Superman | A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies.

Due to the hype and the comments on talk shows about the new movie “Superman”, I was surprised at just how bad this movie is. There is no evidence of a coherent sequential story anywhere in these two hours. The characters fly in and out of scenes, with no explanation as to who they are or what they are doing in this badly written screenplay. This is another screenplay that should have had about 5 more re-writes, but this takes too long, and costs the studio money.

In this story, Lois Lane is currently involved with Superman, so there is no mystery about who Clark Kent really is or the ongoing ridiculous “taking eyeglasses off and on” as a major disguise for a superhero. The Superman outfit is nothing new, with tights and red underwear, which, since the beginning of this superhero icon in 1938, one would think would have mutated into a less humiliating outfilt for the actor to wear after so many years.

For this latest Superman film, there are other superheroes, including: Green Lantern, played by Nathan Fillion, Mister Terrific, played by Edi Gathego, Metamorpho, played by Anthony Carrigan, Harkgirl, in a very small part played by Isabela Merced, and The Engineer, played by Maria Gabriela de Faria. Except Green Lantern and Mister Terrific, it is hard to understand why most of the other characters are in this movie, with parts this small.

This movie stars newcomer David Corenswet as Superman, who is well cast and believable as the new Superman and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, who is also very good in her role. Unfortunately, the love story between the two is not nearly strong enough, with one exception: an argument during an interview between the two at the beginning of this movie that I thought was well acted. Nicholas Hoult plays the evil Lex Luthor, in a role that I thought was about on a par with Gene Hackman, who played this role in the films that starred Christopher Reeve, starting in 1978.

The rest of this story is all about action scenes, fight scenes, and frequent appearances of an AI dog that jumps on people every time he appears in a scene – not funny enough to save this mostly bad movie. One unique aspect about this new Superman version is how badly and how often Superman is beaten up, which, given the many fans of this superhero and children in the audience, is yet another problem with this film.

Rotten Tomatoes has too high ratings of 82% I can only attribute to favors and payoffs, because this movie is at best 60%, only for some of the insane action scenes. I rate this new Superman movie a disappointing pass, bad enough to potentially hurt the possibility of a sequel.

The documentary “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” is a fathom event special, available in only a few theaters, and is more expensive than a typical movie release.

In the history of tragic celebrity deaths, Christopher Reeve’s tragic accident of falling off a horse on May 27, 1995, and death on October 10, 2004, is one of the worst examples. It could be argued that because Reeve suffered for so long, paralyzed from the neck down for over nine years, what he went through was worse than the deaths of Princess Diana, JFK Jr., Kobe Bryant, and other famous people who have died suddenly. Even more tragic with this story is that Christopher Reeve’s wife, Dana was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer just 10 months after Christopher died, even though she never smoked. Dana lost her battle with the disease 7 months later. Dana’s devotion to Christopher Reeve during his entire 9+ year ordeal is one of the most impressive parts of this great documentary. Reeve was not a very rich man despite his impressive acting career, and the cost of long-term care was an incredible 400K a year.

This great documentary stars Reeve’s three children, Matthew Reeve, Alexandra Reeve Givens, from his relationship with Gae Exton and Will Reeve the son Reeve had with Dana Reeve. Several celebrities make cameos throughout this film, including Glenn Close, Richard Donner, and Susan Sarandon with archive footage of Barack Obama, Johnny Carson, and Reeve’s lifelong friend, the late Robin Williams. The focus of this documentary is more on Will Reeve than the other two children, who in 2006 lost his father, grandmother, and mother in a period of eighteen months.

Many scenes show the medical nightmare that Reeve’s life was for the last 9 years of his life. Unable to move, rapidly ages the body, causing hair loss and many other medical issues, related to blood circulation. Reeve eventually died of heart failure at age 52, after slipping into a coma, and considering how severe his injury was, it is remarkable that he lived as long as he did.

Reeve’s last years were all about helping other disabled people, never about himself. His foundation now bears the name of himself and his wife and has raised many millions of dollars towards helping the cause of spinal injury. Like Olivia Newton-John with her Cancer Institute in Australia, and Michael J Fox with his Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, world famous celebrities have greatly advanced medical progress due to their fame.

Reeve directed 3 movies while quadriplegic and continued to act in movies and television shows – a remarkable achievement considering his extremely severe injury. Reeve’s acting career before his injury included four Superman movies, with the last two sequels nothing more than excuses to cash in on the franchise. As Reeve said in this documentary, each Superman sequel provided diminishing returns in quality.

All human beings have had their share of problems in life. But after seeing this outstanding documentary about Christopher Reeve, no problem could ever compare to what he went through for so long. This is the best documentary of its kind that I have ever seen and receives my highest recommendation.