Superman Returns or Man of Steel?

Post Reply New Topic

Which is better? I have not seen either of them but they have Superman Returns in my local charity shop and I wondered whether to buy it or not.

I have seen the old Christopher Reeve films but not the modern ones. Are they any good?

Man of Steel hands down. It got quite a bit of mixed reception but me personally I loved it. I guess it had a few problems but I consider them nitpicks nothing else. I would say this was the best Superman movie but it's a choice between that and the original 1978 movie, a classic that movie is. I will say that Superman Returns is not that bad. It's suppose to be set 5 years after Superman II and totally ignore Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, which I consider the worst superhero movie ever made, yeah even worse than Batman & Robin. But if you're looking for a Superman movie with a lot of action and doesn't have Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane then MOS is the way to go. You may love it or hate it, but we're all entitled to our own opinion and I personally think it's one of the best superhero movies ever made.

My wife and I both agree - - Man Of Steel.
Though I personally believe Superman Returns is greatly underrated, and deserves much more credit than it gets.

Man of Steel is an awesome scifi movie that happens to have Superman in it--much better that Superman Returns in my opinion.

Man Of Steel is interesting because they're approaching Superman from a somewhat different angle. Without spoiling anything, I would say Man of Steel is really a Clark Kent movie first; by that I don't mean that they're emphasizing his civilian life, but what I mean is, even when he's suited up, he's essentially Clark.

I greatly enjoyed Superman Returns. Brandon Routh performed his role adequately, and the film in general is in step with the first 2 Superman films with Christopher Reeve. But at the same time, I understand the complaints of many fans.

I would actually recommend you go see both; both are good for an evening of sitting on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and a tall soda. Far worse superhero films than either of these two have been made.

"Man of Steel" by a longshot. "Superman Returns" was a good homage to the Reeve films, but the small amount of originality Singer attempted didn't balance with the rest of it. After 30 years, the last thing I wanted from Spacey's version of Lex was yet another land grab. The one element which i thought worked very well was James Marsden as Richard White.

Superman Returns had a strong scene with the falling plane, but I don't like the idea of Lois Lane being anti-Superman. Not to mention, Kate Bosworth couldn't hold a candle to Margot Kidder.

Man of Steel had strong action and a big fight between Superman and Zod. However, clearly a lot people got killed in that battle and Superman killing Zod? That's not like him. . . I know that he killed him in Superman II, but he simply threw a mortal Zod against an ice wall, who then fell to his death in the misty hole with the other two.

Actually I cant really tell you an 100% opinion about "Man of steel" because I only saw third of it, before I fell asleep. Lets say, it did not match with my personal interests. ^^

Man of Steel, easily. Granted I didn't hate Superman Returns but it didn't have the action element to it, which thankfully, MOS did and lots of it.

What do you mean that's not like him? Superman killed at least once in all forms of media all the time. Barring the Superman II reference, there's also Superman IV, an episode of Smallville, and many times in the comics.

It's not like him to allow so many deaths.

Considering it's a reboot and its his first time in the superhero business, it can be forgiven. Plus it's just him and the somewhat ineffective military vs. a whole squad of genocidal Kryptonians, so obviously he's gonna have a bit of trouble.

I keep hearing this from people, but they don't appear to be thinking it through. Aliens from acros the universe are destroying Metropolis with a gravity weapon, and we clearly see people fleeing in Smallville and the city, including Perry and Jenny. So, why do people assume anyone was in the buildings Superman and Zod were crashing through? Just because they don;t show every single person leaving, that doesn't mean they just sat there while two superbeings were tearing each other apart. Snyder seems to have deliberately left that part of the film ambiguous.

I never took the villains' defeat in the second film as death, because I was just a kid when I first saw them. I assumed they got knocked out by the fall, or Superman put them back in the Phantom Zone off-screen. As for the new Zod being killed, Snyder and Goyer clearly set up that element so there wasn't any other reasonable choice. The people Zod's aiming at are trapped in a corner, with his heat vision rapidly approaching, and Superman has the psycho in a double-handed headlock. If he moved, Zod would escape and kill tons of people anyway. Clark repeatedly begs Zod to stop, and only kills him after the criminal refuses outright.

Yes. and if this does not turn out to be a HUGE plot point for the rest of the series, I'll eat my comic book collection.

Man Of Steel

IMO, Man Of Steel depicted Clark Kent/Superman as more human and not as a Boy Scout as he is in the comic books. It's understandable why many fans didn't like Henry Cavill as Superman, but I thought Cavill gave a great performance as Kent/Superman. Amy Adams was perfect as Lois Lane and Michael Shannon was brilliant as General Zod.

Superman Returns
I do agree with many that Superman Returns was a good homage to the previous Superman films, but it couldn't stand entirely on its own. However, Kevin Spacey gave a great performance
as Lex Luthor.

You mean like it wouldn't for any other movie series? I think The Incredibles was the only other superhero based movie where collateral damage was seriously acknowledged.

I mean it will be the seed of conflict between Superman and Batman initially and between Superman/The Justice League and Lex Luthor/US Government long term.

I'm predicting/hoping for a Project Cadmus like plot line for the movies...

In the DCAU the Project Cadmus plot line really kicked off in the last episode of STAS when Superman led an invasion force from Apokolips that did more damage to Metropolis than the movie fight did...

It seems to me Snyder took a lot of inspiration from the DCAU. Watch the JLU episode Clash and then go back and watch the movie fight between Superman and Zod.