Hell, i'd be happy if they just totally ignored his presence and left a big gapping plot hole. Whatever it takes!

Doomsday could be interesting if they included some of the ideas that were used to flesh out the character and its origins/motives later on in the comics. The biggest problem is that Doomsday isn't really a thinking creature -- it just smashes and kills. The creation of the character read more like a plot device so the story could move on to the "Death of Superman", rather than an effort to introduce a new interesting villain to Superman's rogue gallery. A nice summary of the character from the comics can be found at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_%28comics%29 (beware massive spoilers for the comic stories). Darkseid or Braniac would be much better.

It wouldn't take much. Just a throw-away line like: "Hey Lois, where's the kid?" "Oh, he's at pre-school"

Spiderman 2 > Spiderman 1
X-Men 2 > X-men 1

I'm cautiously optimistic...

I hope Sam Raimi directs it.

Or...

Superman: "Hey Lois, where's the kid?"

Lois: "He died in a fire. Why weren't you there to save him!!"

Superman: *flies up into the atmosphere to reflect on his inability to save his son, while he hears the voices of all those crying out for help from the earth below, a single tear rolls down his cheek, and he stretches out his arms and bows his head, as the voice of Jor-El gravely intones something about sending his only begotten son*

That used to be the case, but not so much anymore. Look at the sequels to Austin Powers, Mummy, X-Men, Blade, POTC (as mentioned), Meet the Parents, etc.. (I know there are more). If it's done right I've no doubt it'll make 200-250 (as I suspect The Dark Knight will as well)

But the difference with those movies is that the first ones ended up being exceptionally popular. Superman Returns had to struggle just to get to $200 million, which really isn't much when you consider how much it cost, how much it was hyped, and how long it took to reach that dollar amount. That indicates to me that it didn't really have the same effect that the aforementioned movies did.

i'm excited for this. i enjoyed returns so i will be happy to see a sequel.

I say Superman is not supposed to be dark and somber. He's not Batman; nor is he Spider-Man, driven by guilt. Nor is he an X-Man, driven by his outsider, "alien" status. Superman is not supposed to give a crap about being an alien, alone on earth, etc. (He is also not supposed to be the father of an out-of-wedlock child.)

Superman is SUPERIOR to humans, emotionally as well as physically. He uses his powers to do good because it's, plain and simple, the right thing to do. This is what drives people like Lex Luthor and Hollywood screen writers crazy--they just don't understand how someone can be that goody-goody, therefore they find it hard to write the character.

I say, make the next Superman movie a lot lighter in tone, and go for the family market. Bring on Mr. Myxzptlk and make it an action-comedy! Plenty of opportunity for dazzling, creative, imaginitive CGI sequences. Leave the grim stuff to Batman please, and just make Superman fun again.

(and find someway to get rid of the kid...)

Although I liked Superman Returns more than it sounds like most posters here did, I agree wholeheartedly. The first two "villains" I thought that I'd like to see in the sequel were Mr. Myxzptlk and Bizarro. Because of Superman's nature, I think action-comedy suits the character fine, and the movie would be fun as hell.

cheers,

-the Jesus

I bet you loved the first half of PLEASANTVILLE, then turned it off.

Loved Returns, loved Routh's version of Supes and can't wait for the sequel. I also think Brainiac will be chosen as the villain.

I was starting to think I was the only one who loved it. I'm also optimistic from what Singer did between X-Men 1 and 2, that he can deliver an amazing sequel.

I generally agree, but not with the "action-comedy" part. We all remember how well Superman III turned out, right? There's a proper balance for the Superman character ... I think both Donner and Timm found it, and hope Singer finds it for movie #2.

I still think it'll find more fans on DVD, and people will start accepting Routh as Supes. Combined with a movie that emphasizes action rather than soap opera, it should lead to an increase (beyond just inflation).

I absolutely loathed Superman Returns. I hated Singers ideas, story and vision on this film. The acting was horrible and the story sucked. I know I am in the monority here, but I think we could have done a lot more with the characters, especially Lex. Come on Lex a petty thief? BORING! How about have Lex's story about the business mogel he is, his power, money and influence and LexCorp? That is WAY more interesting than Lex ripping off little old ladies. Superman in the hospital? For christ sakes. Superman secretly having a child, that screams Dawson's Creek sappiness.

I won't dismiss the sequel without knowimg more, but Singer has ruined my faith in this franchise. I hope to god that they can really turn this franchise around. Singer will have to really , I mean REALLY sell me to get me back with this franchise.

I think a sequel is a bad idea. It took this long to finally reach $200 million, and it still didn't make its budget back? I think that enough people thought the movie was unimpressive or just average, and isn't really sticking in there heads enough for a sequel to do well.

I'm placing my bets on Brainiac as the villain with Luthor in some sort of cameo at the end to setup part 3. Guess for part 3: Doomsday as a puppet for Luthor to control which will tie back to Lex's love of Kryptonian technology from Returns.

I honestly don't think we'll see Darkseid unless WB ever gets around to doing World's Finest or Justice League as a movie.

I sincerely hope we don't see Doomsday until Superman 9 or something. I hate it when someone makes a good comic book movie and someone suggests that for the very next film they use the most extreme villain that did something completely traumatic to the character, like Doomsday, Bane, or Carnage. Those characters have their place, but it's not right near the beginning of the character's story.

I actually thought Routh was a high point of the flick. His complete lack of chemistry with Bosworth and the fact that the movie tried to pay too much homage to Donner's films, instead of creating its own identity, were the main things dragging it down. The jury is still out on the inclusion of Lex Luthor, and the kid didn't really bother me as much as it did other people.

Only his girly mop of unkempt hair bugged me, but I've never been part of the "Kill Wesley Crusher" knee-jerk haters of kids in movies crowd. And, yes, Routh was a delight and easily the high point of the whole film for me. If I worked for the TV crew over at "Smallville", I'd have hung up my hat after seeing Clark Kent done so right.

That was Clark Kent done right? IMO, Routh was an excellent Superman, but his Clark Kent was underdeveloped and mostly ignored. Didn't hold a candle to Christopher Reeve's Kent.

In my view, Routh vs. Reeve is tantamount to "is it live or is it Memorex?"...they were both perfect.

I didn't see anything wrong with Routh's performance as Kent, it just seemed the filmmakers had no time for Kent. He was almost utterly ignored.

Yep, and that was another one of my problems with the movie. Perhaps Kent was ignored because he's the focus of Smallville (TV show), and the writers/producers didn't want to get anything "mixed up." That's the *only* thing that comes to mind, but it's not a good argument.

Great news. Can't wait for this flick. Superman Returns will be playing nonstop in my DVD player come the end of November, and will have to tide me over for the next couple of years.

I think the kid angle was way too early to bring into the film.....yeah get rid of the kid

Umm...Darkseid owns Supes...wouldn't be a long movie. :)

I know this won't happen, but I would give anything to have Lobo in the next movie. The first R rated Superman movie :D

Brainiac or Darkseid would be a good way to go :up:

They should totally recast Lois for the sequel. Rachel McAdams as many people have mentioned on other boards would make a much better Lois.

Also, for this sequel to be successful, Warner and Legendary Pictures can't allow a $250-300M budget and expect it to make any money. That's not even counting marketing costs. I think Singer went over board on the special effects which caused the budget to go out of control.

Played by Danny Trejo?

Agreed. Arguably, I have higher hopes for the sequel than I did for the first installment.

:lol: He would be perfect :up:

Don't know how his voice is though. Brad Garrett does a damn good job voicing Lobo in his various animated appearances. Umm...they would have to work on that.

i swear if the kid is alive in the next film i am going to burn the whole movie theater, and put a bullet in my brain

Routh was good. Replace Bosworth with Rachel McAdams and send the little kid to boarding school ..

It's been a few years, but as I recall, I enjoyed the whole movie. I really need to crack open the copy I picked up in the Wal-mart bargain bin and see it again. I do remember thinking at the time, and I'm not kidding, "that guy playing the brother might make a good Peter Parker."

We won't have to worry about Richard Pryor anymore.

The problem (well, one of them) with Superman III is that the comedy elements were totally unrelated to the Superman elements. The Lana/Clark/Smallville stuff is actually not that bad, but my god, when Pryor tries his Patton imitation...my jaw just drops in amazement that anyone thought this was a good idea. There's plenty of real humor to be mined from the Superman mythos without having to resort to the comic flavor of the moment.

(I can see it now: Brandon Routh and Borat in Superman Returns 2: Make Benefit of Kryptonian Underwear Man.)

I hope they improve the sequel, but Singer really wrote them into the corner by bringing the kid into it. If they kill him off, there's goes any chance of an enjoyable picture. If he sticks around, they have to deal with the kid growing up. No, he must be retconned out of existence, and I don't care if Superman has to plant the "kiss of forgetfullness" onto everyone in the movie's universe to do it.

What I'd like to see in the next movie: Superman helps a blind girl get her sight back, and then flies her around the world, to be reunited with her parents at the end. There won't be a dry eye in the house.

I would love to see Rachel McAdams as Lois, but I'm not sure she would jump into that role, especially for a sequel. She is/was the "IT" girl but it doesn't appear she's in a big hurry to make more movies right now.

I didn't like the kid either. It would be nice if they could throw in the "he's staying with my grandparents" routine, but it won't happen.

If I remember correctly, the Death of Superman comic was a huge success, so I would imagine that DC comics would want to somehow incorporate that story into a movie. I envision Superman Returns 2 could use Brainiac as the main villian, but leave some time at the end of the film to basically introduce the Doomsday character which would mean that SR 3 would be the Death of Superman movie. However, if WB and DC comics want to do another trilogy of sorts for Superman Returns, then I would love to see Doomsday in #2 and follow the comic book, have it darker and similar to Empire Strikes Back in style. Then SR 3 could be the combination of the 4 Superman like characters (Man of Steel, Man of Tomorrow, etc.) and then the "re-birth" of Superman.

Only problem is that some of the reactions in the comic won't work in the movies because of the previous storylines from Superman 1 & 2 with regards to Jonathon Kent. . The other thing that might not work is SuperGirl and the Justice League because neither have been introduced in any of the Superman movies.

What are the chances Singer's reading any of this ... ?

Exactly. Drama and emotion are elements which are sorely needed in most comic book films, but SUPERMAN RETURNS seemed to wallow in it at times.

But I'm glad they're making another flick. Routh and Singer are too good not to get another shot.