Originally posted by John Lambert:
I think I would rate Man of Steel as the best Superman movie ever, and I am tempted to rate Superman Returns as the worst, but on the bottom of the scale, I have to say that Superman IV is very cringe-worthy, and Superman 3 almost writing Lois out of the script is very problematic too.
I believe comparing Superman Returns to Man of Steel is a bit like comparing tomatoes to apples.
I hated Superman Returns, but I still have to say it was better than that Richard Pryor movie in which Superman had a bit part. The only redeemable thing about Superman III was the Clark and Lana scenes. Actually, Spider-man III reminded me a lot of Superman III. The heroes turn bad and the villain is slightly redeemable and I wouldn't want to suffer through either of them again.
Superman:The Movie and Superman II were good films until the end of II. The beginning of S:TM is very long for today's audiences, but put into the context that in the mid-70's with the emergence of new special effects this isn't too surprising. I find the MoS Krypton scenes more entertaining and less "look at these amazing sets I built". Both S:TM and MoS spend too much time with the Jor-El guidance scenes. I'm paying my money to see a Superman film, not a Jor-El film. I believe the movies spend too much time and effort trying to convince audience members that no matter how hard we try to be our own person, we're still the product of our genetics and upbringing. This isn't necessarily a theme I like.
I will still say that I liked S:TM better than MoS, but I've never been a big fan of Zod (or Nor) and prefer SM battling the villains of Earth than from other worlds. If I were to compare Superman II with MoS.... hmmmm. I'm not sure which would come up on top. I never understood the logic that Clark had to give up being Superman to have a relationship with Lois, but I liked in SII that Superman took Zod, et al, out of Metropolis and worked harder at trying to save human lives. Then again, Zod et al, didn't have big World Killer machine as they did in Mos. I liked Luthor trying to make a deal with Zod in Superman II, but I liked that humans (and Lois) weren't just helpless victims in MoS. I'm going to have to think about this more.
I keep trying to remember Superman 4 and the more I do, the more I'm convinced I never saw it after how incredibly horrible SM3 was.
