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They lost me a little bit when they hinted at General Zod now they've probably completely lost me.

As long as he sticks to the script Nolan gives him, i see no reason to panic.

I can't wait to see Nolan's interpretation of the Light side. if it works as well as the Dark side of batsie then, we are looking at a mind-blowing supes movie.

just the thought alone makes me all happy inside.

May I just point out that I am twenty-seven years old and that Superman I-III all were released before I was born. Wanting a director to orient a new film between Superman II and Superman III is patently absurd. Who would be the audience that would understand that? Forty-year-old comic book fans? The film wouldn't even make back its catering budget.

How about this (it's crazy, so brace yourselves):
Why not just make a movie about Superman, without an origin, set in Metropolis, and with Lois Lane our intrepid reporter as a damsel in distress/side-kick/love interest? No kids. No James Marsden. No continuity. Just a fresh, fun Superman adventure without any of the baggage. How 'bout that, hm? What d'ya think?

"But Matthew," you're saying (to me -- that's my real name) "how could we possibly pull off such a feat? There have already been 5 Superman movies! Surely, you cannot deny their cultural relevence or thier impact on the modern zeitgeist."

To which I respond, "Hey. Shut up. Who asked you?"

To which you cleverly respond, "You just did."

To which I gun you down and leave the corpse to rot on the highway, where some late-night trucker will pummel you to a pink, gooey mess as he fights off drowsiness. And nobody wants that, especially your mother.

I know. Crazy, right?

Maybe it's time for a 5-7 year moratorium on any and all comic book films. It's sad, perplexing and damn bizarre for Snyder's comments to be a complete and full disconnect from the reality of ALL the previous 'Superman' films. What's worse...he attempts to speak with a voice of knowledge and authority. Such willful ignorance should be treated like Old Yeller.

Good movie? BS SR might have been technically good looking but everything from the characters to the plot was completely and utterly horrible. Truly a perfect example of what happens when you let a fanboy try to make their dreams come true

He is damn there should be no connection to the Superman movies. They were bloody awful. Good for the 80's but terrible for nowadays. If Superman is EVER to achieve something it needs a massive reboot. And keep the production as far away from fanboys as possible

Why is there a need to place this before Returns? Can't we just agree that never happened? I know I do it with Superman IV.

That's right. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace never happened!

And I've always wanted to see Superman off the leash. So give us Brainiac or Darkseid or Zod or someone who can go toe-to-toe with the Boy Scout!

I'm a forty(ish) comic book fan.

And I think it's stupid to keep rehashing the origin of Superman. The only origin story that's more well known than his is about a certain person born in Bethlehem.

If you need to know what's happened before rent the movies from Netflix and enjoy them.

The only origin story that's more well known than his is about a certain person born in Bethlehem.

Batman?

That's not the point, ZombieScientist. It doesn't matter whether or not everyone is aware of the origin story; what matters is that it's already been told many many times in different mediums. It's been covered in film. It's been covered several times on TV. Magazines. Cartoons. Comic Books (obviously -- and within that medium it's done every 5 years or so). Radio.

It's out there. For the people who aren't aware -- sure, it's new and fresh. But for the people who HAVE seen it, it's beyond redundant. It's tired, old and frustrating.

So no. You're right. Not everyone is aware of Superman's origin. Not everyone wears deodorant. Not everyone believes gays should marry. The world is full of wacky varieties of people. But that doesn't mean we make big budget films for those groups, especially when there is already a library covering the material.

@ZombieScientist: Your ideas are intriguing to me. I'd like to sign up for your newsletter.

I totally get where you're coming from, superasente, we're cut from the same cloth. But ZombSci is just being pragmatic. It isn't popular among the passionate, but it's necessary to function in the real world without going crazy. Just ask the POTUS.

I see why it's tempting to do another origin. And I see why doing another origin seems pragmatic. I do. Sometimes it's just simpler to scrap a confusing history and start fresh.

But audiences just want to see Superman rock someone. We're ready for a spectacular, high-flying rock-em/sock-em brawl, without all of the heavy exposition and character development. We know who he is. We know where he comes from (many of us). And we know what he's about.

We should be using those tools to create a good story about who the character IS, not who the character WAS.

I for one would like to see them do for Superman what Nolan did for Batman, so as long as it attempted to do something new and interesting with the character, perhaps with major change in tone from the previous movies, I would be interested to see what they come up with.

Fuck you, I want my Superman gritty reboot.

I don't see the big deal. I loved Superman I and II, but there's no need to pick up where Donner and Reeve left off. If they don't want to do a fresh take on Supes, then why make another movie at all?

I might be misreading this, but I assume Snyder is saying that the story isn't based on one specific comic storyline.

I'm not a big fan of Zack Snyder either, but I'm not panicking either. Nolan has said that he and Goyer have worked out a good story, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

i would think the target movie going audience is up to it's eyeballs in origin/young superman mythology since the popular show, smallville is in the midst of its 10th season and has based its entire story on how an alien boy grew up to be superman.

when you couple that with how ubiquitous superman is in our culture--and i am repeating what's already been said--70 years worth of comics, radio serials, television cartoons, live action tv, animated movies, live action movies, i would be hard pressed to think of a cultural commodity more familiar to people.

there's a strange disconnect between animation and live action. i believe the choice to go early superman has everything to do with being able to provide a younger cast for target audiences to relate to or ogle. period. nothing to do with there being some imaginary bottomless fodder in origin stories. same thing is being done to spiderman. yet in cartoons, and comics(which have a greater proportion of young audiences) it's perfectly acceptable for supes or any hero to be a full blown adult who just goes about his day having seriously rocking adventures.

in comic books, frank miller revitalized batman by portraying him as an old man.

i do think smallville took all the elements of spiderman's character that made him endearing--his angst between duty and personal wishes, his pathos, his alienation and loneliness--qualities people could relate to--and translated them onto superman quite successfully, but as said we are a decade deep in that story and could maybe escalate for a new film. that target film audience, after ten years of smallville is now bursting at the seams to see superman unleashed. they might buck if just as the tv show ends, someone tries to sell them a movie by asking "hey, how'd you like to see superman in highschool?" and certainly adult audiences are never overjoyed to see superheroes as teenagers. batman and iron man attain some of their audience and legitimacy as stories because they are stories about adults.

The Origin Story has a period of time that was completely skipped over in the movies (the period of time between his father's death and the appearance of Superman). In the movie, he went into the crystal chamber and emerged as full-blown Superman.

So... if this movie deals with the time in between, there is plenty of fertile ground. Unfortunately, Smallville is more or less plowing it as we speak. It can still be done well, though, if they take it in a totally different direction.