skip to main |
skip to sidebar
It's nostalgia time!
Above/below are some vintage pictures I stumbled across, that I have from June of 1987, a few days before the premiere of "Superman IV" at a press junket in Washington, D.C.
I was on the press tour ... never dreamed Jon Cryer would make it big, but he did. ... never thought Chris Reeve would be in a horse-riding accident and die so young either.
Interviewed all 3 stars of the movie, plus Jack Larson ("Jimmy Olsen" in the 1950s TV series).
Admittedly, "Superman IV" was the worst of all Superman movies ever made, though.
While as of July 2013, there is NO official release date yet for "Man of Steel" into home video, it is being assumed this release will happen by sometime in November of 2013.
(Pre-orders are already be taken.)
What is also intriguing is that running time of the blu ray or DVD will be 148 minutes.
That's an extra 5 minutes beyond what played in the theater at 143 minutes.
Might Kal-El's landing on earth be in that home release extra footage? Hopefully.
Also, some sources are claiming that "Man of Steel 2" will come out in 2014.
That's way too early, UNLESS, some of it was already shot when "Man of Steel" was made.
Rumors are also that another DC Hero will appear in "Man of Steel 2," opening the way for a Justice League movie a year later.
OK, I'm slow, more than a month behind this coming out.
But if you are going to still see the "Man of Steel" movie, or if you have seen it (like me), you really need to read this prequel comic story.
This is about the Kryptonian ship in the Arctic.
(It may also signal that "Supergirl" is or was already on earth.)
To read the comic, go to:
http://imgur.com/a/mMCZm
AS usual, the people at howitshouldhaveended.com ,who do these shorts on how movies should have ended, are clever, crafty and funny.
Perhaps these "How" people should be employed to find the big holes in movie scripts BEFORE movies are actually made?
(However, realize this "Man of Steel" Superman had only had the costume on a few hours when he faced General Zod. He was NOT experienced as the regular Superman in these shorts is ....)
Here's a link to how the "Man of Steel" movie should have ended ... http://www.howitshouldhaveended.com/
Another Utah reference has appeared in a Superman comic book.
This one is in "Superman Unchained," No. 2.
Batman mentions to Superman that he lost track of a target over the Utah desert.
So, Superman heads there to check it out. He runs into General Lane, who has black hole laser weapons ready to take on the Man of Steel.
-In issue No. 3 of "Unchained," the first three words in the comic are: "The Utah desert."
Later it is "Eight hundred feet below the Salt Flats."
--About two months ago, the Smallville Season Eleven Special, No. 1, comic, dated July 2013, mentioned Superman being in Utah.
On page 16, the Watchtower reports to Batman that Superman is in Utah, "on mission."
Batman responds, "Of course he is."
--I also noticed what looked like a Utah kind of arch rock formation in the new "Man of Steel" movie.
So, the Beehive State seems to be on Superman's map lately.
The "Man of Steel" actually seemed like a better movie the second time I saw it on the big screen.
However, there are some plot holes that could resurface in a future sequel to the movie.
1. Although I did see a LexCorp name on a tanker trunk in the movie, Lex himself was nowhere to be seen.
I find it highly out of character that Luthor, a genius, would do nothing in the "Man of Steel" movie while Metropolis was invaded by aliens.
The movie could have easily referenced Luthor, without showing his face, as having a backup plan of his own, if the military and Superman failed in their efforts to stop Zod.
2. Jimmy Olsen was nowhere in the movie. Why?
That Jenny Jurwich character at the Daily Planet was annoying, though -- more so than Lombard. (Also, I'm still
trying to figure how Clark Kent got a job at the Planet.
Nowhere in the movie were any journalistic leanings or training mentioned for Clark ....)
3. What happened to any Kryptonian tech/ships leftover from Zod's attack? Did Superman salvage anything, or did
the government get it?
4. Why wasn't Superman's actual landing and being found by the Kents shown in the movie? Will that be some bonus
material in the DVD?
5. The fact that Lois Lane knows who Clark Kent is from the onset dramatically changes their future relationship.
Here's my review of "Man of Steel" ---
Merits 3 of 4 stars
"Man of Steel" isn't a bad movie, it just could have easily been a much better one.
Here are 6 ways the movie went astray .....
1. Quite simply, the movie lacked simple heroism -- a vital ingredient in a super-hero movie.
2. There was little awe and majesty to be found in the film and that's why it never really took off.
3. A Superman movie also should not be scary and yet I saw a 5-year-old scream during the middle of the movie and he had to be taken out twice by his mother. A Superman movie should be suspenseful, but not frightening like that.
4. There were only several attempts at humor in the movie -- it could have used at least a dozen more!!!
5. Superman is unique, because he is the LAST survivor of Krypton -- at least in his early years. To have Zod and crew show up before he even had the name Superman was way too early and ruined that aspect. Darkseid or Brainiac would have been much better villains for "Man of Steel" and Zod needed to come later ....
6. There was lots of action to be found in the movie, I just wish some of it was redirected to show Superman AFTER the General Zod attacks, of him gaining some trust among the common folk, of him helping stop crime and regular day-to-day crisis and the like.
(Why they could have downsized the too-long main battle scene to save time and resources for filming Superman helping people after Zod was stopped.)
That's pretty much my general take on the "Man of Steel."
Now here are some specifics and yes, SPOILERS are found below!!!
--What I really really liked about the movie:
1. It was a different take/spin on the Superman story, another "Elseworld" tale, if you read DC Comics. Lots of differences in the movie vs. comics.
2. No Lex Luthor to be seen, but I did see a reference to Lex Corp.
3. It was interesting to see Superman faced with a kill Zod kind of dilemma, or he couldn't be stopped. (However, that take is NOT unique and was also previously done with the pre-"52" Superman back in the late 1980s, when he killed Zod and his cohorts in a pocket universe to prevent future murders by the villains.)
4. That the "S" symbol was reinterpreted to stand for hope in the Kryptonian language.
5. That Henry Cavill was great as Superman, as was Amy Adams as Lois Lane. (However, can we now have an American play "Dr. Who" or "James Bond" to balance the scales?)
--Little things I didn't like in the movie:
1. That Jimmy Olsen was a girl character, Jenny.
2. That there was NO "S" symbol on Superman's cape.
3. That there was NO reference to Superman's education in journalism.
4. That Lois Lane knew Superman as Clark Kent too from the very beginning.
5. That Zod killed Jor-El on Krypton.
6. That the Phantom Zone was a weird kind of black hole, something that makes no scientific sense to me.
7. That Krypton had so many outposts and no survivors anywhere -- plus, that a ship buried in Arctic and thousands of years old could still fly and allow Jor-El to be a hologram inside it.
8. That you NEVER actually saw a scene where the Kents found Kal-El.
9. That Jonathon Kent died in a tornado ... where was Clark Kent's vaunted super-speed, that could have saved him undetected?
10. That the other Kryptonians became super-powered so quickly, when it took 3 decades for Superman to gain all his powers. In contrast, Superman lost his powers all too quickly on Zod's mother ship.
11. The movie's music was pretty dull. No John Williams kind of excitement to be found.
--Interesting things in the movie:
1. That you saw real-life businesses, I-Hop, Sears, etc.
2. I didn't time them -- but that sure seemed like the longest string of movie preview before "Man of Steel," that I had ever seen before any film begins. Also, the end credits go on in what seems to be record territory too.
3. I spotted at least one former "Smallville" cast character -- Alessandro Juliani who played Officer Sekowski in the Arctic. (He was Dr. Hamilton in the last season of "Smallville.")
4. There are NO scenes during or after the end credits.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
