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Without using kryptonite, there are basically two ways to make Supes compelling. 1) Have him become a suedo bad guy, a sort of big brother type, a la The Dark Knight Strikes Again or Red Son OR 2) have him face his own mortality, either through the death of others OR through his own possible death, a la All Star Superman.

Short of that all you can ever do is make him lose his powers or be angsty about his planet being gone. Boooring.

I've always been puzzled by Superman's popularity.
Either the bad guys have Kryptonite or they don't.
A choice between predictable and boring.

Superman sucks.

Sorry.

I just find it hard to contain that kind of superhero on screen for 2 hours. His enemies range from the ridiculous (Lex Luthor is THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES MWAHAHAHA!) to the impossible to put on-screen with a straight face (Mr. Mxyzptlk). So instead, you get guys constantly trying to drag him into a "realistic" world that recycles Luthor as the world's surliest real estate agent.

How many different places could you put Superman in that would realistically bring in hordes to movie seats? How much are you willing to depart from the usual Lois Lane/Jor-El stuff that has been done thrice over?

I'm glad you liked Superman Returns, too, TK. I didn't find it that bad either, and Routh did as good a job with Superman as I think was possible.

(p.s. I still believe that most people can't seriously believe a 6'4" mass of pure muscle can hide in plain sight with a pair of glasses and a shift in hair placement that works at a newspaper stuck in the 1950's.)

Nolan and Columbus is like matter and anti-matter.

The first time they shake hands we're all done for.

The compelling thing about Superman when he's well written is that he wants to be Clark Kent. But he can't be. Dude has everything most people think they want, and it doesn't make him happy.

That isn't going to play to an audience on screen. At all. That's an indie film. Unless you tell the origin. The coming of age bit gives you a way for him to be afraid of his powers believably.

The alternatives to that only work in a longer form or with the usual gimmicks: Kryptonite, mysterious power failure, etc.

In principle, the stories you can tell about Supes are limitless, but the stories that work onscreen? Very, very limited.

The most interesting Superman story I've ever seen on-screen is seasons 2 - 4 of Smallville. It's one of the rare situations where a prequel works well BECAUSE you know what's going to happen (but not when or how). Clark will move to Metropolis and become Superman. He'll ditch Lana Lang for Lois. Lex Luthor will become Superman's greatest nemesis. His dad will die.

None of these things should be spoilers because they've been common knowledge since the 1940s, but the show did an amazing job setting up a universe where those plot points were inevitable yet unpredictable. In particular, the relationship between young Lex Luthor, Clark Kent, and Lex's father was really compelling television.

I don't think it would work to tell a similar story on the big screen. The new, pre-Superman universe takes time to develop (Smallville actually took a full season before it became worth watching regularly), and movie audiences would demand that Clark become the Man of Steel before the movie ended.

Still: a movie version of Lex Luthor in which Lex has a personal history with Clark Kent and Superman - and where Luthor is a savvy businessman and politician instead of a transparent, cartoonish megalomaniac - would be a welcome change.

Diane Nelson, now head of DC Comics, earned her bones on the "HP" films. I have a feeling she's trying to capture lightning in the bottle twice. What needs to be said here is that the books brought in the audiences, while Chris Columbus's direction was the last thing to attract a crowd.

Say what you will about Superman. He may just be an alien boy scout in a cape, but...shit, if they can make 22 (!!!!!!) James Bond movies...fuck, they can certainly make a good 50 Superman movies, because he's infinitely more interesting than that pompous limey dickshit.

Superman doesn't have to suck... (example Superman:TAS)

Lois Lane: I'm confused, Kent. See, I've lived in Metropolis most of my life and I can't figure out how some yokel from Smallville is suddenly getting every hot story in town.
Clark Kent: Well, Lois, the truth is, I'm actually Superman in disguise and I only pretend to be a journalist in order to hear about disasters as they happen, and then squeeze you out of the byline.
Lois: You're a sick man, Kent.
Clark: You asked.

Donner's Superman basically rebooted not only the character, but DC's entire comic universe.

It's time for DC (WB) to re-imagine the character.

It's time for DC (WB) to re-imagine the character.

It's always horrible when they try that. Well, the post-death clusterfuck/Jon Peters unfilmed horror were anyway.

Superman: Secret Identity is supposed to be a pretty cool book.

I liked it a lot. It's basically someone in a world where Superman is a fictional character, but this kid discovers he's apparently just like him.

I think the mistake in the last movie was that they gave Kevin Spacey the role of Lex Luthor.

I mean, how could you not want Kevin Spacey to win? Sure he's an evil megalomaniac who's willing to cause the death of thousands just to make billions of dollars, but, shit... I wanted Keyser Söze to win in the end. I kinda wanted John Doe to win at the end of Se7en. And they did.

At the end of Superman Returns, I don't know, it was sort of like, "fuck you, Superman! You messianic, emotional retard. Let Luthor have his new kryptonite continent!"

Ok...why do people keep saying the first two Harry Potter films were the worst? Because in my opinion they were the best.

I freakin hated Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I didn't care at all about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And I thought Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was possibly the most anticlimactic film I've seen in a long time.

On the other hand...I LOVE the first Harry Potter and thought it, out of all the films, captured the essence of the book it was portraying perfectly.

Everyone always talks about how dark the new Harry Potter films are...do we not remember the darkness of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets???? It was sooo dark! And it was only when they were 2nd years, when the content of the book wasn't nearly as dark as the content of the latter books.

Please. I'm not saying Columbus is an amazing director...but he's way better than most people give him credit for.

P.S. - Superman Returns was terrible. Terrible, terrible terrible.

First off, to the haters who find Superman boring: you people are the reason shit like Superman: At Earth's End gets made. And I say that as a recovering Superman hater.

Second, there are plenty of well written stories about Superman IN THE DAMN COMICS. You don't even have to stick with the mainstream universe. Go Elseworlds or something. Indeed, crank down his power levels (just like in the comics post-Crisis). Also, there are plenty of villains that can go toe-to-toe strength-wise with Superman. Essentially, do some damn research for the damn movie!

he had been holding back for so long, afraid he would hurt someone, that he didn't realize how powerful he could get.

Exactly. His "World of Cardboard" speech in Justice League Unlimited was amazing. Focus on that aspect: show how hard it is to indeed have all this power in a world where the tiniest slip-up could be a disaster. Show how many times dickwads insist that he stop being a boyscout and kill villains, and how he is still an upright guy for NOT doing so. Highlight that the boyscout has the power to reduce the planet to a cinder, but chooses not to, BECAUSE HE IS A GODDAMN BOYSCOUT.

When writers saw that Superman couldn't be hurt physically, they found other ways. They wrecked his hometown. They fucked with his mind. They undermined his credibility, and even ran his name in the dirt. And he still kept going. And if they really, truly need to have knockdown, drag-out fights, they still had them.

Superman should be Atticus Finch with heat vision. Show all the crap he suffers, and how he does it because he can handle it, and no one else can. That is when he is at his best storywise.

THAT is Superman.