Superman Characterization - Superman Returns vs. Man of Steel/BvS Supes

[WickedJenn]

It's been ten years since "Superman Returns" came out. I haven't watched it in probably at least that long. In light of Man of Steel and now Bats vs. Supes, I'm going to re-watch "Superman Returns" and see how they compare in regards to Superman. I think now that we've had the two Snyder films under out belts, it will be interesting, because my thoughts now on Routh's Superman are very different from what they were initially.

How about you all? What do you guys think now about SR since we've had the Snyder Supes films? Which version of Superman do you feel is better, represented, let's say?

ETA: I'm going to re-watch MoS too, then I'll post my thoughts.

[Halberdier17]

I watched Superman Returns after I saw Man of Steel. I couldn't even finish the movie I was bored. Brandon Routh was good as Superman it is just the film was terrible.

I used to like the Christopher Reeve Superman movies when I was younger before I watched any Batman movies. I grew out of liking Superman around the time Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was on TV. I was about 6 years old when the first season was airing on ABC.

I didn't really like Superman as a character until I saw Man of Steel. I liked him even more in Batman v Superman.

I know it isn't a popular opinion to like the DC Films Universe.

[HalJordan4184]

Both had severe flaws. Superman Returns was an attempt to go back and be in the Donner-verse. It had to deal with some of the flaws of the Donner movies, with the added attempt to give Superman a "more human" story, that didn't really fit with Superman. It made Superman look bad, and just didn't flow as a great movie to begin with.

Man of Steel had it's own issues as well. In an attempt to "humanize" and make "relateable" Superman, some felt it went too far. They took the specialness of Superman away, and left us with a generic, emo-ish hero, who doesn't really feel like the character. In both cases, I don't think we really got a good interpretation of Superman. SR was like a movie trying to copy an interpretation of Superman, and MoS and BvS were like a character that was inspired by, but not actually Superman.

[Aurora Moon]

^^This.

Superman Returns: By making that "super kiss of Lethe" canon, They made it so that it looked like Superman mind-wiped a pregnant Lois before flying off. Also broke a promise to The president always be here, but went off for 7 years looking for his homeworld. Came back like nothing happened, and started spying on and creeping on Lois and her son. And it's implied that Lois is going to drop her fiance for Superman even though he was shown to be far of a better guy than Superman was in every way. Superdickery in every possible way, and the worse part is that you can tell all of this was unintentional.

MOS/BVS: Clark Kent/Superman wasn't so bad in his own way, but the entire origin story and stuff were horrible. Pa Kent telling him not to save a busload of kids, etc? That does not jive with how Superman is typically raised. And on top of it, they didn't show enough of his heroism to show that even though this was a gritty reboot, he was still superman at heart. It's like Hal said... he came off as being a character who were inspired by Superman but was not really the real superman.