It's a bird, it's Superman, it's...it's...Trump Airlines!
Nah, that's gone like other shitty ideas we've been cursed with, like millenials. Because they have no clue how good the original superhero movies used to be, some of their sequels, too.
Speaking of which, recently I wrote about the glories of the 1978 classic "Superman" and how it is superior to the recent films that involve superhero infighting and generally antisocial behavior that makes them look less like heroes than shrink fodder. Well, when you have a great superhero film, it surely deserves a sequel.
In this case, director Richard Donner decided to film the first and second films simultaneously, something that was not successfully mounted until the Lord of the Rings films, which resulted in a trilogy longer than my work day! Unfortunately, he was fired from the production and Richard Lester was brought in to finish the film.
Now, for over 25 years, the Lester version is what we all knew as Superman 2. And it is a pretty good film, in many ways better than the original. For one thing, the musical themes from the original remain, though in a different way, with some new ones added. John Williams does not preside here, but rather Jerry Goldsmith, who has many film hits under his belt (L.A. Confidential, Chinatown, First Blood, among many others). The acting is also good, but there are also some instances of comic moments that are not necessary and take away from the plot, but that is just a mild ding. The plot itself is first rate and really helps us to understand this is a continuation from the first film, not just another new adventure.
The opening is a quick rehash of the trial of three Kryptonian criminals: General Zod, his lady Ursa, and mindless muscle Non. Apparently they were trying to overtake the government. Once again we see them declared guilty by faceless jurors (not a bad idea really) but without Jor-El this time (the Godfather wanted too much money). They are sentenced to the Phantom Zone with Zod vowing revenge and then we are treated to a long opening credits sequence where we are treated to the highlight scenes of the original, even seeing Jeff East in his teen Clark Kent scenes.
Cut to Metropolis at the Daily Planet, where Clark Kent is looking for Lois, who is in Paris covering a terrorist news story. He quickly heads to Paris to save snoopy Lois from the Eiffel Tower, where a hydrogen bomb has been placed. He takes the bomb to space, where it explodes. Coincidentally, the satanic Polaroid that is the phantom zone is nearby and the explosion breaks it apart, freeing the 3 villains. They proceed to the moon, fatally disrupting a joint American-Soviet lunar mission and discovering their new powers in the process.
Meanwhile, Lex Luthor and moron henchman Otis break out of prison via the help of Eve Teshmacher in a hot air balloon. However, Otis is too heavy for the rope ladder and he is left behind and without any further involvement in the movie. Lex and Eve use a black box that tracks alpha waves to find the fortress of solitude. Here, Lex learns from the hologram of Superman's mom (remember no Brando here) of the three Kryptonian villains. He decides to seek them out, and after this scene, Eve is out of the film as well.
Clark and Lois are assigned to expose corruption and fraud in Niagara Falls, posing as newlyweds. Here, she is noticing that Superman and Clark are never together and suspects they are one and the same. Clark eventually breaks down and admits it, and she admits she's in love with him. With that, they fly off to the fortress of solitude to, er, "talk". After a dinner made up of who knows what, including some bubbly that Superman apparently heisted form a liquor store, Superman must first consult his mother on this. Apparently if he wants to be with a human, he must become one forever. He enters a molecule chamber that strips him of his Kryptonian powers and muscle, then gets it on with Lois who seems less than thrilled.
The villains descend upon Earth and begin wreaking havoc with the local community and law enforcement. The military is brought in but are taken out easily. Zod declares his intent to rule the planet, then heads with his 2 compatriots to the White House where, after, disposing of its crack security force, demands the President's surrender. The Prez does so, warning of Superman. Lois and Clark are at a truck stop where Clark is beat up by a vicious trucker while defending his and Lois's honor. While regaining consciousness, he hears the TV announcement of Zod's rule and heads back to the fortress, where he pleads for his parents to give him one more chance. They relent via the green crystal from the first movie.
While Superman regenerates his powers, Lex Luthor makes contact with Zod, Ursa, and Non. While not impressed with him, they accept his deal to bring them to Superman in exchange for ruling Australia. They head to the Daily Planet where, instead of finding Superman they find Lois, Jimmy, and Perry. Lex hedges a bit, saying he brought them the "next best thing", hinting that Lois is the key to getting Superman. Whatever, Superman then shows up and a huge battle above and on the streets of Metropolis ensues. While Superman holds his own well, the villains' combined efforts to use his love of people prove to be too much of a disadvantage. Superman flies away, making the villains think he is a coward.
They pursue him, via a lead from cowardly Lex, to the fortress, where Superman has a tactical advantage. When Ursa takes Lois hostage, Superman uses a reversed molecule chamber to keep him safe while the villains lose their powers outside the chamber. He then disposes of Zod, while Non falls and Lois decks Ursa. Superman then has Lex sent back to prison and uses a kiss to make Lois forget about his secret identity. He pays a visit to the truck stop where he settles a score with the violent trucker (without throwing one punch) and apologizes to the President. End of movie.
Like I said, most of the movie is great. The one huge dig I have is the transformation of Lex Luthor from a scheming genius to a sniveling coward aiming for self-preservation. I know he's trying to gain favor with the evil trio, but he sheds all self respect in the process. I wondered why he didn't retrieve the block of Kryptonite he'd leveled at Superman on the villains.
Anyway, skip to the 2000s. Richard Donner pieces together much of what he had made with some screen test footage and alternate takes, plus the original Williams music scores and releases on disc "Superman 2: The Donner Cut". Much of the movie is the same, though the themes of humor (particularly in music) from the Lester movie are for the most part removed, leaving us a darker take on the villains. In a way, this version is superior if somewhat incomplete.
Overall, both versions are quite watchable over and over again as another example of good vs evil without the good going to the dark side. We will leave that for Superman III, aka The Richard Pryor Show.
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Saturday, April 13, 2019
It's a Bird, It's a Plane...Nah, Just Retro Coolness
Last weekend, I was turning on the TV, hoping for something decent, something funny...really something in the background while I worked on a New York Times puzzle. Because, quite frankly, there is nothing much on TV that attracts my attention anymore. Vickie will catch a game show, or cooking competition, or home-buying-repairing show, forcing me to leave the room, go on the computer, or do another puzzle. Even the oldies but goodies that occasionally appear are often-repeated and are cut to make ad time.
One of the channels had a Superman marathon going, albeit with ads. In this case, the end of Superman 2 was on. Luckily for me, we have the first two movies on disc, so I pulled it out (the MOVIE you filthy-minded minx!). Actually, we have the original Superman 2 AND the Donner cut, more on that later.
Whenever I watch one of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, I am reminded of how good those flicks were. It is actually amazing they were made at all given the production history dating back to 1973. So many actors were approached or did approach to audition. The writing also had an interesting history, including a 500+ page draft by Mario Corleone, er Puzo. Christopher Reeve was actually a soap actor before that, not nearly as known as his other contestants for the role.
So the question is, what makes the Reeve Superman films good? Well, for starters, he was a good actor and played the superhero and his alter ego Clark Kent quite well, in fact sometimes too well. Before those movies, the only screen Superman we knew was the 1950s series with George Reeves. George played his Clark Kent with a little more confidence, though his midsection spoke of a few too many cheap Vegas prime rib meals. Christopher Reeve, on the other hand, actually worked out to gain muscle weight for the part. His Clark Kent was quite deliberately clumsy and shy while his Superman was strong, friendly (to the good guys), and confident.
Next, we have the music. Orchestra master John Williams created yet another of his soundtrack masterpieces with the Superman theme as well as the Lois Lane love theme. That man has contributed much to the memorable movie music motifs in the past 40 years!
Add to that the clever casting of Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor. Hackman has generally been known for serious roles for most of his career. His turns as Luthor showed that playing a megalomaniacal villain with a slightly humorous edge was another strength. Then there's Ned Beatty, who usually played opposite Burt Reynolds as a friend or foe in several 70s flicks, as Luthor's bumbling lackey Otis. As for Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, I've been on the fence about her portrayal, to tell the truth. She wasn't so much portrayed as a hard-news reporter as one who couldn't spell well. Of course, we also have Marlon Brando as Jor-El, the Kryptonian scientist whose theories were often refused.
All right, we covered the basics, now let's get to the actual movies so as to discuss plot.
Superman (1978)
The movie starts out with a strange opening of a kid opening a comic book, then a dissolve to the Daily Planet building (looking 30s/40s retro) before the opening credits. We are then introduced to the crystal-laden planet of Krypton where the kangaroo court trial of three criminals takes place, followed by a quick sentencing into a contraption that looks like Satan's Polaroid. We then get to the destruction of Krypton. Luckily, his parents send baby Kal-El away (mother tearful, father stone-facedly trying to forget his legal problems over "Last Tango in Paris") on what looks to be a K-Mart $2 Christmas ornament.
We then see him land on Earth in a Kansas-ish field. He is found and adopted by the Kents , an already middle aged couple, and dubbed Clark.Within a minute, Clark is an awkward teenager ostracized by his peers save for sweet Lana Lang after football practice. Clark immediately hits the general store and buys some feed, a Coke, and an AR 15 to wipe out his tormentors. No, seriously, he decides to practice his super speed and race home. After a fatherly admonition from Pa Kent, Pa Kent has a heart attack and dies. Clark then starts hearing things and discovers a green crystal in the barn. Somehow he can understand it and he travels north, leaving poor Ma Kent in the hands of unsympathetic farm bankers.
As he gets north of the Arctic Circle (we assume), he throws the green crystal, which starts the most incredible and fastest non-union construction project of the time, a huge crystal fortress. Here, Clark learns of his true origins from the image of Don Vito Corleone, who has politely removed the cotton from his mouth in order to be understood. From here, Clark has suddenly donned tights and a cape and flies away. Now, here is where it gets odd. We are supposed to buy that he took a journalism course in high school...that or Vito provided him with college transcripts during that whole time near Santa, for he is now working for the Daily Planet in Manhattan clone Metropolis.
Here he meets his boss, cantankerous Perry White, along with whiny cub reporter Jimmy Olsen and grammatically challenged yet bitchy Lois Lane whose personality resembles Lucy Van Pelt's at first. He foils a mugger as Clark by catching a bullet, but covers by pretending he fainted. Later, as Lois is heading up in a chopper from a rooftop for an interview, there is a malfunction and Lois is left hanging over the building. Clark sees this, then uses a revolving door to change into his tights and cape and rescues Lois. He then foils a burglar, captures armed bandits on a boat, then rescues a cat. He later (in remastered versions) tells Vito all about it, and Vito warns him about people needing him for everything. He then allows Lois to interview him and takes her on a love theme-filled ride in the sky.
Meanwhile, genius yet vain Lex Luthor is planning to destroy rich coastal California so that his buy-up of worthless desert land will become prosperous. He learns of Superman and steals Kryptonite from a display, as well as reprograms missiles to hit California and, just for fun, Hackensack. Lex lures Lois's dub Superman to his lair, hits him with the Kryptonite, and leaves him for dead until his moll Eve Teshmacher rescues him out of kindness. Superman then retrieves the Hackensack missile first because he promised Eve, then sees the destruction from the second missile and races to undo the damage. However, Lois is a victim of the resulting earthquake and dies. Superman in his grief proceeds to use sci fi theory to reverse the Earth's rotation to turn back time to retrieve the second missile and take it to explode in space, saving Lois. He then takes Lex and clumsy henchman Otis to prison...no trial of course, because hey, after 2+ hours, viewers don't want to go through jury selection.
Pros: acting, music, special effects
Con: Character establishment takes too long and we don't meet the main villain until about halfway through.
What I also like here is that Superman is genuinely good, like most superheroes of those times. It wasn't until Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman" that we started to see the dark sides of our favorite heroes. The latest Superman movies turn my stomach and make me want to see the 1978 classic again to remember that it is all writer/director/producer interpretation, and I prefer thew one I just described.
Up up and away...to Superman 2 later!
One of the channels had a Superman marathon going, albeit with ads. In this case, the end of Superman 2 was on. Luckily for me, we have the first two movies on disc, so I pulled it out (the MOVIE you filthy-minded minx!). Actually, we have the original Superman 2 AND the Donner cut, more on that later.
Whenever I watch one of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, I am reminded of how good those flicks were. It is actually amazing they were made at all given the production history dating back to 1973. So many actors were approached or did approach to audition. The writing also had an interesting history, including a 500+ page draft by Mario Corleone, er Puzo. Christopher Reeve was actually a soap actor before that, not nearly as known as his other contestants for the role.
So the question is, what makes the Reeve Superman films good? Well, for starters, he was a good actor and played the superhero and his alter ego Clark Kent quite well, in fact sometimes too well. Before those movies, the only screen Superman we knew was the 1950s series with George Reeves. George played his Clark Kent with a little more confidence, though his midsection spoke of a few too many cheap Vegas prime rib meals. Christopher Reeve, on the other hand, actually worked out to gain muscle weight for the part. His Clark Kent was quite deliberately clumsy and shy while his Superman was strong, friendly (to the good guys), and confident.
Next, we have the music. Orchestra master John Williams created yet another of his soundtrack masterpieces with the Superman theme as well as the Lois Lane love theme. That man has contributed much to the memorable movie music motifs in the past 40 years!
Add to that the clever casting of Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor. Hackman has generally been known for serious roles for most of his career. His turns as Luthor showed that playing a megalomaniacal villain with a slightly humorous edge was another strength. Then there's Ned Beatty, who usually played opposite Burt Reynolds as a friend or foe in several 70s flicks, as Luthor's bumbling lackey Otis. As for Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, I've been on the fence about her portrayal, to tell the truth. She wasn't so much portrayed as a hard-news reporter as one who couldn't spell well. Of course, we also have Marlon Brando as Jor-El, the Kryptonian scientist whose theories were often refused.
All right, we covered the basics, now let's get to the actual movies so as to discuss plot.
Superman (1978)
The movie starts out with a strange opening of a kid opening a comic book, then a dissolve to the Daily Planet building (looking 30s/40s retro) before the opening credits. We are then introduced to the crystal-laden planet of Krypton where the kangaroo court trial of three criminals takes place, followed by a quick sentencing into a contraption that looks like Satan's Polaroid. We then get to the destruction of Krypton. Luckily, his parents send baby Kal-El away (mother tearful, father stone-facedly trying to forget his legal problems over "Last Tango in Paris") on what looks to be a K-Mart $2 Christmas ornament.
We then see him land on Earth in a Kansas-ish field. He is found and adopted by the Kents , an already middle aged couple, and dubbed Clark.Within a minute, Clark is an awkward teenager ostracized by his peers save for sweet Lana Lang after football practice. Clark immediately hits the general store and buys some feed, a Coke, and an AR 15 to wipe out his tormentors. No, seriously, he decides to practice his super speed and race home. After a fatherly admonition from Pa Kent, Pa Kent has a heart attack and dies. Clark then starts hearing things and discovers a green crystal in the barn. Somehow he can understand it and he travels north, leaving poor Ma Kent in the hands of unsympathetic farm bankers.
As he gets north of the Arctic Circle (we assume), he throws the green crystal, which starts the most incredible and fastest non-union construction project of the time, a huge crystal fortress. Here, Clark learns of his true origins from the image of Don Vito Corleone, who has politely removed the cotton from his mouth in order to be understood. From here, Clark has suddenly donned tights and a cape and flies away. Now, here is where it gets odd. We are supposed to buy that he took a journalism course in high school...that or Vito provided him with college transcripts during that whole time near Santa, for he is now working for the Daily Planet in Manhattan clone Metropolis.
Here he meets his boss, cantankerous Perry White, along with whiny cub reporter Jimmy Olsen and grammatically challenged yet bitchy Lois Lane whose personality resembles Lucy Van Pelt's at first. He foils a mugger as Clark by catching a bullet, but covers by pretending he fainted. Later, as Lois is heading up in a chopper from a rooftop for an interview, there is a malfunction and Lois is left hanging over the building. Clark sees this, then uses a revolving door to change into his tights and cape and rescues Lois. He then foils a burglar, captures armed bandits on a boat, then rescues a cat. He later (in remastered versions) tells Vito all about it, and Vito warns him about people needing him for everything. He then allows Lois to interview him and takes her on a love theme-filled ride in the sky.
Meanwhile, genius yet vain Lex Luthor is planning to destroy rich coastal California so that his buy-up of worthless desert land will become prosperous. He learns of Superman and steals Kryptonite from a display, as well as reprograms missiles to hit California and, just for fun, Hackensack. Lex lures Lois's dub Superman to his lair, hits him with the Kryptonite, and leaves him for dead until his moll Eve Teshmacher rescues him out of kindness. Superman then retrieves the Hackensack missile first because he promised Eve, then sees the destruction from the second missile and races to undo the damage. However, Lois is a victim of the resulting earthquake and dies. Superman in his grief proceeds to use sci fi theory to reverse the Earth's rotation to turn back time to retrieve the second missile and take it to explode in space, saving Lois. He then takes Lex and clumsy henchman Otis to prison...no trial of course, because hey, after 2+ hours, viewers don't want to go through jury selection.
Pros: acting, music, special effects
Con: Character establishment takes too long and we don't meet the main villain until about halfway through.
What I also like here is that Superman is genuinely good, like most superheroes of those times. It wasn't until Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman" that we started to see the dark sides of our favorite heroes. The latest Superman movies turn my stomach and make me want to see the 1978 classic again to remember that it is all writer/director/producer interpretation, and I prefer thew one I just described.
Up up and away...to Superman 2 later!
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