Tag Archives: Reboot

A Tribute to Superman

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In anticipation of the much anticipated animated adaptation of “All Star Superman” in stores this year, and the upcoming Zack Snyder/Christopher Nolan re-boot of the Bryan Singer re-boot “Superman Returns,” we have taken the time to voice our love for the character Superman and ponder on his more unique and endearing aspects that will surely be ignored in favor of the man of steel lifting tanks and destroying buildings with one force of breath. We hope Zack Snyder can invoke much of what made “Watchmen” so excellent and stow what made “300” so absolutely vapid and dunderheaded. Or at least find a balance. With that we continue to our “Superman Tribute.”

There was a journalist over five years ago who wrote an article about Superman who mocked the Man of Steel openly, and oh so sternly explained that among Superman’s fans, you’d be hard pressed to find any who would openly admit to being a fan of Superman in public. Oh how wrong he was and how wrong he continues to be. I’ll admit as a fan of Superman, that he is not the most popular hero in modern pop culture. In a world of cynicism, violence, and dread, the more enduring characters are all the darker ones with demons and shades of turmoil, all donning Bat costumes, garnering giant white skulls on their chests, or waving around claws from their knuckles.

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Superman: Earth One

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“Superman: Earth One” verifies exactly what I’d feared. Superman is emo. Superman is selfish. Superman is “edgy,” and worst of all by the time the tedious graphic novel is over, we’re told by Jonathan Kent that Superman should serve a being higher than himself alluding to religious ideals. What a waste of time. Not since “Smallville” have I seen a less sympathetic portrayal of Superman and Clark Kent before my very eyes. Clark Kent, even with modern fashion, and a jacket and hoodie that’s meant to be his signature look indicating a nerdy but sexy persona, is so absolutely boring and one dimensional in “Earth One” that had I been introduced to Superman for the first time here, I would have never read another piece of fiction with this character ever again.

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V: The Complete First Season (DVD)

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When I saw “V” for the first time in 2003, it was a refreshing experience. I watched them recorded on VHS tapes from my uncle who insisted I see the first mini-series and then its sequel, but avoid the spin-off TV show entirely. And I did so, accordingly. “V” is famous not just because it’s an epic science fiction mini-series from the late seventies but because it’s one of the most intelligent and relevant science fiction series of all time that is much more about aliens taking over the world. What seems like just a struggle of two races trying to live side by side after a visit from a massive army of human-like visitors from space actually becomes a very thought provoking metaphor for the Nazi regime and their occupation of new territory that inevitably turned in to an all out invasion and war.

The aliens who are declaring to be our friends at first soon become our mortal enemies, while the remaining humans who catch on to their ruse are soon symbols of the Jewish culture who resisted their invasions and were either murdered in mass numbers or taken prisoner. The show was such a brilliant take on world history even down to its trademark love became V for Visitors, then V signifying a peace sign, and soon took on a life as the Visitors own swastikas.

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Night of the Living Dead (1990)

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Much like almost every horror fan out there, I’ve seen “Night of the Living Dead,” and had my cherry busted by it when I was five. Since being in the public domain, Romero’s movie has been open to many, many re-workings, one of which occurred in 1990 when his protégé Tom Savini got the wild idea to remake “Night of the Living Dead,” and you know what? It wasn’t bad. In fact his remake stands as one of the better remakes of a Romero film to date, and Savini enlists much of the same dread and horror and instills it with a bleak tone of greens and dark blues to invoke a film that’s quite gritty, bleak, and hopeless even in spite of changing a lot of character actions and increasing the tension. It also helps that he enlists the talents of special effects guru Gregory Nicotero to turn the walking dead in to shambling harbingers of death that I still have difficulty looking at to this day. The song is almost like what you’ve heard in the original.

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The All New Wonder Woman #601

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Do you remember a time where comic books were just about being comic books?

You went in to a news stand, picked up some comic books, read them and awaited the next issue with your favorite characters fighting their arch nemesis? Well now with the death of the printed word looming, comic books are no longer about entertaining us. They have to serve much more of a purpose and as such most of the comic books you’ll read that are out now are custom made to be movies, are just blueprints to be movies, tailored to fit a movie adaptation, and are being drastically altered to fit the needs of a parent company anxious to turn the star of the comics in to a film heroine.

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Three Years Later… "Spider-Man 3"

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The transformation scene of Flint Marko de-materializing and then forming in to a human once again through his sand abilities is rather incredible. Raimi just outdoes himself here and the sequence is mesmerizing. There’s even a scene where Sandman balloons in to a humongous sandstorm pounding down on Spider-Man. But, again, no one really cared. Venom was the attraction. What do you expect from the fans? Venom is more popular than Spider-Man himself! But you have to give it to Raimi for at least trying to take a considerably lame villain and attempting to bring him to the attention of movie goers alike. He even retcons the entire origin of Spider-Man by making Sandman one of the folks who took part in the death of Uncle Ben.

So what all seems like a quick crime turns in to a pretty lame moment where Ben tries to talk Flint out of stealing his car and is shot by his partner for his resistance. All things considered, it’s a shame because Thomas Haden Church is a doppleganger to his comic counterpart and his strong performance is just forgotten. Venom is obviously shoe-horned in to the movie due to his sudden introduction in the second half because Raimi commits a heinous crime by completely reducing him in to a second rate villain. With that Raimi makes his position clear to both fans and the studio. He wanted Sandman to take center stage, Venom just isn’t important.

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Three Years Later… "Spider-Man 3"

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Many would agree that the comic book movie has somewhat run its course in film. We have seen all the big guns of the comic book genre tackled on the big screen and we’re now being reduced to watching obscure superheroes and indie comics be adapted and fans are pretty exhausted. Even those who are die hard readers. One thing is for sure though: the fad is not dying any time soon even though they breed surefire controversy.

Such an example is the upcoming reboot of the “Spider-Man” movies. Upon reading the news many fans of the films and comics shouted from the rooftops at the sheer gall Sony studios had of wanting to restart the series. So far Sony is planning to completely revamp the big screen vision for the web slinger kicking out director Sam Raimi, and the entire cast and basically starting over from scratch. Obviously it’s to cut the cost of salary, but they insist it’s to completely rethink the direction the series is going in. Sony surprised many by this decision after talks ensued for months about their meetings with director Sam Raimi about plans for part four of the original franchise and even had the original cast contracted for parts four, five, and six.

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