Recently in Superman Category

"Without getting into specifics, the key thing that makes the third film a great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story, and in viewing it as the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story. We have a great ensemble, that's one of the attractions of doing another film, since we've been having a great time for years." Christopher Nolan discusses Batman and Superman (but no World's Finest)

"'There is 'something new and interesting going on in the universe,' said Alan Kogut of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md." Aspiring Jor-Els: Best get to work on those interstellar child-bearing rockets. Scientists detect a distant -- and very loud -- roar on the other side of the universe. "'The universe really threw us a curve,' Kogut said. 'Instead of the faint signal we hoped to find, here was this booming noise six times louder than anyone had predicted.'" (Sssh, listen...there went Earth-2.)

Word leaks that Warner Brothers is moving forward on a Justice League film, having hired the writers of (ugh) Mr. and Mrs. Smith to pen a screenplay for the project. "How the story arcs unfold will also affect whether the studio will make offers to actors Christian Bale and Brandon Routh to play their respective roles in the project."

Quite a bit of movie news lately: Bryan Singer's next Superman achieves liftoff, as does Harold & Kumar II. (I didn't think much of Superman Returns, but am willing to give Singer another shot, particularly given how much better X2 was over X-Men. As for H & K...yeah, I'll see it.) Meanwhile, the Peter Jackson-produced Halo is off for now...probably not a great loss, I suspect. And, finally, Steven Soderbergh and Benicio del Toro's Che is now two films: The Argentine and Guerrilla, to be shot back-to-back.

As most of y'all likely already know, this past weekend was Comic-Con 2006 in San Diego, which means an exceedingly large amount of news in the fanboy department. To wit:

"Movies would gradually drift away from the ideals of 1970s Hollywood and more to the simplistic, self-deluding certainties and monochrome morality espoused by the new president. In that sense, Donner's Superman, and to come extent Dick Lester's sequel - the one in which General Zod and his minions traverse the universe apparently trapped inside the album-sleeve of Queen's Sheer Heart Attack - were prescient works of art." By way of LinkMachineGo, John Patterson of The Guardian argues that, despite his origins under Siegel & Shuster, Superman's appeal is inherently conservative. Hmm, ok. I'd be more impressed with his thesis if [a] he didn't immediately write off all comic-book adaptations and [b] he actually got Superman's name right.

In today's trailer bin, Brazil alums Jonathan Pryce and Ian Holm reunite (as voice talent, with Daniel Craig and Catherine McCormack) in the Sin City-ish new trailer for Christian Volckman's Renaissance, and Adrien Brody delves into the death of Superman (a.k.a. George Reeves a.k.a. Ben Affleck), with Diane Lane and Bob Hoskins on hand, in the new trailer for Allen Coulter's Hollywoodland. Update: And one more: Edward Norton conjures up trouble for the powers-that-be (with Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel, and Rufus Sewell) in the new trailer for The Illusionist (not to be confused with Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, due out later in the year.)

"You don't really love that guy you make it with now do you?" Despite a nice throwback credit sequence to kick things off, and several iconic images of the man in blue throughout, Bryan Singer's Superman Returns is, unfortunately, something of a disappointment. It's by no means a travesty, like X3 -- the FX are top-notch, and the movie does feel like some care went into it. Still, for most of its run, Superman Returns, while hearkening often to the 1978 original and its excellent 1980 sequel, never really reaches the heights of those first two films. Instead, this "requel" feels, for the most part, drab, leaden, and earthbound, and, at best, plays like a badly-paced bodice ripper (or perhaps a forgotten issue of Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane.)

Like I said, Superman Returns starts off well, with a brief look at Krypton's fate, kryptonite's origins, and a whirlwind intergalactic tour of a credits sequence (all of which bodes well for a quality Silver Surfer or Darkseid v. Supes movie someday.) But, soon thereafter, trouble arises. We're treated to a jokey Anna Nicole Smith-ish re-introduction to Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey, who never gets the tone quite right -- he's either too whimsical or too dark), some Americana flashbacks of Superman's youth in -- and return after five years to -- the archetypal Midwest, Luthor's visit to the Fortress of Solitude and subsequent experimentation with Kryptonian technology, and finally Clark Kent's reemergence in Metropolis and the newsroom of the Daily Planet, still presided over by Perry White (Frank Langella) and staffed by Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) and Superman's pal, Jimmy Olsen (Sam Huntington). Frankly, all of this section of the movie takes too long -- it seems forever and a day before Superman (Brandon Routh, both better and less Rushmore-esque than I expected) is finally moved to action by a Space Shuttle incident (one involving, of course, Lois.)

I'd like to say the film then finds its momentum, then...but, sadly, it really doesn't. For one, Luthor's diabolical master plan -- involving growing craggy Kryptonian real-estate that will submerge North America -- doesn't make a lick of sense. But, more problematically, the central questions driving Singer's Superman, IMHO, just aren't all that interesting. Will Lois rediscover her deeply-buried love for Superman, the "one that got away," or will she stay true to her good-hearted current beau, Richard (James Marsden, a.k.a. Cyclops, here blessed with Superempathy)? Can Superman make peace with Lois's new life (or, at the very least, will he stop superstalking her happy household?) And where does Lois's doe-eyed child -- yep, cute kid alert -- fit into all this? (Take a guess.) Not to put too fine a point on it, but, in essence, what Singer has made here is a Superman mythos chick flick, and not a very good one at that.

This is not to say that I only wanted to see Superman crush things for two hours. As sappy and unrealistic as it is, the love triangle that dominates this film might've worked in another context (or with another character -- This type of thing works better in Sam Raimi's Spiderman series, but Spidey is generally a more angst-ridden superhero anyway.) But, as it stands, the Harlequin Romance nature of this enterprise, as well as the languid pacing and Luthor's completely absurd stratagem, are like kryptonite here. Superman Returns looks good, and I'd be up to see Routh don the tights again for another outing. But, as a reboot of DC's most famous franchise, the movie is passable at best (and it has nothing on Christopher Nolan's much more enjoyable Batman Begins.)

The third trailer for Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, which you may have seen before X3 over the weekend, is now online.

The new international trailer for Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, which gets a bit more spoilerish and includes a Matrix-y money shot that seems a mite out of place to me, is now online.

The trailer bin runneth over this evening, with the english teaser for Daniel Craig's Bond debut in Casino Royale, the new trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest, and the full trailer for Bryan Singer's Superman Returns. More summer fun than you can shake a stick at.

Some actors with big shoes to fill make their online premieres today: Brandon Routh shows off his Kryptonian flying skills in this Superman Returns-tie-in Coke commercial, and new 007 Daniel Craig dons the tux for this French teaser for Casino Royale.

The Religious Affiliation of Comic Book Characters, with a handy graphic of who's a member of what "legion." The site also includes impressively detailed individual entries on each character -- not only the big guns like Methodist Superman, Episcopal Batman, Catholic Daredevil, and Buddhist Wolverine, but also everyone from Presbyterian Wolfsbane to the Mormon Power Pack. (Via Triptych Cryptic.)

The Superman-themed teaser for The Simpsons Movie premieres online, with a street date of July 27, 2007. Excellent.

Extra, Extra: Coming Soon publishes the first pic of Sam Huntington as Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen.

Seen before Harry last night: the brand-new teaser for Superman Returns. I dunno...with Marlon Brando's Jor-El voice-over and the John Williams music, this should really grab me. But everytime I see Supes, I still think Rushmore. (The trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water was also shown, but it doesn't appear to be online yet. Well, if turns out to be as laughably bad as Signs and The Village, I may just have to see it.) Update: Here it is.