"Superman IV" - the Greatest Super Hero Film EVER!

I maintain that "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace", is not only the greatest of the Superman movies, and not only the greatest of all super hero films, but could possibly be considered one of the greatest films ever made.  This post was spawned from my recent viewing of the 'Avengers' film, which to me was just a big "meh" with a lot of CGI effects, but no soul (more on this in a future post).  Not like Superman IV!  Here are some thoughts as to why this film is so fantastic:

• This was Christopher Reeve's last run as the man of steel, and by the fourth film, he had the character perfected.  All of the nuance of this hero, straight from the comic book, perfectly depicted on the silver screen.  Of course, meddling with human affairs across numerous countries and taking away millions of dollars in military weaponry to destroy it in the sun, all with a universal acceptance of the UN delegates, did seem a little peculiar.  But bah, who cares about plausibility in a Superman film?
• Lex Luther returns, and he creates the Nuclear Man, the coolest of all villains, even cooler than Zod!  With all of Superman's powers plus crazy fingernails that cause nuclear poison, too!  Shame that he was so weak that when the sun was taken away he'd lose his powers, but thankfully, the moon orbits the sun, so he wasn't in the shadow of the moon for very long before regaining his powers again.
• Lois Lane is back too, looking like she's aged 20 years since the first film!  Apparently Superman's "memory eraser" kiss must have had some sort of residual aging side-effect.  But hey, all that more intriguing!

I could go on and on, but the fact remains, Superman IV is the greatest super hero film ever.  I'll have more to say about this cinematic gem in future posts.  "Now Neophytos!" you might say, "What about the OTHER Superman films?"  And to that I say, "meh."

• The first one was decent, but it did tend to drag with a little too much Marlon at the beginning.
• The second one was ok, except for all of the blatant commercialism, and the totally icky romance with Superman and Lois Lane, including the ultra-icky 'Fortress of Solitude' segments.  Yuck!
• The third one was terrible.  It was more Richard Pryor than anything else.  All I remember of that film is the opening, with Pryor standing in line in a smoky, stinky unemployment office, begging a smoke from some guy, while everyone around him smoked.  I've been unemployed, and been in unemployment offices, and they don't look anywhere near that smokey.  Oh, but Robert Vaughn was good in that... wonder if he's still alive.
• Then Superman IV blew away all of the others.  
• I refuse to accept the cannonicity of 'superman returns'.  It never happened, and if it did, I refuse to accept that Superman was a creep sneaking into windows late at night (and why didn't he just stun Luthor and his crony on the big kryptonite continent from a distance?  And how did he manage to pick up that thing, anyhow?  Ridiculous.)

I hear there's a new Superman film coming out.  Doubt it will be as good as "Superman IV".  This one was THE best of them all.  I need to go and watch it again...

George Lucas: Epic Sellout

I've been thinking about the news recently about George Lucas selling out  (figuratively and literally) the Star Wars franchise to Disney, and I frankly don't care anymore.  The Star Wars franchise is so overly-marketed and so saturated with garbage, that it's impossible to tell what fits into the actual universe and what doesn't.  I've found myself getting sick of Star Wars over the last few years, especially with the Clone Wars, which seems to just be a video game with far too much light saber and ever more panning of a otherwise boring transition time between Episode 2 and 3 (we know Anakin goes bad, and we know Palpatine is the puppet master of everything, and it's just puppet-characters all fighting one another, so what's the appeal of the show anyhow?)

But more than anything with this story of Lucas selling Disney  I think the lamest thing of all is would be that he sold the one token feature of his empire that really gave him identity.  Sure, he was known for American Graffiti  Indiana Jones (making it great initially and also ruining it years later), Willow, and that dull sci-fi film with the bald people.  Oh, and Howard the Duck. But Star Wars was THE thing he was known for, and he just off and sold the one token identification that you think of when you think of George Lucas.  I guess I just don't get it.  Maybe he's like me and he's just sick of Star Wars.  "Here, take it, pay me for it, and do what you want with it."

It has no appeal to me.  I could care less about an episode 7, and if it was made, would likely wait for it to hit NetFlix instead of wasting the money.  I think George should have just wrapped up the series and put it to rest.  Disney is just going to goof it up, or have Gore Verbinski direct it with a dull and repetitive Hans Zimmer score, and chock it full of unrealistic and non-convincing Pixar special effects.  Blah.  I don't care.

George, you should have just put the franchise to rest yourself, buddy.

Indy Jones on BluRay

Not sure what Lucas has in store for the Indiana Jones Blurays, but I'm suspecting more monkeying around with computer junk that ruins real films.

I've been thinking a lot about the types of films I grew up with, and how the computer played almost no role in the film. Back then, there seemed to be so much more focus on the quality of framing the scene, the importance of lighting and shadows, and so on. These days, it's all just a big video game on the screen. Its sickening enough to make me want to just give up on films.

Back to Indy: here's a quick recap of my thoughts on the films.

Raiders: the best of the bunch, although the melting Nazi stuff is goofy. This is one of Harrison Ford's finest films. There are far too many awesome scenes to comment on: one of my favorites (and most completely unrealistic) is when Indy jumps off the boat, swims secretly over to the Nazi sub, and climbs on board to the cheering of the ship crew members. Completely ridiculous yet awesome.

Temple: far too dark to appreciate. Drugged Indy smacks a kid. No thanks. But Temple does have some of John Williams' finest music (sans the satanic temple stuff). Temple also set the standard of how I think of my Indian co-workers: they work in volcanic lairs, feast on monkey brains, and practice voodoo and ritual sacrifice in their spare time.

Crusade: stupid Indy/Dad dialog ruined this. For instance, I don't want to hear them joking about sharing a woman. Yuck... that made me cringe. The pace also seemed a lot slower for this once. Also, the drying out Nazi was just as goofy as a melting one.

Crystal Skull: apparently the effects of the holy grail wore off? How did it keep the guardian of the grail alive for centuries, and yet Indy's Dad, and Marcus, died off, and Indy started going massively gray? Too much CGI ruined this film, the infamous 'fridge scene' was idiotic, as was the monkey sequence. This one isn't cannon for me.



And here's exactly what Lucas will probably do with the BluRays...