Superman Returns (Again)

[MediumHigh]

It works better when the heroes gf doesnt know, especially superman because it's the time he spends with her as clark that builds the feelimgs on his end. Now all that's borked.

[MahrinSkel]

What is it with comic book movie writers going out of their way to reveal superhero secret identities as quickly as possible? I fucking hate that shit.

Because the "Secret Identity" schtick isn't good for much other than comedy effect and the reveal, and as a climax the reveal sucks.  So they get it out of the way early on, or blow past it entirely.

--Dave

[Tannhauser]

Plus now it's easy for her to fall for Clark knowing he's Supes.  Has a Lois Lane ever fallen in love with Clark the loveable goof not knowing his alter ego?  That would say something good about her character if she did.

But her knowing doesn't bother me at all.  Everyone tells the story a bit differently.

[Samwise]

IIRC in the TV show "Lois and Clark" they went a couple of seasons before Lois figured it out.  I think I'd count that as my favorite portrayal of Lois, although I haven't seen it since it aired so it might not hold up now.

I disagree with secret identities not being good for anything other than comedy and the reveal.  A big part of the drama in superhero stories traditionally comes from the hero trying to balance the two parts of his/her life.  The Batman movies are good examples of this, as are the first couple of Spider-Man movies (we'll note that the identity reveal happened around the end of 2, and 3 sucked so hard that most of us try to forget it ever happened).

[Trippy]

IIRC in the TV show "Lois and Clark" they went a couple of seasons before Lois figured it out.  I think I'd count that as my favorite portrayal of Lois, although I haven't seen it since it aired so it might not hold up now.

I disagree with secret identities not being good for anything other than comedy and the reveal.  A big part of the drama in superhero stories traditionally comes from the hero trying to balance the two parts of his/her life.  The Batman movies are good examples of this, as are the first couple of Spider-Man movies (we'll note that the identity reveal happened around the end of 2, and 3 sucked so hard that most of us try to forget it ever happened).

MJ figures out his identity at the end of 1.

[Samwise]

MJ figures out his identity at the end of 1.

It was hinted that she might have figured it out, but the second movie opens with her apparently not knowing.  There's a bona fide "reveal" scene later on in that movie where she sees him unmasked and acts surprised.  I guess you can argue that she was just playing along that whole time, but for purposes of the plot (and more importantly, Peter's motivations and actions), his secret's safe up to that point.

[Velorath]

I'm not a big fan of lois lane in the first place (a rant for another day) but beyond that her role in the movie could have been reasonable cut out. It doesn't fit in with superman lore, doesn't make sense for her not to notice him as clark later on, and it makes there romance more contrived than it already is. Nothing wrong with the actor, the character just shouldn't be in that movie.

um, dude...I hate to break this to you but you are really bad at subtext. That ending was the most blatant part of the movie "Welcome to the planet"  not to mention and I can't emphasize this enough She finds out very early in the movie that he is Clark Kent  this is not a detail you forget.

What is it with comic book movie writers going out of their way to reveal superhero secret identities as quickly as possible? I fucking hate that shit.

If anything, the disappointing part is that they actually go through with setting up his secret identity at the end of the movie. His "disguise" has been a pop culture joke for decades and that was before the days of HD video and Internet dectectives.

[MahrinSkel]

I'll just leave this here: Why Superman couldn't punch someone into space.

--Dave

[Samwise]

I'll just leave this here: Why Superman couldn't punch someone into space.

The point about how ridiculously high escape velocity is at the surface is good, but he shoulda oughta just done the math to figure out what that velocity would need to be rather than giving up at 100000 m/s (not even a significant fraction of lightspeed).  Also, why is someone who doesn't know how to solve differential equations writing a blog called "dot physics"?  I don't remember diff eq well enough to solve the problem myself without having to dig up my old textbooks, but I remember it well enough to know that that's what you'd use to solve that problem rather than randomly guessing numbers.

Also, Superman can levitate magically, ergo you can ignore conservation of momentum when he applies force to things.  Duh.  Otherwise he wouldn't be able to catch and throw heavy things while hovering.

[SurfD]

I'll just leave this here: Why Superman couldn't punch someone into space.

The point about how ridiculously high escape velocity is at the surface is good, but he shoulda oughta just done the math to figure out what that velocity would need to be rather than giving up at 100000 m/s (not even a significant fraction of lightspeed).  Also, why is someone who doesn't know how to solve differential equations writing a blog called "dot physics"?  I don't remember diff eq well enough to solve the problem myself without having to dig up my old textbooks, but I remember it well enough to know that that's what you'd use to solve that problem rather than randomly guessing numbers.

Also, Superman can levitate magically, ergo you can ignore conservation of momentum when he applies force to things.  Duh.  Otherwise he wouldn't be able to catch and throw heavy things while hovering.

Didn't someone at one point postulate that Supes is actually using some form of very advanced super-telekenesis when he is doing most of his "super lifting / throwing / holding" of big objects?  I mean, from a purely structural standpoing, it would be completely impossible for him to say lift a cruise ship out of the water or hold up a collapsing building (which he has done numerous times in the comics) because the sheer pressure he would be exerting on a single point of the surface would simply cause him to basicly punch right through the side of the thing, instead of, you know, hold / lift it.   He would need to have some way to actually spread the lifting force needed to move the object over almost the entire surface of the thing to avoid that.

[Samwise]

That or he's got a built in structural integrity field and inertial dampener.   

[Ironwood]

There is the widely accepted alternative theory that it's because he's fucking Superman.

Either or.

[eldaec]

IIRC in the TV show "Lois and Clark" they went a couple of seasons before Lois figured it out.  I think I'd count that as my favorite portrayal of Lois, although I haven't seen it since it aired so it might not hold up now.

Plus the show goes to crap once they made the reveal.

Lois and Clark is the best superman is going to get and I don't see why people keep trying to top it.

[Ironwood]

Smallville was much, much better.

[Evildrider]

Smallville was much, much better.

Well once they got out of High School.  The last 5 seasons of Smallville were pretty damn good though.

[Ironwood]

The early Green Rock Shit was just awful, I agree.  It took a while to find feet, but once it did it's been the most interesting interpretation of Superman I've seen yet.  As I've said before, as a character, he doesn't interest me at all.  I find him really quite silly - however, the Smallville version at least dealt with the human element.

Also, surprisingly good acting.  And lots of hotties.

[angry.bob]

Smallville was the most well developed Superman so far. I liked pretty much everything about the show, but their version of Lex Luthor really stood out. The season they introduced Lois was the last season we watched it though, so I don't know what happened after that. I tried picking it back up later, but the episode had Lana being some sort of possessed reincarnated French witch stealing artifacts or something. It just wasn't the same.

[Ironwood]

That particular storyline was bobbins.  Also, the Scottish Honeymoon retreat thing that was actually Irish.  Fuck knows what was going on there.  The real writers must have been on holiday.

[Pennilenko]

That particular storyline was bobbins.  Also, the Scottish Honeymoon retreat thing that was actually Irish.  Fuck knows what was going on there.  The real writers must have been on holiday.

Meh, Scottish...Irish...same thing...

[Ironwood]

Well, quite.  Which is why they should have just picked one !

[Lakov_Sanite]

I thought the movie sort of tackled the whole can't lift a cruise ship angle well. The one time he ever tries to hold up something big was the oil rig and while he had the strength to hold it, the structure itself started collapsing above him.  You never really see him lifting anything else big, just punching shit.

[MediumHigh]

Its called tactical telekenis, basically the ability to keep the structural integrity of an object causse you say so. Its also the reason why his clothes stay prestine, and he can catch people without turning them into goo.

[eldaec]

I didn't watch enough smallville to really be sure if it was better than L&C. What I do remember is that they had the best Lex imaginable but Lana was unbelievably annoying and should have been dropped after about 2 episodes. It also made me wish the programme was centred on one of the normals rather than Clark, who, as ever, wasn't that interesting.

I'm pretty sure TV is a better medium to develop superman than the cinema is. You need something to stop filmmakers just having people throw buildings at each other, so it might as well be the TV budget.

[shiznitz]

I thought the movie sort of tackled the whole can't lift a cruise ship angle well. The one time he ever tries to hold up something big was the oil rig and while he had the strength to hold it, the structure itself started collapsing above him.  You never really see him lifting anything else big, just punching shit.

But Zod threw a locomotive engine at Supes from at least 100 yards away.

[SurfD]

I thought the movie sort of tackled the whole can't lift a cruise ship angle well. The one time he ever tries to hold up something big was the oil rig and while he had the strength to hold it, the structure itself started collapsing above him.  You never really see him lifting anything else big, just punching shit.

But Zod threw a locomotive engine at Supes from at least 100 yards away.

One of Zod's flunkies.  But yeah.  At least the van was a bit more realistic.  Not sure how you get a hand sized hold on a locomotive it that would allow you to pick up something of that weight without said hand hold just pulling right off the thing.

[01101010]

I thought the movie sort of tackled the whole can't lift a cruise ship angle well. The one time he ever tries to hold up something big was the oil rig and while he had the strength to hold it, the structure itself started collapsing above him.  You never really see him lifting anything else big, just punching shit.

But Zod threw a locomotive engine at Supes from at least 100 yards away.

One of Zod's flunkies.  But yeah.  At least the van was a bit more realistic.  Not sure how you get a hand sized hold on a locomotive it that would allow you to pick up something of that weight without said hand hold just pulling right off the thing.

[UnSub]

tactical telekenis

Tactile telekinesis.

[MediumHigh]

tactical telekenis

Tactile telekinesis.

On my phone when I typed that, but thanks.

Dear god I can't believe this thread has smallville fans after the show runners flogged that show to death after the third season.

[Evildrider]

tactical telekenis

Tactile telekinesis.

On my phone when I typed that, but thanks.

Dear god I can't believe this thread has smallville fans after the show runners flogged that show to death after the third season.

Because the show got 10 times better after they left.  Really the tone of the show changed once all the high school stuff was done.

[MediumHigh]

The increase in camp and shitty plot lines increased by 10 fold