The Official Superman Thread

[Magegg]

Him being an alien is not just an excuse to have him be a superhero anymore, as it sort of was in the original movies. It's more integral.

Don't think so. Actually, the entire opposite.

Then focus on the trailers.

I only watched Trailer 1. I'm on diet.

[Alienseseses]

Him being an alien is not just an excuse to have him be a superhero anymore, as it sort of was in the original movies. It's more integral.

Don't think so. Actually, the entire opposite.

How do you figure? The original Superman films were mostly about the hero aspect of him. The new movie looks like his being an alien and therefore an outcast and treated as such are the main focus. It seems to be borrowing this from Birthright.

[Magegg]

How do you figure? The original Superman films were mostly about the hero aspect of him. The new movie looks like his being an alien and therefore an outcast and treated as such are the main focus. It seems to be borrowing this from Birthright.

Still that's not necessary sci-fi.

[Alienseseses]

...what do you define as sci fi?

[Magegg]

...what do you define as sci fi?

Sci fi is supposed to show how inclusion of new technology or discoveries affect Humanity, in a theoretical point of view.

MoS movie is focused on Superman, not on Humanity. It will show how he will be affected by the way Humanity reacts to him, and changes because of him, not the opposite. And most of this reaction will be important because of the superpowers he has. So, it'll be more a superhero drama than a speculation piece. Human reactions will be very predictable. It doesn't even matter if he is an alien.

Whatever, I still agree it will contain sci-fi aspects, but I think its strong will be the drama part and character study, not the sci-fi.

[Alienseseses]

That's definitely a type of science fiction, but I would argue that's not the only type. I'd argue science fiction is fiction that uses any implausable or hypothetical form of science to tell its story, and uses that science in a somewhat rational manner. It's speculative, what-if, with a set of givens. The given here is that a humanoid alien who is stronger than humans is raised on Earth. The notions that come out of that drive the story. How does he react? How do the humans react? What happens when more aliens arrive, and how will humans treat the one who is among them? So, for instance, you have the way Pa keeps charts of alien encounters. You have Clark keeping secrets (not because he's afraid of what'll happen to his family or that people will attack him when he's weak or whatever, but because he doesn't want to reveal his lineage.) You have the fortress of solitude being a crashed alien ship. You have the costume being alien garb, the base layer, or as the writers call it, a sort of space suit. You have the military taking him in and interviewing him with the people who are monitoring the extraterrestrial aspects of his existence, and so on.

That's a pretty heavy science fiction element. Sure, it'll all come down to superhero form and character development, but the set of givens here that are treated as the high concept and not so much the excuse.

This whole argument reminds me of this.
http://io9.com/how-to-turn-a-high-concept-idea-into-an-actual-story-505705564

[Magegg]

Entirely disagree, and not trolling.

[Alienseseses]

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I think we've both stated our opinions on the matter.

EDIT- though it should be noted, one of the forms of Sci Fi listed on Wikipedia is Superhuman Sci Fi, described as such:

Superhuman stories deal with the emergence of humans who have abilities beyond the norm. [...] These stories usually focus on the alienation that these beings feel as well as society's reaction to them.

What you're categorizing is Hard SF. I will never argue that Superman is Hard SF.

[KiramidHead]

Since Laurence Fishburne is playing Perry White, I just had to make this:

Spoiler

[close]

[Gilfryd]

Considering how good writer Goyer is, I doubt anything about what he said would actually appear on screen 

Depends on the director to get the material.

Snyder? I don't know...

[Tangakkai]

I've never liked Superman. I always found him a very over-rated character.

But Man of Steel, is the first Superman related thing, that has ever interested me. And it's gone beyond that. I'm actually really excited to see this movie.

Same here. In the past I couldn't care less for any other comic book hero.
As a kid, I'd always watch Batman: The Animated Series, right after that they used to show Superman: The Animated series and most of the times I switched to another channel.

I'll admit, at first I was simply excited that Goyer and Nolan would tackle another hero together, "heck", I thought "those 2 can make anything cool".

But since trailer 3 I'm so pumped and hyped for this movie not because of it's producers or anything, but because it actually looks like a really great movie. Because I like Henry Caville as the Face of Superman, he really sells me the idea of a superhuman being. I like the sci fi elements of the Kryptonians, with their Armour and I just love how we already get to see in the trailers how Superman punches the shit out of his enemies.

Besides, what always bugged me with the nolan batman films were the poorly executed fight scenes, especially in TDKR. You just felt how staged it was, which made the movie suffer as a whole.

Now with Snyder we got a guy who can actually transform power-laden fights from script to screen, which makes me even more excited: a goyer/nolan story with snyder visuals... it's almost like a dream!

[Shasvre]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsiuIflyVrw#ws

[ScardyFox]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsiuIflyVrw#ws

Can't take all this awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY-03vYYAjA#

[scarhunter92]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsiuIflyVrw#ws

dat sonic pawnch

[KiramidHead]

They played the newest trailer, the one that begins all static-y, at the theater today. It was weird. Not what I would expect from a Superman film.