ahem... truth, justice and the AMERICAN way.

Not that it matters after the last film since they threw that out the window, presumably with the good script.

Fillion as anything related to superman = a movie i will never see and will pray the ultimate failure of. Talk about the worst casting idea ever.

Just say no to Faillion.

Fixed!

Superman is a very American character, but he was not born in the USA. As long as the accent's convincing he could be played by a Russian. I'd rather a great performance from a foreigner than a perfunctory one from an American.

Exactly. Superman is an imigrant. The only time he was ever actually an American was during the Byrne era of the character (where he was born in Kansas rather than Krypton).

Umm guys....Superman is not an alien. He was born in Smallville.

Huh? He lands in Smallville from Krypton, his home planet. Am I missing something?

During the John Byrne era of the character, Kal-El was never born on Krypton. Instead, Jor-El transfered the gestating fetus in Lara-El's womb into a "birthing matrix" (it's an artificial womb) and attatched it to a rocket and sent it to Earth. The fetus developed into a baby along the way and when the rocket crashed in Smallville, Kal-El was literally born on American soil and thus an American.

Already retconned out of existence. So it was only canon for like 15 years out of the character's 72 year existence.

Thank God and Geoff Johns.

I know it was retconned. Hence why I specified it as the John Byrne era. However, Nolan has expressed that he and Goyer would take their cues from that incarnation of the character for the new movie.

Well that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

^that sounds dumb but whatever they're retconning, it can only be better than the Returns turd.

I don't think it's dumb, just not particularly cinematic. Would you rather see Jor-el injecting a metal egg with a test tube, or laying a chosen newborn in an astro-crib? It's the Moses story.

If you think that's bad, I haven't even gotten to how Superman used mass hypnosis to hide the fact that he's Clark Kent or how he'd make sure to always vibrate as Superman so that he'd appear blurry in pictures that were taken of him in costume.

Not kidding about the above, btw.

ANyhoo, you may as well get used to it as that's Nolan's chosen inspiration for the new Superman movie. I'm sure in no time it'll be deemed genious because it gets the coveted Nolan Seal of Approval.

Exactly. Though it did fit with Byrne's approach to Kryptonians of Jor-El's generation. They worshipped science and generally made Vulcans look like a bunch of emo Romulans.

But Nolan has not specifically said he's doing the Byrne Superman. Just because you're inspired by something doesn't mean your copying plot specifics; more often than not, you're going after a specific tone.

I was just being a sarcastic doomsayer. Still, given his penchant for making these characters plausible in a real world setting and the fact that he has singled out Byrne's work as a source of inspiration for the new movie, I wouldn't be surprised to see him use the aformentioned elements (particularly the birthing matrix) if nothing else from that era.

Of greater concern to me is what the whole "twist on the legend" will be. I doubt we'll get another Super Son but I fear getting something equally groan-inducing.

What makes Superman interesting to me -- and what makes him (and most of DC's characters) different from Marvel heroes -- is that he's a legend. Like King Arthur, Zorro, Robin Hood, Moses, Nipsy Russell, etc. He can be analyzed, updated, approached, deconstructed, reconstructed, and refracted a zillion different ways. Marvel characters are human and contemporary. I could see a Superman movie taking place in, say, 17th Century France or Tsarist Russia. I can't see that with Spider-Man or Wolverine. Doesn't make any characters better or worse, just different.

If I were in charge of the property, I'd turn it into a Silver Age, Kennedy-era period piece: Cold War, Camelot, Space Race, wacky super-science, clean lines, Curt Swan, groin, 54-40 or fight

Sounds like what Joss Whedon had planned for Wonder Woman. Well, his idea was in the 40's but it had all the wacky science and dastardly villains (in this case Nazis aided by a treacherous Amazon).

I'm not one of Whedon's loyalists. I only love one of his properties (Firefly/Serenity) and either like (Dollhouse and Angel) or hate (Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog) the rest. However, I think he was on exactly the right track with Wonder Woman. it was a shame that the folk at Warner Bros. didn't agree.

This video is almost perfect until the craptacular final gag.

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That's a joke right?

I think you need to Google Christian Bale and The Machinist. Here's the entry from Wikipedia:

Still fresh off The Machinist, it became necessary for Bale to bulk up to match Batman's muscular physique. He was given a deadline of six months to do this. Bale recalled it as far from a simple accomplishment: “...when it actually came to building muscle, I was useless. I couldn’t do one push up the first day. All of the muscles were gone, so I had a real tough time rebuilding all of that.”[28] With the help of a personal trainer, Bale succeeded in meeting the deadline, gaining a total of 100 lb (45 kg) in six months. He went from about 130 lbs to 230 lbs.[35] He then discovered that he had actually gained more weight than the director desired, and dropped his weight to 190 lbs by the time filming began.

So that's why Lois can never figure it out!

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You do realize Bale almost killed himself for pulling such a crazy stunt, right? I'm not knocking the results but it was not a smart thing to do in such a brief period of time. It's the most impressive act of stupidity ever.

No, I get it, but the poster I quoted said it takes YEARS to gain 20 lbs. Obviously gaining 20 lbs in a matter of months is child's play for Hollywood actors and is done all the time. Bale was just an extreme example (and another superhero example at that).

I see your point. And it's true that you see actor getting in and out of shape for roles all the time. But Bale is definitely not par for the course.

That reminds me of back when Russell Crowe was considered to do the role. He said he'd gladly do it if he was allowed two years to do nothing but work out so that he could be the biggest cinematic Superman anyone had ever seen. I would have loved to see that.

But I guess we technically did see just that a few years later:

20lbs of muscle in a few months isn't a big deal really...100 yeah...20lbs...nah.