The other day I commented on a well-written post over on The Daily P.O.P. (about the likelihood of a third Hulk movie.) You can check out that post here but I thought I’d share the comment with you here on my own blog as well. I think my true feelings regarding this Zack Snyder Superman reboot are starting to surface… in unexpected places no less.
Good write up. I can’t help but draw similarities between Marvel’s Hulk franchise and DC/Warner’s Superman franchise. Both are iconic staples of the comic book industry, both were successful film/tv characters in the late ’70s, and both were studio fiascoes of the early 21st century. Being more of a Superman fan, I worry DC/Warner Brothers has learned nothing from the way the Hulk has been handled.
I, for one, am a fan of Superman Returns… but it had it’s problems. And although I’m excited for the Nolan/Snyder film, I’m also disappointed with the reboot route. Given another chance, I think Singer could have made the successful sci-fi epic we all want a Superman film to be (and I still give real props to Singer for adding the kid. It was a chance to take the character of Superman in a totally new and unexplored direction. He tried to evolve the character and it bit him in ass.)
Anyway, rebooting and recasting the Hulk got Marvel nowhere. Leterrier’s film was a hurried mess and Norton was probably miscast from the beginning. The way the studio handled that film shows how little respect and dignity they had for the character. When a studio doesn’t show much respect for it’s property the result tends to feel like a second class comic book film… like Ghost Rider or Daredevil. And it seems to me that audiences picked up on that and didn’t bother to go see the film.
Is Warner Brothers showing any more respect for Superman? They’ve cut ties with the previous installment (confusing) and now they’re rushing a film into production to secure character rights (uh-oh.) Something tells me we’ll be recasting Superman a third time soon enough in a JLA movie… and, just like with the Hulk, we’ll be saying Supes doesn’t deserve any more stand-alone films.
