Top 10 Reasons You Should Go See Casino Royale

Hey kids.



It's been a while since I updated Ramblings, mainly 'cause I've been devoting my blogging time to Rambling's sister blog, The Trektastic Voyage. I was compelled to come back to Ramblings to give you a brief review of the newest James Bond adventure, "Casino Royale."



I usually give very detailed movie reviews, but I thought I'd go for a bullet-style approach here. Ali and I had a date last night and after a lovely dinner at the wonderful Antoni's, we went to The Grand to see "Casino Royale."

Here we go, from the home office in Youngsville, Louisiana...


10. "Casino Royale" is a "reboot" of the James Bond franchise. You don't need to know anything about the other twenty Bond films from the last forty years to enjoy this. It's a restart, like "Batman Begins" was for the Batman franchise.

9. Direction: the last three Brosnan Bond films were criticized for their use of "edgy" film techniques from modern successful blockbusters. This wore thin fast as it seemed too derivative. "Casino Royale" doesn't look like any other movie out today. It's tightly directed by Martin Campbell, and edited by veteran editor/director Stuart Baird, who worked magic on the first Superman film. This movie is fast-paced, exciting, and never tedious, thanks to the direction.

8. Cinematography and location shooting: the lenswork in this film is amazing, and brings to vibrant life the myriad global locations one expects from a James Bond film. The exotic locations appear as lush as they are in life, and the film jumps with color and style. And unlike a lot of action flicks today, you'll actually be able to tell what's happening and you won't get motion sickness, as the camera work is energetic but stable.

7. Action: "Casino Royale's" action is much more realistic than previous Bond films, though amazing stunts and set pieces are used to great effect. Think "Bourne Identity" instead of traditional James Bond action, which sometimes bordered on the superhuman.

6. Characterization: this is a film about characters, not just Bond walking around striking cool poses and dropping witty or cheesy one-liners. You will find you care about Bond's character, who is not yet the seasoned agent we knew from past films, and his love interest in the film. The writing is also focused on developing themes and plot points for the twenty-second Bond film, due out in 2008. But don't worry, this film doesn't have a cliffhanger ending. It just sets up the next film, and believe me, you'll want to see it after seeing "Casino Royale."

5. Dame Judi Dench: Dench played "M," the head of Bond's MI:6 in the Brosnan Bond films, but returns here despite the fact that this film is a reboot. Dench was brought back because she's a classically-trained actress who brings fire and humor to the role of M that no other actress likely could.

4. Score: I couldn't help but smile when I heard some of the cues in "Casino Royale." The score has that wonderful classic Bond sound many of us remember from the Connery Bond films, replete with classy brass and string work. But thankfully, the score doesn't overpower the film as is the case in a lot of contemporary films today. And while the classic Bond theme is used, it doesn't come into the film until it really matters and really shines. You'll see what I mean when you hear it.

3. Devotion to the original novels: Bond began life in a series of novels by Sir Ian Fleming, the first of which was "Casino Royale." Though a spoof version and a TV episode adaptation of "Casino Royale" was produced, this is the first official Bond film to adapt the novel. The film is faithful to the novel, avoiding the campier Bond seen in later Bond films as well as the gadgets and other sillier concepts. More on this in #1...

2. Bond girls: Can't leave the ladies out. Caterina Murino is the lovely Solange, a minor Bond girl role that is nonetheless important to the film. The major Bond girl here is the beautiful Eva Green, who you'll likely remember from her role in "Kingdom of Heaven." Green brings not only beauty but charm and depth of character to the role of Vesper Lynd, giving us a Bond girl who is far more than mere window dressing.

Eva Green as Vesper Lynd


And now, the #1 Reason to Go See "Casino Royale..."

...Daniel Craig as Agent 007, James Bond.



I admit I hated the idea of this guy when I saw the first teaser. The blue eyes, the blonde hair, the face that looks worn. I thought, "THIS is the new James Bond?!" But this man is amazing. Craig brings intensity, charm, and depth to a character that has long been seen as a one-note, invincible, and often campy hero. Craig's Bond is brutal, violent, and downright brutish, but also suave, sophisticated, and charming. I really think Craig is the best Bond since Connery, and might even surpass him, given the right writing in future films. And Craig's Bond is the Bond of the novels, who didn't rely on gadgets or toys but on his own two fists, his cunning, and of course, a good gun. And Craig delivers some classic lines that I don't dare spoil here, a few of which we expect to hear from James Bond. My favorite has to do with the preparation of a certain drink, and one of my others occurs when Vesper asks Bond if it doesn't really bother him when he kills. Ali loved the humor and edginess that Craig brought to Bond, and I agree that he's much more interesting now than in the last few films we've seen.

So go out and see "Casino Royale" as soon as you can! Chris

Robert Downey Jr. Cast as Marvel Hero Iron Man!

Marvel's press release on the casting:

Academy Award(R) Nominee Robert Downey Jr. will take on the role of one of Marvel's greatest Super Heroes, signing on as the title character for Marvel Studios' highly-anticipated IRON MAN. This project, the first feature film to be produced independently by Marvel Entertainment, will launch into theaters May 2, 2008. The film is being directed by Jon Favreau and will be distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Downey is widely recognized as one of Hollywood's most versatile actors. Nominated for an Oscar(R) for his extraordinary portrayal of Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, Downey has been featured in more than 50 films. His upcoming credits include Fur (co-starring Nicole Kidman), A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, and the David Fincher film Zodiac. He has also recently been seen in such films as: A Scanner Darkly, The Shaggy Dog, Good Night, and Good Luck, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Gothika, The Singing Detective and Wonder Boys.

Based upon Marvel's iconic Super Hero, IRON MAN tells the story of Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor who is kidnapped and forced to build a devastating weapon. Instead, using his intelligence and ingenuity, Tony builds a high-tech suit of armor and escapes captivity. Upon his return to America, Tony must come to terms with his past. When he uncovers a nefarious plot with global implications, he dons his powerful armor and vows to protect the world as Iron Man.

"Robert Downey Jr. is one of the most talented and acclaimed actors of this generation. His versatility sets him apart and makes him an ideal fit to play such a complex character as Iron Man. We could not think of another actor better suited to bring one of Marvel's crown jewels to the big screen and be the centerpiece of our first independently produced feature," said Kevin Feige, President of Production, Marvel Studios.

Marvel Studios is currently casting all supporting roles. Filming is slated to begin in Los Angeles in February 2007.

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In my opinion, this is a strange yet also smart move on Marvel's part. John Favreau was an odd choice as director (he directed "Elf" and "Zathura"), but all indications from Favreau are that he respects and knows the source material and intends to be faithful to it.

So Downey Jr. could pan out. Tony Stark is a billionaire industrialist in the comics and is one of Marvel's "Trinity" along with Captain America and Thor. Stark builds a suit of armor to keep himself alive after shrapnel pierces his heart, and then turns the armor into a sophisticated weapons system which he uses to combat evil. In the 80s, Stark struggled with alcoholism, and Downey Jr.'s own substance abuse struggles might come into play in the character.

I used to read Iron Man religiously in high school and am cautiously optimistic about this film. Time will tell...

Chris

It's official: I'm going to my first comic book convention!

Greetings, Ramblers.

I haven't posted here in a while, as I've been working on Rambling's sister blog, The Trektastic Voyage, which got coverage in last week's Sunday Advertiser.

But I have an announcement I want to share with you, my loyal if often silent readership.

I'm going to my first comic book convention!

I've never been to a convention in all my years of loving comics. There were various reasons, none of them important. But now, I've realized I have the opportunity and the resources to go to a convention that won't require a plane trip to attend.

I'll be going to Wizard World Texas, held in Arlington, Texas from November 10th through November 12th. I reserved a room at a nearby hotel and now all that remains is to buy tickets for the convention. I'll be going up Friday and returning sometime Saturday evening.

Since I'm a convention virgin, I'll be bringing along my digital camera and camcorder. I'll post pics and videos for your viewing pleasure, and will chronicle the whole journey here on Ramblings. I'll also be doing a special edition of The Trektastic Voyage, which will of course go on despite the convention.

More to come as November draws nearer...

Chris

Ramblings Restaurant Review: New York Pizza and Deli

New York Pizza and Deli's owners coined a rather clever acronym for their little hole in the wall establishment in downtown Lafayette:

NYPD.

Covers all the letters in the title of the place, save that pesky but oh so necessary article.

So we have NYPD: New York Pizza and Deli.

Having visited the joint, I have a different set of words to plug into that same acronym that I think is a hell of a lot more accurate and avoids the same blatant false advertising:

NYPD: Need Your Patience, Dude.

Exclamation point(s) may be added at your discretion. Especially after you eat there.

I love pizza. Not a big surprise to those who know me. If you'd cut off certain cubes of the fat deposits around my body, you'd probably see they're actually cubes of stored pizza.

It takes a lot to ruin pizza. I've had some terrible pizza in my thirty years and some great, even downright beautiful pizza. The stuff of sonnents and frescoes and arias.

Here's the worst part about the pizza from Need Your Patience, Dude: it's neither terrible or great. And as Jesus put it in the "back of the Bible," like my kids say, we spit the lukewarm out of our mouths.

My bride and I went on a double-date with our friends, Roy and Mindi Petitfils. We got babysitters and were excited to have a night on the town. We decided on trying NYPD, because it was new and we'd all heard good reports.

HUGE mistake. The first thing that should have clued us in that NYPD was going to fail us was the fact that we were the only patrons at five thirty on a Saturday evening. Parlors like Alesi's, which is falling from grace itself, Deano's, Pizza Village, and La Pizzeria, are all seeing brisk business early in the evening on the weekend's longest night. Should have been a red alert for us, but still we stayed.

This guy comes out who could be a waiter there or a guy who works at Sbarro's in the mall and asks for our drink orders. I shoot back with "Whatever you've got of the beer-esque type drinks," and he laughs. LAUGHS. According to that acronym and the all the hype, this joint's a pizza parlor. Yet they have no beer.

I give him the look I give my students when they say they didn't know they had to do something they damn well know they have to do. He says, "Uh, I'm serious, you have to go to one of the bars because blah blee blue blah." I stopped after "You have to go" because I'm thinking, "I don't have to go anywhere. I came here because I wanted to be served. If I wanted to go get my own beer, I'd have stayed home and walked to the fridge in the garage.

So Roy and I do the gentleman's shuffle out the back door of the joint and head to the bar behind it. We get some beers in what may have been either a bar or a set from The Lord of the Rings that was transported to Lafayette and left intact. I half expected to see folks hanging from the walls from manacles. We get the beers, which begin their countdown to being room temperature the minute our hands touch them, and then head back to Need Your Patience, Dude.

Once there, we order the pizza and an appetizer. A whole pizza at NYPD is over twenty bucks because New York pizza is big. I get it, that's the whole schtick of the place, alright. But twenty-three bucks? Please. I could work wonders with that amount with homemade pizzas made from store-bought ingredients. Ali orders two pieces, I order a half, Roy orders a half, and Mindi orders two pieces.

We get the appetizers in advance, which is one good thing. They weren't bad or great, just middle of the road. A taste of things to come.

Then the pizza arrives. I'm the only dark cloud in the room, which now has two more patrons by six-fifteen. And yes, it's still Saturday. I pick up one of the large slices and...lose all of my toppings. Not some. Not a few. ALL. After the Frankensteinian task of rebuilding my pizza is done, I get that first taste. Surely this will redeem the place. Maybe you don't come for a few brews or the atmosphere. Maybe this is a place you come to just for the great...

...then I bite into the pizza. It's mediocre at best. See a pattern forming?

The crust is subpar, the toppings are undercooked, the cheese is so so, and the sauce is struggling to be something more than a can of Ragu with added oregano and tomato paste.

We finish quickly and all realize that we neither got our bang for our buck nor felt the excitement that can come from trying a new place. We thought about going to that wonderful mainstay of Lafayette pizza, Deano's, but didn't.

We probably should have. And so should you. Go anywhere else, in fact. Even the chains like the Hut and Dommie's and Papa J's. At least you'll get what you pay for and you don't have to go to a place so filled with potential (great location, great building) but so off the mark when living up to that potential.

And you'd get your pizza much faster ordering it from the chains, even on a busy Saturday night. We waited almost thirty minutes. That's long even for a busy place like Coyote Blues on a Saturday night. This place had four customers.

There's just no excuse. And that's why from service to selection to affordability to quality, you'll Need Your Patience, Dude.

Cap

There's a new Blogger in town...

Hey kids,

I just wanted to take a moment to talk up(or in this case, write up)the newest writing endeavor of my good friend, Roy Petitfils, The Tropical Update. Roy is a columnist and writer, as well as a teacher at STM here in Lafayette. We worked on a book together over the last six months(damn Roy, can you believe it was that long?) and we share a love of writing and reading, among other things.

Such as hurricanes. More to the point, how they're hatched from hot plains a world away and then their brief but sometimes cataclysmic lives.

Some folks (among them my bride and my mother)are a little put-off when Roy and I say we're "hoping" a tropical storm or hurricane forms. They're certainly right on for having that reaction, since we're using the wrong words and thus feeding their misunderstanding.

We don't "hope" for hurricanes to form and cause damage and death. Not at all. We've both been victims of hurricanes in the past, in Roy's case physically, and in mine, psychologically. As I've shared here in past entries, I thought I was going to die as a result of Hurricanes Andrew, Katrina, and her bitch of a sister who decided to come on over a week or so later for a visit, Rita. In each of those storms, I didn't just "think I'd die," the way we often say we might when we take a chance on a yellow light or when we see a bug bigger than our own fist in our showers. I'm telling you that I had actually prepared myself for death. I felt that in each case, I could very well be killed by those storms.

And the truth is, I could have. We all could have been. For me and Roy and the others who are interested in these storms, it's not because we want to see misery, destruction, and death. It's simply fascination with a force beyond ourselves capable of doing such damage. We're awed by it, we're humbled by it, we're terrified by it. Yet like most people, we're also thrilled by that fear at the same time. Unlike most folks, though, we express our excitement and fear. Odd, maybe. But true nonetheless.

So we like to follow these systems as they form from a few rowdy barnstormers out in Africa or wherever else and become engines of terrible potency. I've had this fascination with deadly weather all my life. It started when I was a kid, sitting in the backseat of our family car on a Texas highway and wondering why the sky was black as night at two in the afternoon. I found out later that there were tornadoes touching down nearby. I've been "fascifraid," to coin my own word, ever since.

And dadgummit if you aren't, too. You just might not be as quick to admit. That's all fine and good, that's what we writer-types are for. We sketch with words what other people think, feel, and fear. In my case, generally the last.

So hop on over to Roy's The Tropical Update. Sit back and let us express your "fascifear" for you.

Chris

TS Chris and Brokeback Joker

It's an old story. A man leaves home for a few days of vacation and all hell breaks loose in the meantime.

I was enjoying Stephen King's mammoth "Bag of Bones" when I heard the words "tropical storm Chris." We don't have very good reception in our condo, both phones and the TV, so I hadn't been able to watch The Weather Channel. There's also the fact that the jackals who run the condo don't allow guests to even use dial-up to access the Internet; you have to use their ten bucks a day modem, and it's not even wireless. Pathetic. So outside of coming to The Dizzy Bean Cafe to plug in to the WWW, I've been in the dark.

Anyway, TS Chris. I just checked the latest news on this guy over at NOAA's website, Wunderground, and Perillo's blog over at KATC.com. Seems as if the big guns are saying Chris is going to become a depression again and not re-strengthen in the Gulf.

Folks, hopefully you see how crazy that sounds. The Gulf is extremely warm, and we were told after last year's historic hurricane season that the gulf didn't cool down like it usually does. So we're supposed to believe that Chris isn't going to strengthen when he gets into the gulf waters? Please.

I was in those very waters yesterday. The water is damned warm and it's eerily calm. Not many waves. The water almost seems heavy somehow. Weird, I know. But I'm a writer, not a meteorologist.

Here's my prediction, if anyone's interested: Chris will become a TS within a day of entering the gulf. He'll be a Cat 2 storm by the time he's off the Louisiana coast. He'll make landfall somewhere in southeastern Texas or maybe Louisiana. You want me to be honest? Okay. I think you all need to start planning. Seriously planning. Buy some new batteries for the flashlights, get some water, etc., etc. Because despite what the pros are saying, my feelings are that Chris could turn very quickly to the north and affect us.

As for the Meaux fam, we'll be at Blue Alert when Chris enters the GoM sometime on Sunday (correct me if I'm wrong, Roy!). Blue Alert, as you'll recall from this very blog, means a tropical storm or hurricane has entered the GoM and we're watching it carefully. If Chris looks like he's going to start some drama with us, we go to Yellow Alert and then Red Alert if he's got us in the crosshairs.

Alright, one other thing. If you've been watching the news in the last week, you know that Heath Ledger, most recently of Brokeback Mountain fame, is set to play The Joker in the sequel to Batman Begins, entitled The Dark Knight.

Kids, I gotta level with you here. I think this is absurd. The word on the street is that director Chris Nolan picked Ledger himself. That's nothing new, considering that's how most casting is done. But let's be clear: Nolan's being pressured. The last I read on the various comic sites I visit, Nolan was favoring Paul Bettany, who ironically enough co-starred with Ledger in "A Knight's Tale." You probably remember Bettany as Russel Crowe's imaginary buddy in "A Simple Mind." He was also in that tennis movie a few years back.

Bettany has the look and the intensity to play The Joker. Ledger does not. I think this is just another case of what I call "token casting." Ledger's not gay, but the studio wanted to hire him precisely because he was in a controversial movie. Their thinking, if it can be called that, was "Hey, he was in Brokeback, that'll get people's attention, and we can make more money."

I want to trust Nolan on this one. Memento and Batman Begins are two of my all-time favorite movies. But this just doesn't work for me. Nolan's casting for Batman Begins was genius. And the cast for The Dark Knight was all set with everyone from the previous film but Watanabe and Neeson. I was hoping on Bettany or, even better, Johnny Depp.

Not freakin' Heath Ledger. He's a fine actor, but c'mon. He's a pretty boy. He's not The Joker.

More to come on this as The Dark Knight begins production in the next year.

And certainly more to come on that mischevious maelstrom out there with my name on it...

Chris

Does whatever a spider can...

Welcome to a special Vacation Edition of Ramblings. I'm reminded of those times when Johnny Carson or Dave Letterman would take the show on the road and do a week of programs from a different studio. As I mentioned in my last entry, I'm on vacation in Orange Beach with my mother, my wife, and my daughter all week. We've had a great time so far. The weather hasn't been as agreeable as we like, but we have a beautiful condo and we've rested and done a lot of shopping and playing with Ava.

Finally, the last hero in the Spandex Trinity: The Amazing Spider-Man. As with Superman and The Batman, there are visual records of this redhead receiving Spider-Man items for birthdays and Christmas. While visiting my parents a few weeks ago, my mother brought out an old photo album, and there I was, showing off a big, cheesy grin and a Remco Motorized Spider-Man action figure. When I saw the photo, I immediately remembered owning the figure. It was a twelve-inch figure and had a string that you could run through Spidey's back. He was battery-powered, and would "climb" the string or swing across it, depending on how you positioned it. I went to that repository of youthful dreams, where a stroll down memory lane is possible for loads of cash: Ebay. There was the old Remco Spider-Man. He could be mine if I was willing to sell an organ and fork over almost four hundred bucks.

Spider-Man, or Spidey as most fans lovingly refer to him, is a character that I fell in love with early on. My brother didn't have any issues of the main Spider-Man titles in his collection, just one issue of the "Spider-Man vs. Wolverine" mini-series. I read that issue and others featuring Spider-Man in guest-starring roles. My exposure to the character didn't come from that issue, however. I discovered the character through the live-action Spidey TV show and the wonderful 60s Spider-Man cartoon with the immortal theme song that refrained, "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can. Spins a web, any size, catches thieves just like flies. Look out! Here comes the Spider-Man!"

Look out, indeed. I didn't have to read too many comics to know Spider-Man was beyond cool. He had that cool costume, which was colorful yet also slightly creepy. He could spin and swing from his own web, which was also a defensive and offensive weapon. He had the agility of a circus acrobat and more, could stick to walls and just about any surface, and his villains were the best. Doctor Octopus, The Green Goblin, The Vulture, Sandman, The Lizard, Electro. The list goes on.

It wasn't until I was a little older, round about middle school, that I picked up my first issue of one of the main Spider-Man titles. I was floored by the art and the stories. What amazed me most, however, was the character of Peter Parker. Stan Lee, who created Spidey and most of the other Marvel characters you would immediately recognize, says that he wanted to create in Spidey an answer to the older heroes of comics, who were more fathers or big brothers to the readers than peers. Thus he decided that he’d take the idea of the teenage superhero sidekick and make him the hero. Stan The Man went to his editor filled with excitement over his latest creation. He was summarily told that A) no one wanted to read about a teenaged hero and B) spiders are scary and disgusting. Thus, Stan and artist Steve Ditko weaved Spidey’s first tale in the last issue of a recently axed comic, Amazing Adult Fantasy. Previously a venue for sci-fi and mystery stories, Amazing Adult Fantasy became Amazing Fantasy with issue number fifteen and introduced Spider-Man to the world.

Spider-Man was an overnight sensation. Amazing Fantasy’s last issue sold more than any of the issues that preceded it, and Spider-Man was quickly given his own solo title. Turns out Stan was right: teens really do want to read about a hero who is like them, a hero that they could themselves imagine being.

And therein lies the magic of Spider-Man. Peter Parker isn’t the mask, unlike Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent. He’s actually the real guy, and Spidey’s just a costume he puts on to help people. And Pete didn’t rocket to Earth from a distant, doomed planet, nor was he manor born with silver spoon firmly in mouth. Pete was an orphan, like most heroes. His parents, agents of a secretive U.S. government organization, were killed in the course of a mission. Pete went to live with his father Richard’s brother Ben and his wife, May. Pete grew up in a simple home with simple people. They didn’t have much money, but they had a lot of love. It was in that environment that Pete was molded into the hero he would later become.

When his Uncle Ben was killed by a robber Pete could have stopped with his newfound powers, Pete learned a lesson that is universal in its truth: “with great power comes great responsibility.” This belief would guide Peter’s life as he struggled to support his now-widowed Aunt May by working as a freelance photographer for The Daily Bugle and battled crime as The Amazing Spider-Man.

The thing about Pete is that he’s human, he’s one of us. Notice that I call him Pete, as if I know him. Yet I feel like I do know him, perhaps more than any other superhero. Because I can identify with him. Peter Parker was a nerdy teenager who was mocked by his male peers and ignored by his female peers. He was a good young man, with a gentle heart and manner, yet he was timid and shy. Those of you who know or work with teenagers know that these are adequate descriptions of most of them. I was a lot like Pete growing up. He might have been scrawny, but I was overweight and rejected just the same. We both wore glasses and were pretty shy in uncomfortable situations and around people we didn’t really know. We were ignored or rejected by girls and felt the pain of knowing that within us was a good young man who just wanted to be recognized.

When I was that pained young man, I was here in Orange Beach with my family. I was heavily into comics by then, and when we stopped at one of the many Tom Thumb convenience stores in the area, I came back to the car with a stack of comics. There were some issues of Iron Man and X-Men, but the majority of the issues featured Spidey. I was remembering all of this yesterday as we passed a few Tom Thumbs on the way to the condo. I devoured those issues and became a loyal Spider-Man reader. It was around this time that he joined Superman and The Batman in The Spandex Trinity.

Even today, as a thirty year old husband and father, I still identify with Pete. He struggled to make ends meet in high school and college, and I had some of those moments myself. He was unlucky in love and often in his work, and so was I. Though I hit the love jackpot the day I met Ali, I still struggle. I will always struggle. Everyone will, though in different ways. But that shy young man who was maligned for who he appeared to be while bursting with joy in who he really was in secret, will likely always speak to me.

Now to answer the question: which of The Spandex Trinity is my favorite? This is extremely hard. I go through phases of intense obsession with all of these characters, and I buy and read all of their comics every month. So it's hard to say. Obviously, each of them resonates with me in different ways and for different reasons.

But if I had to pick the one that was closest to my heart, the hero who I most identify with and feel like I know best, there's only one. It's Peter Parker. The character feels like an old friend that I've known all of my life. That's a credit to his creators. When I went both of the Spider-Man films, there were moments in each that actually brought me to tears. Because those moments were true to the character and his plight, and made me feel that connection and empathy that I've always felt.

So there you have it. You now know my favorite superhero. If you see any Spider-Man memorabilia at a garage sale or in the dollar aisle at Wal-Mart, pick it up for me and I'll pay you back.

I'm off to finish writing some pages on a novel I'm working on, tentatively entitled "Abbeville Nights." As with most of the stories I want to tell, this one's set in areas local to us. Abbeville is the major setting, of course, but so too Lafayette and other cities. Thanks for reading, Chris

Na na na na na na na na na...

...NOT Batman.

Let's get this out of the way right now: the old Adam West "Zip! Bow! Bam!" version of Batman isn't the real deal. Never was, never will be. It's about as much Batman as a gay hairdresser with no fighting experience would be acceptable as Rocky Balboa. No offense to gay hairdressers. It's just a comparison.

The character who we call Batman today was created seventy-three years ago by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. Bill got the short end of the stick when they created the character, since he didn't have a lawyer representing him. Thus, Bob Kane was credited until his death (and as long as DC publishes the character) as the sole creator of Batman.

Specifically, the sole creator of "The Bat-Man," who made his debut in the spring of 1939 in Detective Comics #27. For those of you want to impress your friends around the water cooler, Detective Comics is the book that gave National Publications its second and eventually final name: DC Comics. I've been asked by many what DC stands for. Now you know.

So, The Batman. My mother has pictures of me (which should be destroyed) in an awful Batman costume, circa 1983 or thereabouts. I loved the character even then. Like The Man of Steel, I'd been exposed to The Dark Knight Detective through my brother's comic collection. Superman and Batman were the coolest of the DC characters, though I also loved Green Lantern and The Flash, two of my other favorite characters to this day.

I also remember putting a blue towel around my neck while dressed in Batman Underoos and interrupting my brother and a girl who was visiting with her parents one day at home. They were talking in his room and listening to tapes (yes, tapes. And that's all they were doing, trust me.) I crept into the room unbeknownst to them and then sprang onto the bed at the foot of which they were sitting. I stood with arms akimbo, declaring nothing in word but everything in poise, posture, and presence (or so I thought at the time, but without those big words.)

And that's the essence of the character. At age eight or so, I got The Batman better than the folks that made that old Batman TV show and director Joel Schumacher. The Batman doesn't need to talk, or threaten, or do anything but just stand there . That's all it takes.

The Batman is distinctly different from just plain old "Batman." Batman is more of the superhero version of the character, the one well-known from that insipid TV show, from the old Super Friends cartoon, from Underoos and Halloween costumes and Scooby Doo Meets Batman and Robin.

But The Batman is something else entirely. He's a shadow come to life, a piece of the inky black that envelops Gotham City. Imagine it. You're in New Orleans, let's say. It's night time. You're leaving a bar after a few brews. You're tipsy, so you don't see the mistake you made going to your car alone in an unlit area. A scumbag with a gun appears from behind your car. He's got the desperate look of the crazed on his face. He demands your money and the keys to your car. You're terrified, and you freeze. He thinks you're trying to play with him. His finger tightens around the trigger. Then...

...a jagged shard of the night itself detaches from somewhere above you. It falls upon your assailant with blinding speed, yet does so with unearthly silence. You can no longer see the gunman; he's engulfed in pitch. The gunman screams as you imagine a pig would in the slaughterhouse when its turn is up. You fall back a few steps, now more sober than you've ever been. The screaming is cut off in such a rapid and final way that you wonder if the guy's dead. Still you can't see a thing. Then, as if being spat out from the maw of darkness itself, the mugger falls to the ground. You can see that he's still alive, though unconscious. You hear a faint mechanical sound. Eyes wide with terror, you look skyward to see a massive, dark form launch into the blackness above you. As far as you could tell, it was a giant bat, six feet high with a wingspan twice that.

That, folks, is The Batman. A dark avenger of the night who metes a swift justice to those who would prey upon the innocent. I rediscovered The Batman when I was in middle school. I kept reading and hearing about the new Batman movie that was going to be released. I was interested, and of course started buying any Batman comics I could get my hands on. Before long, I'd read not only comics starring The Batman, but also, anything else I could about the history of the character. I learned that this new film was going to bring The Batman back to his true roots. He was going to be a dark, intense guy, not some smiling fool in a bat suit.

I've stayed in love ever since. The Batman resonates deeply with me because I can identify with him. We all can. Not because I lost my parents to violent crime at an early age. But because I know what it's like to know loss, period. To know loneliness. To know fear and doubt. And to know powerlessness. Bruce Wayne felt all of these things until he resolved at his parents' graves to rid Gotham City of the crime that took their lives. We can all say that we would want to do something like this if someone we loved was taken from us in a violent way.

So for me, it's the fact that Bruce Wayne is human. He's breakable, he's just a regular guy. But he's the ultimate self-made man. He wasn't born with abilities far beyond those of mortal men, and he didn't fall ass-backwards into powers. He trained his mind and body to the peaks of human perfection and then kept going. I know that same drive and passion when it comes to those things in my life that I'm passionate about. My wife and daughter, my writing, my hobbies and interests. The list goes on.

And I love The Batman because of the darkness of the character. I'm just a dark guy. Always have been. I've always been attracted to Halloween, to vampires, to gothic stuff, to black. My high school friends will attest to this, and the all-black clothing phase I went through.

But at the heart of my love for the character is that The Batman wants to help people. He wants to make a difference in the lives of others. I want to do the same thing. I know that all of us do as well. And so we're drawn to this character, who built himself into something more than just a man, a creature of the night, who goes out and does the things we might wish we could do. Maybe not scaring the crap out of thugs or fighting colorful yet freakish villains. But changing the world around us for the better.

Tomorrow, the third hero of the Spandex Trinity: The Amazing Spider-Man.

Chris

Faster than a speeding bullet...

More powerful than a locomotive!

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...

SUPERMAN.

The first superhero. The one just about everyone will mention when you bring up the term "superhero."

He's part of the American experience, but like all true art, was bigger than any one nation, political movement, or era.

He's been around for seventy-four years. Without him, comic books as we know them today would never have come to be. And when you consider that "Superman: The Movie" influenced a generation of filmmakers and film production, you realize that an entire genre of films would have never come to be, either.

This is just one small example of the impact the Superman character has had on the world. According to research, Superman's "\S/" is the second most recognized symbol in the world, right after the cross of Christ.

That's amazing when you think about it.

How did I come to love Superman? Well, let's be clear: what kid doesn't, or at least didn't, at some point? This is especially true for our generation. The Christopher Reeve films took a character that existed only in two dimensions and made him real. Superman was real. There wasn't any doubt to those of us who were kids when those movies debuted.

But even before then, I knew Superman and was a big fan. My brother, who I've mentioned before, had stacks of comics featuring Superman, from The Man of Steel's own solo titles to books that featured Superman regularly, like Justice League of America. And I had Superman pajamas and a huge Superman action figure with glow-in-the-dark kryptonite.

When I became a comic fan on my own, however, I didn't find that I was all that interested in Superman. I read a lot of X-Men related titles, and was a huge fan of dark, sometimes violent characters, like Wolverine, The Punisher, Ghost Rider, Morbius The Living Vampire, and so on. I was also a huge fan of The Batman, who was my favorite character during this "dark age" I went through.

Flash forward to 1992. I read an article in the Lafayette newspaper about a shocking event: The Death of Superman. The article said that Superman was going to be killed and the comics featuring him cancelled. Like the ill-informed media at the time, I believed this truly was the end for Superman. I was kind of relieved, since I preferred those darker characters I mentioned and had found Superman a little one-dimensional and "goody two-shoes" for my liking. It seemed to me that Superman was a character out of date and no longer relevant.

One of the two comic shops I frequented at the time had the entire six-issue run of "The Death of Superman," and my mother bought them for me as a Christmas gift. They were first-prints, which is usually only a big deal when a story is important enough to warrant reprints. My shock and fear grew as I read one issue after another, each bringing the clock that much closer to zero hour for The Man of Steel.

Then I read Superman #75. There were two versions: a "newsstand" edition, which is just a regular, mass-market printing of a comic, and a direct edition. The direct edition was packaged in a sealed black bag featuring a bleeding, red \S/ over a black background. I read my newsstand copy and marveled at the first comic I'd ever read that used one big panel for each page. At the end of the issue, the creature called Doomsday, which had beaten every other hero and which was bent on wiping out all life on Earth, was defeated. But at a great cost.

Superman was dead.

Of course, no one stays dead in comics. I added the Superman titles to my folder, surprised that there were going to be future issues in light of Big Blue's demise. One year later, after the debut of four mysterious beings who each claimed to be Superman, the one, true Superman returned from the dead.

I'd been hooked with the first issue in the "The Death of Superman" series. Granted, this guy didn't have blades coming out of his hands, he didn't have a flaming skull for a head and a demonic motorcycle that could streak up the sides of buildings, he didn't wear black and gun down bad guys with an unbeatable arsenal. That's what I found some refreshing and inspiring about him. Instead, he came to the aid of people who needed him, even if they didn't seem to respect him or care for him. And he fought Doomsday, the first villain who could actually give him a run for his money, knowing full well he might have to lay his life down to save others.

I was "converted," I guess you could say. And I still love Big Blue to this day. Some say Superman is appealing because of the power fantasy. We all wish we could fly and were invulnerable, that we had the strength to change the course of mighty rivers, that nothing could stop us. And there are those who say that Superman is a popular character because of his relationship with Lois Lane and because he's a symbol of American immigrants who moved here to start a new life.

That's all fine and good. But I'll tell you the real appeal: we wish we could be like Superman. I don't mean have his powers. I mean we wish we could make a difference and be the good people we know we really are at heart.We wish pettiness, bigotry, hatred, fear, arrogance, and bloodlust would bounce off of us like those bullets bounce off Superman. We wish we could soar, not above cityscapes or into space, but above those failings that keep us from being better than we are.

We wish that we could be heroes ourselves.

I know I certainly do. Superman is one of my three favorite characters for these reasons, and of course, because he's a great character. The sci-fi stuff is fun and exciting. There's truth to the wish fulfillment, power fantasy stuff. And who doesn't like a story where the guy gets the girl and vice versa?

Tomorrow, I'll tell you a tale of my love for a certain Dark Knight Detective, who you know better as Batman. And I'll even explain why I refer to him as "The Batman." Chris

The Holy Trinity of Spandex

Greetings, kids. It's Tuesday night. Ali's watching Big Brother 44.5 or whatever number the show's on, Ava's making gurgling sounds and nibbling on a picture book about numbers, and I'm writing, as you probably already figured out.

All of you know that I'm a huge comics nut, and have been for decades. But many people ask me: "So Chris, Superman's your favorite character, right?" Others have inquired, "Ah, so you have a Batman beer coozie. Surely The Batman is your favorite comic book hero?" And then there are those who query, "I guess Spider-Man is your favorite?," after seeing a Spider-Man figural keychain hanging from my car's rear-view mirror.

So...who is my favorite character? Which of these three characters takes the top spot? Well, I'm not going to tell you just yet. I've set up a poll here, where you can go and vote. I'll share the results with you after I've gotten some results.

In the meantime, I thought I'd spend some time discussing what most comic fans consider to be "The Holy Trinity" of superheroes, Superman, The Batman, and Spider-Man. Why are these such a big deal? Let's start with the most obvious reason. Be honest. If I were to ask you to name three superheroes you've either heard about, read about, or have seen in some form of media in your lifetime, these three are most likely to be listed first. Oh sure, some of you out there will say "Captain America" or "Green Lantern" or "Aquaman." Maybe even "Wonder Woman." But in general, the first heroes listed are one of these three.

Why is this? And why are these very different characters with very different origins and backgrounds, the ones that have resonated most in popular culture? What about an alien with great powers beyond those of mere humans, a rich orphan who dresses up like a rodent, and a nerdy teenager who can stick to walls and swing around on a homemade web remains so appealing after seventy-four years in the case of Superman, seventy-three years in the case of The Batman, and forty-four years, in the case of Spider-Man? Why have they entered what our German buddies called the "zeitgeist," or the collective consciousness of a culture or society?

The answer is simple, though it requires that I use another five-dollars and a little change word like "zeitgeist." Superman, The Batman, and Spider-Man are
archetypes. I'm going to provide you with a three-fold definition for archetype, which will suit my purposes well.

Zeitgeist:

1. An original model or type after which other similar things are patterned; a prototype: “‘Frankenstein’ . . . ‘Dracula’ . . . ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ . . . the archetypes that have influenced all subsequent horror stories” (New York Times).
2. An ideal example of a type; quintessence: an archetype of the successful entrepreneur.
3. In Jungian psychology, an inherited pattern of thought or symbolic imagery derived from the past collective experience and present in the individual unconscious.

In all three senses of the term, Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man are archetypes. All three are models after which other superheroes and characters have been patterned. Superman is, of course, the archetype of superheroes; when Siegel and Shuster created Superman, they created the superhero genre with him. Batman was only created by Bob Kane because of Superman's success. Batman's success inspired numerous other dark, grim, and mysterious characters. And Spider-Man was created as an answer to both Superman and Batman in a way. Stan Lee wanted to create a hero who wasn't going to have a teenage sidekick; he was going to be the teenager himself. Hence, fifteen-year old high school student and nerd Peter Parker becomes the first teenaged superhero, The Amazing Spider-Man. We can't count Superboy, who was a teen hero, but was essentially Superman as a boy.

As for the second sense, Superman, Batman, and Spidey are ideal examples of superheroes. They have perfect origins, in that it only takes maybe three lines at most to explain who they are and how they came to be super. They are paragons of nobility, virtue, and heroic humanity, albeit in differing degrees and expressions. All the other heroes either want to be these guys, or in the case of Spidey, wish they were as good at what they do as he is. In the third and more psychological sense, Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man tap into a subconscious and indeed iherited, consciousness. They represent certain human qualities, attributes, and emotions that all people can identify with. Their origins and their struggles tap into the very fiber of human experience.

First of all, and perhaps most interestingly, all three of these heroes are orphans. Superman was rocketed to Earth as his planet exploded, leaving him as The Last Son of Krypton. Bruce Wayne watched both parents murdered in cold blood. He had no siblings or other close relatives, just a paternal figure in his butler. Like Batman, Spider-Man was also an orphan. His parents were secret agents working for the U.S. government. They often left young Peter in the care of his Aunt May and Uncle Ben when they were off on secret missions. When they were murdered in the course of a mission, Peter is left only with Ben and May. And while all three of these characters had surrogate parents or parental figures, they were still marked by the fact that their parents were gone.

We can all understand the feelings that attend loss on this level, even if we've never lost our parents or any loved ones in violent ways. We all have an acute awareness of the cold pain of loneliness. Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man also embody other emotional responses we all know: they love, they lose in love, they keep on loving. What most people love about superheroes is the fact that they fight and win, whereas we fight but sometimes don't win. There's something liberating in the escapist fantasy of a hero who overcomes because of the extraordinary that lies beneath the veneer of the ordinary, whether it's an extraordinary power, will, or determination.

These characters are heroes. Scholars of philosophy, literature, psychology, and religion tell us that the heroic ideal resonates with us because it's been with us since the beginning of us. We've always had heroes. The Greeks and the Norse had their colorful and sometimes fearful gods, the British had King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, and just about every other culture has had folk heroes and characters. These heroes may not always be larger-than-life or superhuman, but they did overcome. They did succeed in the face of adversity and past failure. They were the best and the brightest, the likeness of which we hoped to find in ourselves.

As for Americans, we have our superheroes. They've been around for seventy-four years. There's no indication they're going anywhere, blatant exploitation and commercialism be damned. They will overcome even our present society's predilection for fads and fickle attention spans. They are our mythology, gods in tights who fight battles that represent our own.

Over the course of the next three entries, I'll share with you my feelings about each of The Big Three, in the order I've discussed them here. Afterwards, I'll give you the results of the poll and tell you which answer was the right one. Some of you will be surprised, while others already know the answer. Keep it real and take it light, Chris

Superman and Jesus: Separated at Birth or Just In the Family?

I'm sitting at the CC's on Perkins in Baton Rouge. It's Friday, and I've taken the day off from my grueling summer class. I'm here to relax, read a stack of books and comics at Barnes and Noble, visit the local Toys R Us, and...write a blog entry.
I've been meaning to sit down and write this entry for a while, but it's the same old story: the hierarchy of priorities. Ramblings isn't too high on the list, so it doesn't get that much attention.

Before I begin, let me say this: I've received some complaints of late. My stuff is too long to read. I get that. I'm going to fix that. So please keep reading. Please respond when you read, even if it's "good job" or "I'm printing this out to use as emergency toilet paper." Whatever. Just give me some feedback. I received some from one person who said they delete my emails because they just don't see my blog as fitting into their hierarchy of priorities. That's fine and all, but please, at least read before you decide it's not worthy of your time.

Superman and Jesus. This has been in the news of late, especially with Superman Returns. There's a guy who wrote a book all about how Jesus is in fact supposed to be an allegory for Jesus. After all, this cat says, Superman was sent by his father to Earth to save people who can't save themselves. And Superman did in fact die and rise from the dead. So...Superman=Jesus.

Here's the problem: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the two Chicago kids who came up with Superman, were Jewish. Jew.ish. Not Christian. They admitted in interview after interview that Superman was influenced by only one religious figure: Moses.

Let's see how that works. Moses was sent away as a baby to save his life. As was Superman. Moses took a trip down a river in a basket. Superman took a trip down an intergalactic "stream," if you will, in the "basket" of his spaceship. Both arrived as infants to the welcoming, caring arms of foster parents.

So Superman isn't a Christ allegory. I'm sorry to this kid who spent a lot of time writing a book the main conceit of which is false. I'm sorry for Bryan Singer, who put a lot of time and effort into drawing parallels between Superman and Jesus in his movie. Same goes to Richard Donner, director of the Chris Reeve movies.

It's not that I'm against the idea of finding Christ-like qualities in Superman. Far from it. I am against this mentality that some Christians have today: nothing has merit unless it looks like our own beliefs. That's fine if it's your personal opinion, but to write an entire book around a falsehood to push an agenda is just annoying. It's actually insulting, really. And I'm not saying Singer or Donner were pushing a Christian agenda, as I don't think either of them are practicing Christians. But folks like this Steve Skelton are another matter entirely...

I think our Jewish brothers and sisters should be getting the attention because of this Superman movie, not Christians. We get enough attention as it is. Why haven't there been any news items anywhere about this? Instead, everyone's going on about how gay Superman seems and how much like Jesus Superman is. I find this disturbing as well. Superman has some gay appeal, and he's like Jesus? It boggles the mind.

I think it's beautiful that these two young men decided to create a hero patterned after someone I'm sure was a hero to them, a person of great religious significance. And remember, Moses is also important to Christians. We're all in the family, so to speak. I'm not writing this to preach or to judge, just to give you some food for thought. Just to give you something interesting (I hope) to consider. If not, well, at least you can tell those people who keep asking you how much you read that you read something today. Enjoy the waning days of the summer. Chris

A rose, by another name...

Lately, I've been wondering if my blog needs a new name.

I do like "Ramblings." Seems fitting, considering that's what I do. But it's not all that indicative of content or purpose.

So...if you could suggest a name, fearless reader, what would you offer?

I've been thinking of "Primary Colors," just because of my love of comics and the fact that I write so much about them here.

The primary colors of red, blue, and yellow are of course the colors of Superman and are used in just about every superhero costume in all of comicdom.

But I don't know. I need some help.

I'm going to ask that folks either suggest names in the comment box of this entry, or email your suggestions to me at krakadoom@yahoo.com.

I'll select the best from whatever suggestions I get and we'll go into the voting stage.

If I don't get enough suggestions or votes, I'll just make the decision myself.

Meauxses

Independence Day Intimations...

Hey kids.

It's Monday of the nice, long, 4th of July weekend. Lots of people are off from work. Thankfully, UL declared today a holiday as well, so this blogger doesn't have to sit in a two-hour class after making a muddy trek across campus.

There's going to be a lot of grilling going on tomorrow. I'd like to toss out a little recipe for beer and brats and see if it sticks. Here goes:

Brats (I prefer Johnsonville)
Two beers (good choices here for flavor: Killian's Red, Bass Ale, Red Stripe)
Two tablespoons/half of a stick of butter
Cajun Power "Uncle Easy's Tio Bueno Chipotle Sauce"
Optional: one onion, chopped

Use a large pot or, even better, a Dutch oven if you have one. Defrost the brats if necessary, then place in the pot. Pour in the beers, then drop in the butter and the onion. Give the mixture a couple of squirts of the Uncle Easy. For those precise folk out there who don't like to "eyeball it," (that's for you, Ali my love!), use about a teaspoon of the chipotle sauce.

Bring the mixture to a boil. Let it remain boiling for about a minute, then bring the heat down to medium. Let the brats simmer for about ten minutes or so.

Remove from heat and place the brats in a container. Next, pour the beer mixture in the container with the brats. Let cool, then cover.

When your coals are ready to go, grill the brats for about four minutes on each side. Serve on a hot dog bun with sauerkraut and/or honey mustard. For a pretty good honey mustard, get the generic "Great Value" honey mustard from Wal-Mart, then add lemon juice, a tablespoon or so of honey, salt, and the Uncle Easy's chipotle sauce used above. Stir and you're in business.

Enjoy Independence Day with your families, and be sure to weigh in on the issue mentioned in the post above this one!

Meauxses

Another reason I dig Bryan Singer...

Singer's a great director, that much most folks agree on.

In Superman Returns, though, he gave the fans so many little "shout-outs," as the kids say today.

This is one of my absolute favorites. I read about it before hand, but there wasn't anything like seeing it. When this brief scene came on, I think I was the only one grinning like a Cheshire cat.

It's a direct homage to the comic that launched Superman, superheroes, and the comic book industry in a single bound: Action Comics #1.

Here's the cover to that issue:



And the shot from Superman Returns:



Mayhaps this means little to the average person, who's not a Superman and comic book fan.

But this means a great deal to those of us who are.

Meauxses

And now for our feature presentation...

So like I was saying, Superman Returns isn't perfect.

So why drop almost seven bucks on this flick?

Go see Superman’s return to the big screen if you want to see a movie that’s innocent, a movie that has spirit, and a movie that has heart. Go see it if you want to see a movie about a hero who is bigger than life while remaining human. Superman endures because he wants to help people with his abilities, when he could more easily be a god in a cape and live just for himself. One of my all-time favorite Superman moments comes from the original Superman: The Movie. Superman is slowly but surely drowning, because Lex Luthor has put some kryptonite around his neck and tossed him in a pool of water. One of Lex’s associates, Ms. Tessmacher, is watching, wondering what to do: save Superman or let him die? Superman sees her and pleads: “Please, Ms Tessmacher! Please help me save all those people!” He doesn’t say “Please, Ms. Tessmacher! Please save me!” His foremost concern is the safety of other people. That moment, played perfectly by Christopher Reeve, still gives me chills when I think about.

Superman’s the guy we wish we could be more often. Not because we could get around the five o’clock bottlenecking at Ambassador and Verot by zipping up, up, and away from our cars and the traffic. Or because we could use X-ray vision to find that ever-elusive, high-paying lotto scratch card. We wish we could be like Superman because he always does the right thing and he’s willing to lay down his life to achieve that goal. We all wish we could do that, but we don’t.

Superman works as a myth because he taps into the mythic elements of the hero that have been with us since humanity began. We want to be better than we are, whether that’s by being super physically or emotionally or super emotionally or mentally.

This is the heart of Superman Returns. It’s about a man who puts what he really wants, love and a connection to someone in life because he feels different and alone (and is, since he’s the last living member of his entire race) behind the needs of people he doesn’t always know or who perhaps don’t appreciate his efforts. Obviously, there are some striking Christian metaphors in the story of Superman. This film alludes to those, but only because it deals with the character of Superman, who has always wanted to love and be loved for something other than what makes him super.

I won’t waste time talking about the well-written story of Superman Returns. To do so might require giving away plot details that you need to see revealed during the course of the story. I will sum up the movie in this way: Superman, the same Superman from the first two Superman films with Christopher Reeve, returns from Earth after leaving for five years. When he returns, all he wants to do is find out where he belongs in a world now darker and more serious, which has also done just fine without him. He also wants to find out where he stands with the love of his life, Lois Lane. However, he has to deal with some developments in Lois’s life and the machinations of Lex Luthor.

That’s the story in a nutshell. I refuse to give anything away. I’d rather instead talk about the performances. Brandon Routh, a relative unknown, is the new Superman. I mean this in more ways than one. He personifies the three elements of the Superman character: 1-Clark Kent, who was born and raised in Smallville, Kansas, where he learned what it meant to be human, 2-Kal-El, the Last Son of Krypton, the man who has more power than anyone else on Earth but who is alone and isolated as the last survivor of a dead world, and 3-Superman, the public amalgamation of the other two characters, who fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way.

Routh not only had to contend with following in Christopher Reeve’s footsteps, but also, with playing a character with so many difference nuances in characterization. He excels at this, though his Clark doesn’t seem to get enough time to shine. Like I said, this isn’t a perfect movie. All in all, you’ll quickly accept that this guy is Superman. And while there are those movie reviewers and folks I know who have said that Routh doesn't have much to do or say, and that he doesn't act, I have to say that I think there's a misunderstanding of what this performance should have been. What Routh does in this film, to the great direction of Singer is nuance his performance. He's not giving us the Superman of Superman: The Movie, who just got to Metropolis and is loving what he does. He's not giving us the more seasoned Superman of Superman II who had to choose between being Superman and having the love he always wanted, while also facing the only other people who survived his planet's destruction (who, I might add, would rather kill Superman than tell him about the world he wishes he'd known.)

Routh is giving us a Superman whose high hopes of finding someone like him were dashed on a journey to a place that was once home, but which almost killed him. (I can't really say more without giving something away...). Routh's Superman is out of place and out of time. He's not changed in the five years since he departed, but the world he returns to has changed a great deal. It's gone on without him, in fact. So Routh's Superman is emotionally damaged from the journey the film's title tells us he's returning from. And then he finds that the world that once embraced him has moved on, especially the one person he's most concerned about: Lois. She's got a family of her own now, and Kal-El has no one. No one just like him, at least.

In my opinion, this is where Routh shines. Sure, he's not a Julliard-trained actor like Chris Reeve, but I think he does a great job showing us the tri-faceted aspect of Superman's personality. That's by no means an easy task. I also think it bears keeping in mind that this is Routh's first big film. He'd previously only done television. I think his talent is only going to grow in his next projects, and he's going to be a different Superman in the next film. The only complaint I have about Routh is that I wish he had more screen time as Clark Kent and Kal-El. This movie really focuses only on Superman. Yet the beauty of the character is that he's not just an alien raised like a human whose day job is being a superhero. Nor is he a complete alien, with no human ties, who just looks human. He's all of these things and more. That's where the depth of the character comes in. I think there needed to be more Clark and Ma Kent time, and more Clark and Lois time. But Singer had a big movie with a lot of characters and story to deal with. So my complaint is just a minor quibble.

Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Holy crap, Spacey doesn’t disappoint. If you remember, Gene Hackman hammed it up as Luthor in the original films. The problem there was, Luthor was never a campy villain. The beauty of the Luthor character is that he’s the perfect opposite number of Superman, which is why he’s become Superman’s archenemy. Where Superman is an alien being with virtually unlimited physical and mental ability, Luthor is a human being with virtually unlimited mental ability. Luthor is a super-genius, with an off-the-charts intellect and will. And while Superman uses his great abilities to serve all of mankind, Luthor uses his to serve himself. Yet we get the feeling that Luthor, like every great villain, was only a few steps away from being a hero himself. You see, a great villain is a tragic villain. He could have become a hero, but there was some force or influence that ultimately convinced him to take the wrong path. We get hints of that in the original Superman movies and in Superman Returns. There’s some dialogue that establishes that maybe, just maybe, if Luthor’s father had been a better man and a better father to his son, Lex might have become a great force for good. This mirrors Superman, who we know from the original films and the story of Superman Returns is the good man he is because his father was a good man, who made the ultimate sacrifice to save his son and who left a model of goodness to be emulated and inspired by.

Spacey makes Luthor a colorful villain, but he’s never campy. Spacey’s Luthor is the comic Luthor. He’s got a veneer of normalcy and madness, but underneath there’s a geyser of brilliance-fueled malice and evil waiting to explode. Spacey’s Luthor spent five years in prison because of Superman, and his thirst for revenge, coupled with his formidable intellect, creates a very disturbing and deadly foe for The Man of Steel. There are scenes between Luthor and Superman that will greatly disturb you. Luthor and his ex-con thugs do things to Superman that are hard to watch. Brutal, violent, cold things. And Lex’s ultimate scheme is sheer brilliance. I can’t talk about it without giving it away, but it makes perfect sense, and it’s never been done in the comics or in any other versions of the character. I’ll just say this: if you were a super-villain looking to build a hideout that would keep you safe from your superhero arch-foe, you’d do what Luthor does. Trust me.

And now, Kate Bosworth. Man, this is where I have to honestly admit I was disappointed. Bosworth is a tremendous talent. If you doubt me, rent "Beyond the Sea," in which she co-stars with Spacey. She's got great range and depth for an actress her age. But in Superman Returns, she's playing Lois Lane. Now, Lois is in her early thirties in the Reeve films and in the comics. As those of us who are thirty know, a lot of growth happens between Bosworth's age of twenty-three and Lois Lane's age of thirty something. And while women are statistically more mature than men and Bosworth is an actress, she just doesn't completely convince me that A) she's thirty-two or thirty-three and B) she's a mom. I don't buy it, and this hurts the film, as Lois's relationship with Superman is the core of the story. Bosworth does pull it off at certain times, but I guess I just wanted to see an older actress in the role. To be honest, my dream Lois would have been X-Men's Rebecca Romijn. She's thirty-four years old, she's a knockout, and she's got that fire and charisma that Lois Lane should have. Maybe Bosworth will back out of her contract for future films and Singer will give his old X-Men pal Rebecca a call? One can only hope. If you're curious how Romijn would look as a brunette, recall the scene in X-Men: The Last Stand when she reverts to human form. She's got the black hair and blue eyes. That's Lois. And in those eyes is that fire, that "I'll kick you square where it hurts" look that Lois has always had. This is why Teri Hatcher remains, in my opinion, the best Lois Lane yet. Though she sometimes made Lois a little too tough and unlikable, Hatcher tapped into the heart of the character.

Finally, I want to comment on the special effects and the music. The effects were astounding. I told you about the amazing opening credits in my last entry, so now on to everything else. Superman Returns finally gives us the Superman who can do all those things we expect Superman should be able to do. I readily admit, however, that there was a lot more that could have been done. But I wanted to cheer every time Superman was, well, super. From the moment he performs his first super-save towards the beginning of the film, I was in heaven. Routh, like Reeve before him, works with the SFX to make you believe he's really flying. Additionally, all of Superman's powers get a little bit of screen time. And then there's Superman's struggle to stop Luthor's scheme, which I mentioned earlier is brilliant. This is just amazing stuff. I won't go into any more detail. You need to see it untainted by spoilers. And be on the lookout for an "eye-catching" scene involving Superman and some bank robbers packing heavy firepower. It's one of the coolest things I've seen in any movie.

As for the score by John Ottman, well...it's beautiful. Unlike a lot of modern film scores, it never once overpowers the film. A good score is what some filmmakers and composers call "wallpaper" in a film, i.e., you're vaguely aware it's there but without it, things just wouldn't be the same. Ottman brilliantly uses my all-time favorite John Williams pieces from Superman The Movie to great effect. The Superman theme lets you know that Superman's about to come on the screen or that he's about to do perform a super-feat, and Ottman places the theme and others from Williams's original score in just the right places. When I heard the theme over the opening credits, I just wanted to cheer. The original films wouldn't have been the same without the score, and Superman Returns wouldn't be the same without Ottman's work.

Alright, that's my review. Superman Returns has great performances, a well-written and executed story, special effects that serve the story rather than replace it, and above all, heart and soul. Spirit. And a good spirit at that. This story and this movie is about a good man trying to do good despite his own wants and needs and the efforts of evil men to destroy him. It's got everything I imagine a person would want in a summer film. It's not perfect, as I said before. By no means. And there is a certain plot element that I'm still very much on the fence about. Honestly, I hate it. Right now, as of this first movie, I hate it. I just don't think it's a good idea. It's a bad idea based on another bad idea from one of the previous Superman films. As such, I think it weakens this film. I won't go further, as I'd be giving away too much. You be the judge, and then let me know what you think in the comments box. Gotta fly, Meauxses

Please turn off cell phones, be quiet, and remember to visit our concessions at any time...

Welcome to a review of Superman Returns in two-parts...

I left everyone on a bit of a cliffhanger in my last entry. I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. But if my description of the opening credit sequence piqued your interest, then I've done my job.

So let's come to brass tacks here. Is Superman Returns good? For the casual Superman or superhero fan, the action movie fan, the dedicated moviegoer, the person who barely knows anything about The Man of Steel other than his costume and that he's also Clark Kent?

Yes. Superman Returns succeeds for anyone walking into the theater. It even succeeds for the die-hard, lifelong comic readers like myself. It also succeeds for the folks like me will always have Christopher Reeve's portrayal of Superman seared in their childhood memories. Chris Reeve was our Superman, just as George Reaves was for the kids of the 50s and 60s.

I firmly believe Brandon Routh is the Superman of this generation. The kids today who see Superman Returns will fall in love with the character because of Brandon Routh's Superman. Decades from now, when another filmmaker is setting about to make a new Superman movie and is hunting for a new Superman, today's kids will be like we were: "Huh. Good luck finding anyone who like our Superman.“ But they’ll finish that statement with “Good luck replacing Brandon Routh."

My love for the character goes beyond any one portrayal in the film medium. After all, I'm used to a myriad of different artistic renderings of Superman in the comics I've read for over twenty years. So I didn't hold anything against Brandon Routh.

Brandon Routh is Clark Kent. Brandon Routh is Superman.

And folks, Superman has indeed returned.

A lot of movie reviewers today go to great lengths to entertain. I’m not sure that should be the goal of a review. The biggies (in more ways than one) like Ebert do what they can to make you know that they know more than you ever will about movies and that, as a result of this fact, you can’t help but listen to them and do what they say. Think what they say. Believe what they say. Or write, depending on the medium. All in all, they have an agenda: this is how you should feel about a movie you HAVEN’T SEEN.

And there’s the problem. You haven’t seen the movie yet. I read Ebert’s review after seeing Superman Returns. Never before did I read such a biting, bitter, abysmal, and truly pathetic vomiting of vitriol against one film. This man apparently has a vendetta against this movie. Ebert long ago lost this film fan’s respect. He proves this when at one point in his review, he lays out this gem: “It would have been fun to give Superman Returns a bright, sassy child, like one of the Spy Kids, and make him a part of the plot.” Ebert’s referring here to a child in the film whose presence is extremely important to the plot, despite a performance wisely nuanced by director Bryan Singer. Ebert just doesn’t get it. This is a guy who thinks the Garfield films and the Spy Kids live-action cartoons are high-caliber cinema. He long ago lost his voice and his heart, and should retire to the Bahamas on the loads of money we all know he’s sitting on.

One of my closest friends, Roy Petitfils, whose name you either know by now or will become familiar with in a few months based on who he is and the work he’s doing, told me with way too glibly last night over drinks that “The reviews are terrible. They don’t like this new movie.” Like Ebert, my good friend Roy sounded happy that reviewers don’t like Superman Returns. I retorted that I’d read and heard otherwise in other reviews. Roy just wouldn’t buy it. The popular movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, which collates reviews from various media into one collective popularity percentage, seems to indicate otherwise. The site uses its “Tomatometer” to give you a consensus of a lot of different reviews from newspapers, magazines, television news programs, etc. Currently, Superman Returns has a 75 % rating. That’s based on 136 “fresh” ratings (meaning good) and 46 “rotten” ratings (meaning bad). You can see all of this for yourself here.

The fine folks at Box Office Mojo tell us that Superman Return’s current domestic box office take as of yesterday is $48,823,000. It’s worldwide take is $51,042,000. This is a pretty good take after three to four days of release (I’m counting the Tuesday “geek previews.”) So these numbers indicate that this movie is being well-received by moviegoers and movie reviewers alike. You can see these numbers yourself and more here.

So here’s the deal. My review is my review. I’d be lying if I said I don’t care if you hate this movie. That’s because I love the genre and the character,and I want other people to love it too. But my review doesn’t have the same agenda as most other reviews. I’m not here to sound as self-amused as I can or show you how much I know about movies or comic books or obscure German Expressionist art. I just want to inform you by answering the question we all ask when confronted with a slew of expensive movies and dwindling cash: Is this movie worth my time and money?

Here’s the answer outright: yes. If you like action, adventure, and a well-told and quite romantic story, then yes. If you see a movie a week, a month, or a year (not that hard to imagine for those of us with full-time jobs and children), then you should see Superman Returns.

Now, this isn’t a perfect movie. It has its flaws, as any movie does. All of my favorite movies remain so because they have flaws that you can forgive because everything else works. The same goes for Superman Returns, which gets added to my list of favorite films. I liken it to a love relationship with anyone: if you’re not willing to love them in spite of their imperfections, then you’re not willing to love. Granted, liking a movie isn’t like loving a person. Those of you who know me well out there might not believe that I think that, but I do. But the point is, don’t go see this movie to see a perfect movie. ‘Cause just like that perfect love, it doesn’t exist.

On to Part Two...

Origins of A Comic Nut and Running The Geek Gauntlet

I don't know where to start.

I guess the beginning's as good a place as any. Alright. I've been a comic book fan all my life. Literally. I remember being maybe three and having a Superman and Spider-Man themed birthday party at the Abbeville McDonald's. I remember getting a twenty-inch Superman action figure for either that birthday or one during those early years. Giant figure. Cloth cape. Big ol' glow-in-dark boulder of kryptonite. Easily one of the best toys I've ever owned and one I wish I still had. My brother, who's seven years older than me, was a big comic book reader himself. He read a lot of comics, mostly Marvel and DC, and of the two, mostly DC. DC for those who've always wondered stands for "Detective Comics," one of the company's early publications that dealt with crime and detective fiction. Detective Comics became famous when it was the setting for the first appearance of the character who held court in movie theaters last summer: The Batman.

Sorry about that. But I can't help it. My brother Jarrod kept his comics in these little shelves on the headboard of his bed. The shelves had little sliding doors, and he'd carefully lock them away from his little brother, who would very likely damage them. Seeing the way my eight-month old daughter taunts and then viciously murders her mother's magazines when left on the floor, I completely understand. Of course, the thing was, locking those comics away only made them more appealing. My mom knew I wanted to read them, so when my brother was at school or away, she'd let me look at them only if I was careful with them. This is one of those wonderful things that moms do. They find a way to make everybody happy. Jarrod never knew I looked at those comics, and I was able to do so and fall deeply and madly in love with that strange, wonderful world.

My brother eventually grew out of comics. I never did. As the years progressed, comics turned me into a voracious reader. I'd read stacks of books every summer and stacks of comics. My mother's mother, who I was close to as a child, gave me an allowance, but also gave me extra money for comics. I think she realized, along with my mother, father, and uncle, that this was not a bad hobby for me to get into. It wasn't dangerous or very expensive (at the time), and it was actually making me a better reader. I also taught myself how to draw by studying those early comics, which was also a plus to my family.

By the time I was finishing middle school, I had hundreds of comics. I'm not exaggerating. Hundreds. I'd spend between twenty to forty dollars a week on comics. Back then, comics were still between seventy-five cents and a dollar. Not three bucks a pop like they are today. So do the math. By the time I graduated from high school, I had over two thousand comics and had read most of the main titles put out by "The Big Two," Marvel and DC, as well as comics like "Spawn" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," produced by other, smaller companies.

By this point, I was already deeply in love with three characters: Superman, The Batman, and Spider-Man. They are my "holy trinity" of characters to this day. Those favorites right after them are Captain America, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wolverine, Iron Man, and Thor. Honorable mention goes to Ghost Rider, The Fantastic Four, and Wolverine's pals in The X-Men. So when Tim Burton's Batman was released in 1989, I was beyond excited. I had a Batman t-shirt. I had read some movie tie-in comics. I knew more about The Batman than most eighth graders knew about sports and discovering the other sex. I waited in a line of about thirty people at the small Lafitte Cinema in Abbeville. I asked my mom to drop me off for the first feature that hot Friday afternoon. I didn't want anyone with me, because I knew I was going to be in another world. I knew I couldn't be fair to anyone who came with me, not because I wouldn't want to talk to them, but because I wasn't sure I'd be able to talk at all.

Batman was, at the time, amazing. It catapulted me into that comic buying pattern I mentioned earlier. And from then on, I went to every big comic book movie release on my own. Star Wars films also get this treatment. They're events, and the first time I see them, I like to see them alone. My wife knows this, and is thankfully more than happy to let me do my thing. And I've been doing it since 1989. This is hard to explain to folks and to their credit, hard to understand. I can only liken my fervor and passion to that of the sports fan, specifically, LSU sports fans. My best friend, John Listi, is an LSU nut. Last night, I was talking with my friends about how much of a nut I am about all of this stuff and how it's hard for people to get that. And he said, "well, it's like being an LSU fan." And I thought, "Finally, thank God, I have a way to explain this, something to compare it to." Thanks, brother!

So on to Superman Returns. I've been waiting for this one for a long time, as I mentioned in a previous entry. I purchased a ticket about a week in advance via phone. NOTE: Do not do this!!! Instead, go to the box office and buy the damn ticket yourself. I'll explain why later.

I leave home around 8:45 PM and head to The Grand. I arrive only to find that I'm not the geekiest geek in Acadiana. There's already a bloody line waiting to get into the theater! I stand in that line, dressed in navy shorts and a red button down shirt. I give my ticket to the ticket guy and he informs me, "Uh, Screen 14, that's on the other side, sir." My heart falls again. "The other side?" How can this be? This is why you don't order via phone. You can't tell ahead of time where they've put you. Auditorium 14 is no bigger than an auditorium at a small-town theater and smells bad. I sit there for a minute and then say, "No, I don't think I'm going to watch this movie in this theater.

Now, I'd already sat down and removed my red shirt, revealing my Superman Returns S-shield t-shirt. The \S/ is made with hi-density ink, so it's got a raised texture. I ordered the shirt specifically to wear to the first showing. So I walk out of the theater, red shirt hanging on my arm, looking for a manager who can fix this problem. I find one and he graciously informs me that I can switch to Screen One. Ah, Screen One. Where I saw Spider-Man 2, Batman Begins, and Episode III. A girl who works at the theater spies me and says, "Hey, that shirt could double as your cape." Slightly embarrased, I explain that I wore the extra shirt to save my seat in case I have to getup. And that's the truth. I always bring something to mark a seat with. But I did wear a red shirt so as to keep a Superman color theme going. And dammit if I wasn't found out.

As always with The Grand, it was too damned warm inside. I don't understand this and in my opinion, there's just no excuse for it. None. If somehow this gets to the folks at The Grand (who are, by the way, extremely accommodating and very nice), please listen: I understand how you make your money. I know it's not box office. I know concessions sales keep the lights on. I get it. But if you're going to ask me to support you by buying a decent sized popcorn and beverage at over eight bucks total, I think you need to provide me with an ice-cold auditorium. I could forgive this if we were talking about Colorado. But this is Lafayette. And the last five or six times I've gone to your theater, I've been uncomfortable because of heat. Everything else is great.

Alright, so I'm sitting there in that not-so-cool auditorium. I've got a Superman t-shirt on, as do at least a dozen other people. I figured that there'd be more of "my kind" at this "geek preview," but I was surprised by a lot of different types of people. Young and old couples. Teenagers. Some younger kids. And a lot of people my age, who I imagine are drawn to this movie not because of Superman, but because of Christopher Reeve as Superman. Makes sense. Anyway, I'm seated in what was not "the perfect seat," which if you're curious, is the seat on the very top row directly beneath the projection booth. This seat gets the perfect moniker because you're above anyone who might be noisy in any way, and because it affords you a view of the screen that no other seat can. Sadly, I didn't get this seat because I underestimated those nerdier than even me, and because I got a ticket to that smaller auditorium I mentioned.

Anyway, I'm seated and begin the long wait for the movie to begin. As I'm watching a highly-agitating commercial for Coke for the nineteenth time, I hear "Hey Superman!" I ignore this for a few reasons. One, for all I know, there's someone here dressed in a Superman costume. Stranger things have happened. For another, there are a bunch of folks wearing Superman t-shirts, like myself. And finally, I can't believe an adult would be so immature as to shout "Hey Superman!" to get another adult's attention. I wait a moment for the offensive person to move away or die, and then turn to look. It's a guy wearing a shirt three sizes too short, with a head too small to contain a brain of any significance.

He's looking at me, and I give him the look I gave Auditorium 14. He says, "anybody sittin' there?" in a dull sort of way. He's referring to the seats next to me. Glorious. I look at him without responding for a minute and then mumble "No." My personal Lex Luthor for the night enters the row with his girlfriend (destined to become a saint, I'm convinced) and another couple. I start controlled breathing, so as to calm down. By this point, I've lost the high ground of the perfect seat to people who I heard explaining via a way too-loud cell phone conversation that they "decided to come see the Superman movie on a whim." A whim. These people just don't get it. The theater feels like a freakin' greenhouse, and now I've got this guy and his pals sitting next to me.

A half hour later, it's time for the movie to start. Or more accurately, for the trailers to start. Members of The Grand's staff come in and ask for everyone to gesture to any open seats they have, as this showing has sold out. Sold. Out. I'm thrilled, because it means people still care about Superman. I realize then that I'm not going to let my worries about not having the perfect seat or anything else bother me. People are talking and are loud, there's shouting from one row to another, there's loud eating and cell phone beeps, bleeps, and claps.

The trailers begin. The new Spider-Man 3 teaser comes on. Everyone watches with excitement, though not in silence. I begin to worry a little: will they be like this during Superman Returns? Then the weird and not a little disturbing announcement comes up about being quiet in theater, not smoking, and begging us to buy concessions. You know the one, where you fly through a theater that's apparently in the 25th century, where zero g's are part of the concession experience, as popcorn and candy fly around you like tiny, edible satellites? That's the one.

Then the DTS logo comes up, followed by the WB's production logo and the Legendary Pictures production logo.

A brief bit of text comes up, explaining Superman's origin from the last two films and seventy-six years of continuity.

And then, folks, my God...the magic begins.

The auditorium is no longer hot. Everyone has fallen silent. It's like church. Not church when you first get there and everybody's shifting gears from what they were doing at home before getting to church, but during the homily or sermon church, when everyone's almost asleep. Except here, everyone is excited. Waiting. Anticipating.

The most exciting, most thrilling, most ingenious opening credit sequence I've ever seen bursts into life, accompanied by one of film history's most exhilirating and bold musical themes, John William's original Superman theme from the Christopher Reeve films.

And I'm no longer in that auditorium. I'm no longer in The Grand theater. I'm no longer in Lafayette, or on planet Earth.

I'm in the far reaches of space, following the path baby Kal-El's ship took from dead Krypton to living Earth.

More to come in my review...

Update on Superman Returns Review and The Daily Advertiser

I know I promised a review of Superman Returns a few days ago. As you all know, life sometimes has a way of getting in the way of, well, living. Of doing doing the things that you enjoy about living. One of those things was going see Superman Returns and sharing my thoughts about it with you. I will have a review up tomorrow no later than ten A.M.

A few days ago, I contacted a friend of mine, Trevis Badeaux, who writes for The Daily Advertiser. Trevis knew of my love of Star Wars and interviewed me when Revenge of the Sith was released. I contacted him about Superman Returns, letting him know that if he was going to be doing a story, I could offer some help.

Little did I know that I would be the story. I made the front page of yesterday's edition, though there was no picture of me because it didn't occur to me to offer to send one over. At any rate, the article is well-done and was a pleasant surprise. I really didn't think I'd warrant more than a paragraph, but the article quotes not only my comments from the interview, but also comments made in my last blog entry about Superman Returns and the original Christopher Reeve Superman films. I want to take this time to thank Alexandria Burris for making Christopher Meaux--and "Ramblings"-- news on the front page of that great metropolitan newspaper, The Daily Advertiser.

To any of you who are reading "Ramblings" for the first time as a result of that article, forgive me for not being prepared. I was caught unawares by this article, which I didn't expect would make it into the paper into the weekend. I was knee-deep in the final hours of a three-day study and work marathon for my final portfolio and exam in a class at UL when my wife and two friends let me know that I had indeed made the front page. So I didn't get a chance to post anything here about the article until now. Anyway, welcome to "Ramblings" and please keep checking back.

Tomorrow, as promised, I'll have that review. Though in true Meauxses fashion, I can't just give you the review. Part I of my piece on Superman Returns will be on the experiences leading up to, while, and watching the film. I'll also explain a movie-watching tradition I've long kept going. Part II will be my review of the film, which will involve a spoiler-free version as well as a version for those who have seen the movie and want to hear some more in-depth thoughts about some of the slightly shocking moments of Superman Returns.

Folks, I've been pumped for this film for months, and I felt a real charge when I went see it both Tuesday night and last night. In fact, I'm writing this at 12:48 A.M., having just returned from my second viewing of the movie. If you haven't seen it yet, take this nerd's word for it and go out and watch it.

Meauxses

It's been a long road, getting from there to here...

People in our generation, regardless of what they like or don't like, what they consider cool or not-so-cool, remembers the original Superman films. Most people will say they remember events that are actually from the first two Superman films, Superman The Movie and Superman II. Most of all, people remember Christopher Reeve. He was "our" Superman, and likely always will be. The first film, Superman The Movie, remains the standard by which comic book films are judged. Despite some dated elements, the movie got everything about Superman right. Director Richard Donner cared about the mythos he was "borrowing" briefly to make his adaptation. As a result, Superman The Movie and parts of Superman II, also directed by Richard Donner until the films' producers fired him for political reasons, remain legendary in the memories of fans and non-fans alike.



Here we are, over twenty years later. Nineteen years ago, the last Superman film, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, was released. As a twelve year-old, I thought that film was pretty good. Time has not been so kind, and now I see that Superman III ("the one with Richard Pryor") and Superman IV are pretty uninspired films, created only to cash in on the first real comic film blockbuster, Superman The Movie. For nineteen years, we fans of The Man of Steel have waited for a new movie. For twenty-six years, since Superman II debuted, we've waited for a Superman film to be released that would return to the glory we know the character possesses.

In the decades since those early films, Hollywood has had many false starts. I won't get into all of them. Of particular note is the film "Superman Lives," which was the brainchild of Batman director Tim Burton. His take on Superman was all set to star ever-balding Nicholas Cage as Clark Kent and Superman(!!!), and was rumored to star Jim Carrey as the super-powered villain, Brainiac. Superman was going to die in this film, only to be resurrected so as to don an all-black costume. According to reports, the studio didn't want Superman to wear his classic costume (it was seen as "too bright") and didn't want him to fly. Think about that: they didn't want Superman to fly. Superman. That's like keeping James Bond away from martinis and barely-clothed women. Or having Darth Vader wearing a sun dress and straw hat instead of his dark armor and mask.

Thankfully, that film was never produced, for various reasons. New versions of the film were considered, with "Charlie's Angels" director McG set to direct. J.J. Abrams, creator of the smash TV series "Alias" and "Lost," wrote a script in which Superman's home planet of Krypton never exploded and Lex Luthor was a Kryptonian himself. Terrible. Then finally, director Bryan Singer, responsible for the only two truly great X-Men films, decided to leave Fox and the X-Men franchise to make Superman.

And here we are. Superman Returns. A "vague" sequel to Superman and Superman II, the only two truly great Superman films. Do you see the irony? Singer leaves one superhero franchise after making two great films to help another superhero franchise that only ever had two great films. It's a beautiful thing.


As my friends and family know, I've been a comic fan all my life. I grew up with those original Superman films, starring Christopher Reeve. Our generation felt a great deal of sorrow when we saw what happened to our Superman. We just didn't think it possible. And when he died, it almost seemed Superman died with him. But as Chris Reeve said in interviews a few years before his death, he was just a temporary custodian of a contemporary myth that was bigger than him. He saw that one day, there'd be another person to wear the S and the cape. Sadly, he didn't live to see that day.

But that day has come. The modern mythology that Superman has become over the last seventy-six years has continued every month in the comics where it began, but the film saga continues.

In just a few days, I'll be seeing this movie, which I've waited for much of my life. The return of the Man of Steel, The Metropolis Marvel, The Last Son of Krypton.


Superman.

Tomorrow, I will have a spoiler-free write up of the film for those of you who might be reluctant to watch it or who want an opinion from someone who knows more about Superman and comic books than most people know about putting on their pants. I might be a little biased in my opinion, but I think the fact of my intense love of the character will enable me to be objective. You be the judge. Until tomorrow, I gotta fly. --The Meaux of Steel