Musings on my neverending quest for sugar

In Nolan I trust

...not Bryan Singer. Sorry dude, I think you'd be a blast to work with, but first of all I'll never forgive the shafting of the Storm character. And secondly, you made some plot decisions in Superman Returns that I was fairly disappointed with.

Don't get me wrong. I really liked SR, but something was missing. It didn't move me as much as Batman Begins, not by a mile...and after mulling it over in my head I think I've finallly got it.

We were led to believe that SR was going to be about Supes finding his place in a world that had learned to live without him. We did not see that. We saw him trying to find his place in Lois's life because she had learned to live without him. Small potatoes in comparison. That was a huge disappointment for me.

We were led to believe (thanks to trailers heavily featuring old Marlon Brando voiceovers) that Supes was supposed to represent good, and his purpose was to inspire good in other people. We did not see that. He inspires awe, like he should, but not much else. The entire good-evil conflict is between him and Lex Luthor. Same old superhero story stuff.

For me, BB was so much bigger than what SR was. It was about a man who could have had anything he wanted, thanks to a vast inheritance. Anything. But he gave it up to understand a world that was completely foreign to him, and all because he felt so much anger and guilt from the death of his parents. It was about a man singlehandedly taking on an entire city rotting with corruption and hate. At the end of the movie, he doesn't go as far as inspiring goodness. But he inspires hope, and that is all the people of Gotham could wish for at this point. And we see the inklings of Batman inspiring people like Gordon, Finch, and Rachel to take a stand.

Sure, BB had plot holes that SR had 100000x more of. At least Bruce had a month or two to ready up Bats while Clark just jumped right back into Superman mode. And nobody noticed?! But for me, the heart of SR could have been so much bigger, on par with BB and even beyond, and I'm really disappointed that it wasn't.

Not to say that SR doesn't have beautiful shots like BB did. It was a gorgeous film, but for me, that wasn't enough to overcome the underwhelming character arcs and story decisions.

Christopher Nolan cannot make the BB sequels fast enough! But, I shall have patience and trust instead.

posted by sugarfiend @ 8:21 PM