Over the years, film makers struggle to make a great Superman movie. They try so hard to make the perfect Superman movie but they fail every time they make a new one. “Superman: The Movie” and “Superman II” with Christopher Reeve, those two films were perfect. People loved those two films and were happy with them. Both of those films are classic; however, when “Superman III” came out… it got mixed reviews and bombed in the box office. Then “Superman IV: The Quest For Peace”, also starring Chris Reeve got negative reviews all over the place, and that filmed bombed too. Warner Bros. and Cannon Films were going to move on with “Superman V” with Christopher Reeve once again but the filmed never happened. It was speculated that it never happened because “The Quest For Peace” bombed. Cannon Films didn’t have the budget to make it and Chris Reeve was asking too high of a paycheck that he didn’t want to do the film.

Later in the years, Tim Burton and Nicolas Cage was hired by Warner Bros. to make “Superman Lives” together but as they started to work on the film, Warner Bros. fired them and they stopped the project. “Superman Lives” never got made. Now here comes Bryan Singer’s “Superman: Returns” which was a homage to “Superman I and II”, a continuation of those two films, starring Brandon Routh as Superman/Clark Kent. That film was somewhat of a hit; it was successful but still got mixed reviews. Bryan Singer had planned to make a sequel to “Superman Returns”… but I read a little piece that Singer admits that Superman movies are extremely challenging to make and he doesn’t plan to make a new one anytime soon.

So you have to ask, why is it so hard to put Superman to the screen? I wouldn’t blame the writers and the directors for making bad Superman movies. I would blame Superman himself. Superman has always been difficult to tell stories with, and I’m pretty sure the comic book artists has a tough time as well. The same goes for the George Reeves television show.

I can think of a few good reasons why Superman flicks are so hard to make:

1. Superman was meant to be science fiction stories – Superman is not always about action and being family-friendly. They were meant to be strictly science-fiction stories. Science-fiction stories are pretty hard to write. The same goes for Superman. With all the powers and unique characters. So challenging to make it perfect. It’s hard to tell science-fiction stories with the Superman character. 
2. Superman stories are meant to be told with heart – The Superman character is supposed to be heartfelt. He wants to be a lovable character for everyone. The stories are meant to make people smile and the stories were supposed to be told with emotion. It’s hard to make Superman like that. The reason “III”, “IV: The Quest For Peace” and “Superman: Returns” really didn’t work is because he wasn’t heartfelt enough in those movies.
3. Superman is just too perfect –  He certainly is much different than other superheroes. Batman was easier to tell good stories with ’cause he is different than Superman. Batman is a human character with no powers while Superman is an invincible guy. It’s hard to tell good stories with all the powers Superman has the flying, heat vision, x-ray vision, super-strength, super-hearing, speed, etc.
4. It’s hard to make Superman fun – Everyone wants to see Superman in action. That’s what we all expect to see when watching a Superman movie. We want to see him kicking ass and fighting crime but instead we get pulled into bad storytelling. Everyone wants to have fun watching Superman movies and we haven’t had fun watching a Superman movie in a long while. Everyone thought the last couple of Superman movies were boring. Writers feel that the story is more important than action.
5. It’s hard to create something new & different – I think this is one of the biggest reasons why Superman has a hard time making a good film. It’s hard to make something new and fresh. Every Superman movie that was made in the past was nothing new or original. They seemed like they were rehashing the same old plots and using the same old villains like Lex Luthor. It’s hard to create new stories with Superman ’cause everything has been done in the comics and everything else in the Superman world.

While people still give “III”, “IV”, and “Superman Returns” mixed reviews, I still like those movies for what they were. They were still pretty cool movies even though, I’ll admit that those three films still had some problems.

Will everyone finally be happy with, “Man of Steel”? “Man of Steel” comes out next Friday and we’ll have to wait to see what kind of reception the film will get. I’m hoping the film will get nothing but positive reviews but it wouldn’t surprise me that the film could get mixed reviews as well. I’m pretty sure everybody is gonna like, “Man of Steel”. I’m 100% positive, they did a good job with this one. I’m certainly looking forward to it. If “Man of Steel” is successful and if it’s a smash hit, hopefully they do move on to the sequel.

I’m a big Superman geek. I’m proud of it too. He is the king of all superheroes, you can’t deny that. In celebration of “Man of Steel” coming out next Friday, I’m planning to re-watch the previous 5 Superman movies on BluRay with the box set that I have. I hope people will love, “Man of Steel”, and I think they got it right, this time.

Kev