pendant que muf va se rebranloter sur Merdix Revoluchiant (bisous muf

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répondons à la question de Yoshiki concernant l'enthousiasme des "adorateurs" blablabla avec cet intéressant texte de Mark Millar, scénariste (entre autres) de Swamp Thing, The Authority, Ultimates, Civil War et collaborateur de Morrison (Aztek, The Flash, JLA) : fan devant l'éternel du film de Donner qui l'a incité à écrire des petits mickeys, il a signé Superman Adventures et Superman Red Son, voici ce qu'il pense du bouzin (remplacer son nom et par le mien et c'est carrément la même chose) :
CITATION
"Why won't I direct a comic-book movie? Because you can never please those fanboys, man. It doesn't matter how good the movie is. You can never please those fanboys. So fuck 'em. I'll do something else."
I remember being a little jolted when I heard Quentin Tarantino say those words in a TV interview. But you know what? He might have been right about us in a strange way. We're just so emotionally invested in this material. It's hard to imagine Tom Clancy fans complaining all over the net about Jack Ryan's hair or clothes, but there I was having hours long debates with friends about this shit from the moment the first Brandon Routh pictures went up on the web. His hair was too long, the S was too small, the colours were too muted, his chest wasn't developed enough. One picture was enough to send us all into a flurry for weeks and this, above all else, just proves QT absolutely right. Because we're never happy when we see our favourite comic characters brought to the screen. It's probably impossible for a director to fully realize everything we hoped these things could be. It's a poisoned chalice.
As most of you know, I'm particularly invested in Superman. The geek in me choked when I read on another board someone scoffing at my credentials as a "Superman expert" on a daytime TV show last week. Brother, if you can find anyone else in the British Isles who knows Clark Kent's social security number, the exact address of the Kent's short-lived store in Smallville, the name of the costume designer on the first movie and Kal-El's great-grand-father's name then I will eat the original Christopher Reeve cape I have hanging in my hall. You're talking to a 36 year old man who has every single Superman appearance going back to 1961 and the hole in his wallet to prove it. So, please, don't knock my geek. I know what I'm talking about when it comes to Superman and so went into this flick with a huge amount of expectations. In the last week alone, I've had two dreams about seeing this picture. My friends and I have been checking into the bluetights web-site and taking part in the 400 day-plus countdown. I've been waiting on Superman Returns since 1987 and Superman's last line in Supes 4 where he, eerily, promises to "see (us) in twenty". And there he was. Up on the big screen last night. But did he deliver? Did I, probably the hardest fan to please, DIG it?
FUCK yeah.
Superman Returns is a really good movie. It's not a GREAT movie, but it's good enough and the flaws were outweighed by the great moments and the little touches and the huge amount of love that beats from the heart every frame. I went last night, for the first time, about 50 mins after returning from my holidays. It KILLED me that the movie was released when I was trapped in a remote cottage in the Scottish hills and I had to wait 5 whole days to see what everyone else was eating up with their eyeballs. But I assembled a quick crew last night as I always do for the big event movies, a nice collection of pals and family and sixteen of us filled a row in the UGC, every single one of us just loving it to bits. The ages ranged from two nephews aged 11 and 12 all the way up to one of my brothers aged 52 and everybody got something out of it. Not surprisingly, in what's essentially a chick flick, the girls got the most out of it. They just absolutely LOVED it and had no complaints whatsoever. On this front, Singer absolutely delivered. He wanted to make a Titanic, a movie that thrilled the ladeez as much as the laddies, and he absolutely pulled it off.
The problems with the picture were two-fold. First, in terms of story, it had three things that really needed beefed up. Superman going away and coming back all happened so quickly it kind of meant nothing. I know this will be fixed for the DVD, but I thought this was a picture that could have used a great pre-cred. It just lacked weight in the opening. Secondly, it needed a stronger action sequence in the middle. Superman hasn't been seen in 5 years. In reality, he hasn't been seen in a good movie in 25 years. Thus, having him just show up and rescue the plane and disappear again didn't feel like enough of a pay-off. The BEATS were off and the beats are very important. This was like Superman rescuing Lois from the chopper in the first flick and then disappearing without those little vignettes from his first night on patrol. This also ties in with my final complaint which was Superman not doing enough super-stuff at the end of the movie. Again, it just felt like he should have done five or ten stunts instead of one. In the whole movie, he did about 4 rescues and fought nobody and pretty much all of these moments were featured in the previews. If I hear a Superman flick cost 250 million dollars I want to see Superman doing super-stuff and, weirdly, he seemed to be doing a LOT more in the Donner movie when effects were so grounded they had to set a paint can on fire to look like Krypton's red sun. I don't even mind him not hitting anyone in the final act (though it would have helped in this post-Matrix age), but Superman needs to do super-stuff in a Superman movie. Otherwise, it looks like a big budget version of Lois and Clark with the action mostly happening off-camera.
But the heart was all there. Like X-Men and X-2, Singer has no real flare for action and these are always the weakest parts of his pictures. But my God he can get under the skin of these characters and, in this regard, I think he topped the first two movies. Also, Routh and Bosworth were fantastic. Superman, Lois and the costume were my biggest doubts with the pictures and--oddly-- ended up the greatest assets. Channelling Reeve, he was the perfect Clark and the perfect Superman. He looked nothing like Reeve in one frame and then exactly like him on the next. It was odd, but he just looked like the real deal and was a welcome change from all the awful pretenders over two decades, from the horrible Dean Cain to the freak-mouthed Tom Welling. Routh was just GREAT and everyone agreed as we left that he was at least as good as Reeve was-- no mean feat considering Reeve has been deified in recent years.
How much money will it make? I'm afraid I'm slashing my estimate. I thought it would do over a billion, like LOTR, because the timing was right and special effects have finally caught up with our hopes. But this wasn't the Superman picture American kids were waiting for. Like me, Singer was somebody obsessed with the Donner original and did a beautiful remake/ sequel, falling into many of the traps Jackson did with his bloated King Kong. It wasn't beauty that killed the beast, it was their love of the original. Their awe at what came before. This would have been the perfect Superman 3, closing a trilogy that started in 1978 and ended before Reagan's first term closed in the White House. As the start of a new franchise, it's a little weird. Nutters like me who caught every tiny reference in this film (from Lois' bad spelling to Superman's kid playing the same tune on the piano Reeve's Kent played briefly in Superman 3) will eat it up. But the mainstream audience isn't a 36 year old Dad with a Superman cape hanging in his hall. They wanted to see the origin again because, believe it or not, the first movie is as old to them as the George Reeves show seemed to me. Singer assumed too much and fell into the same retro trap the Superman comics have often fallen into in recent years. This was a wonderful opportunity for him to re-start the concept for the 21st century, but-- like the comics-- he was too in love with his OWN childhood to really develop something for a new audience. Imagine Raimi had quickly covered Spider-Man's origin in a couple of flash-backs and given us no super-villains! We can't take anything for granted in this game and need to start at the beginning of the story if we want to make it work for a new generation.
But I'm being picky because, like I said, I'm emotionally invested in this and, sadly, I think Singer blew it in terms of capturing the kids the Donner movie captured. That said, my 19 year old nephew said it was the best movie he'd ever seen so what do I know? Also, the fact that he DIDN'T reinvent everything from scratch means that Bryan Hitch and I CAN when we hopefully re-start the comic franchise in a couple of years time. Maybe the timing is just off right now and, like the comics, Superman just needs to get all the retro stuff out of his system so he can be great again and reach a huge new audience. I have to confess I was nervous about the production because I was worried that the three note-pads I have filled with seventy-plus loose issues of Superman ideas would be blown by this picture. But Singer didn't touch what I planned at all and Hitchy and I can breathe a sigh of relief as our (very different) plans for the comics remain on course. I've never been more excited about this or more up for it, being in the fortunate position of coming out of a movie I would have done differently with a chance to do pretty much my own take in comic form.
Anyway, this early morning ramble concludes with me saying it's a big thumbs up. It sounds like I'm bitching, but it's only because I love it so much. This is worth your ten bucks. But you knew that already.