The role of Superman

[tashiro]

Had a bit of a talk yesterday with Cat, regarding the role of pulp heroes.  This was in part by my annoyance that they want to give a 'dark, tragic' past to Doc Savage.  See, Doc was a paragon in the pulp era, the 'perfect man'.  But, for some reason, Hollywood is deciding he has to have an abusive father who 'drove' him to be this way.

Part of the

Comments

[brother_dour]

I pretty much agree with you. One of the things I hate about Hollywood is that incessant desire to fix what ain't broke. Sometimes they do it because the director has too much free rein, sometimes it's a marketing thing (pulp heroes don't sell well these days). But to me, if an idea won't sell well to a general audience without major tweaking, don't make the damn thing. Move on to the next idea, you know?

That brings me to the other thing I hate about Hollywood: there are no new ideas. They just take the same stuff off the shelf every twenty years or so and 'reboot' it. WTF- it's like they're not even trying.

[tashiro]

I don't mind if they rehash ideas, as long as they do a good job of it. I do want to see some new things from time to time (Inception comes to mind). 'Something old, something new' is good, as long as the 'something old' is done with respect to the original material, and brings the material in a new direction.

I mean, seriously? I'd love to see a 'reboot' / continuation of the Ghostbusters franchise. I'd kill for that. But only if they took care in writing it.

Thoughts About Superman

[livejournal]

User jkahane referenced to your post from Thoughts About Superman saying: [...] on 's blog about Superman. I pretty much agree with his assessment of the matter. Superman Thoughts [...]

[marinredwolf]

Get in an argument at the comic store or something?

I thought about commenting on Hollywood in general, but I'll stick to the specific topic at hand with a couple little thoughts:
1) I agree with your assessment of what Superman is/should be.
2) This is no small part of why I haven't particularly been a Superman fan since... uhh... since I was very young, if at all. These types of stories hold little interest to me, personally.

[tashiro]

And see, point #2? I can completely understand that. Superman isn't for everyone (and I'll admit, he's not my favourite character, either) - but that's okay. What isn't okay is twisting and turning him into someone he's not, just to 'draw the crowd'.

[brother_dour]

"What isn't okay is twisting and turning him into someone he's not, just to 'draw the crowd'."

I would say that goes hand-in-hand with your above comment about "id they take care in writing it". I don't trust Hollywood to take care in (re)writing anything. I do expect them to twist ideas around specifically to increase box office draws. It's not about artistry anymore; it's all about profit.

But take all that with a grain of salt: I am a proud self-avowed movie snob. And I am unusual in that I rarely feel the need to revisit a story. Rare is the book I read more than once, or the movie I watch again and again. To me, once I've seen a story I've seen it. Time to move on to the next story.