making a Superman film set in the 50s (with typewriters, telephones and gas-guzzling automobiles). Then everything is "dated" and yet cannot ever "date".

I kind of like the idea of an alternate reality, where it's not today, tomorrow or yesterday, but a little of each in a world that developed differently from ours.  Though I'm hesitant to offer it up as an example of how to do anything, Tim Burton's "Batman" took this tack; people use computers but still wear fedoras, and architecture is a mix of art deco and outer space.  By the time Batman shows up in a "Bat-Wing" that looks and sounds like a spaceship, almost no one is saying "that would never fly," because by now we understand this is not our world.

On the other hand, that backfired on Burton fast, by limiting all Batman's adventures to this weird, otherwordly town of Gotham.  For all the money pumped into them, the films felt claustrophobic and set-bound (the Schumacher films had a different look, but the same basic problem).

So it's hard to know which way to go, really.  But I will say Superman does have a greater sense of wonder and amazement in an era where technology isn't already wonderful and amazing.

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« Reply #9 on: May 02, 2011, 03:08:04 PM »

I'm 100 percent with Nightwing on the look of the Fortress. The one from the 70s movie puzzled me when I was a kid, and it still puzzles me now.

Why the insistence the Fortress should be "alien" and "futuristic"? Kent grew up in a house much like you and I did, and I cannot imagine the interior of his Fortress wouldn't be some sort of a nod to the interiors of the culture he was raised in. There may be a Kryptonian wing, sure, and a lab, and a computer room, OK.... But would he create this creepy, cold, alien, crystalline environment where nothing looks comfortable or warm or homey...?

Well, in the movie, Kent didn't build the Fortress - his father did.  Therefore it wouldn't be a reflection of Clark's culture but of Jor-El's.  So disagreeing with the look of Krypton is one thing, but as for why the Fortress should be reflective of Krypton culture, I think it makes sense within the confines of movie continuity.

Within the comic books, I'd rather see a futuristic sci-fi Fortress than a 1950's farmhouse Fortress.  Something exciting that shows the way we should be living instead of the way we already have - something that Superman (not Clark) would design.  Maybe let Grant Morrison have a go at it and use that in the new movie(s).
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"The bottom line involves choices.  Neither gods nor humans have ever stood calmly in a minefield forever.  Good or evil, they are bound to choose.  And when they do, you will see the truth of all that motivates us.  As a thinking being, you have the obligation to choose.  If the fate of all mankind were in your hands, what would your decision be?  As a writer and an artist, I've drawn my answer."   - Jack Kirby
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