I am really looking forward to the day when Hollywood stops being lazy and abandons origin stories, lol.
Lazy isn't the right term for it. The proper term is "Viewers are Morons." Origin stories are kinda enforced, as not everyone who's going to see these movies are going to pick up comic books or even bother with a Wiki search on the characters. And while there are the comic book characters that
everyone knows the origin of, like Superman, who's going to recite the Green Lantern origin word for word that doesn't read comics? And Green Lantern is the worst offender of info-dump as far as films go. It's a very convoluted story, and the film switches between all the big fat long story of what Green Lanterns are and the
other big offender of Super Hero movies... that sequence where the civilian runs (or rather flies or swings) around like an idiot discovering their powers. THAT is something that needs to be completely cut out of Super Hero films.
In both the Tim Burton and Chris Nolan first Batman movies, they were able to get the "parents getting shot" bit to a mere mention or a small reenactment. The Tim Burton film absolutely needed that sequence because they changed the origin to accommodate the film's major plot point. Other heroes aren't so lucky.
But overall, it HAS to be done. All these Super Hero movies are the beginnings of the story where we have to discover the character before they become something. I'd love to see a super hero movie start off in the middle of the action, but that's something they can only get away with in a sequel.
I have to admit to not being a fan of those whining about Superman. I enjoyed the first two Reeve pictures and I thought Superman Returns was a noble effort. It was also the last nail in the coffin of that take on Superman. It created a sense of closure for that history. Now this is a grounded, darker take. No, not because "everything has to be dark now." It's because comic book characters are supposed to reflect the times we live in. The day-glow boyscout in tights no longer speaks to this generation.
I totally agree. Not to mention the fact that other Super Heroes are more famous for being dark and tortured than Superman. There's some Flanderization down the line (again, I blame the crappy Silver Age and Super Friends for that), and all the subtlety of the character has worn off (unless you read his comics). Meanwhile, there are great stories like "For the Man who has Everything" (which he's basically asleep for, but it's rife for character development) that just aren't reaching the mainstream. Batman's an easy sell because there's nothing
but Batman projects. Now we can't even go a 2 year period in-between Batman cartoon shows. Batman, including the 60's series and cartoon, has had 9 films. Only 2 of them were terrible by general consensus (I kinda dug Forever, though). Superman has had 6 including the new one... the third film was garbage, the fourth film was a joke, people seem to really hate Returns, even though it goes out of its way to correct those last 2 films.
This film looks, if nothing else, like the potential for something good, with something even better down the line. There's a lot of establishment stuff in this film, no doubt. But if it's successful and we get Man of Steel 2, something tells me that film's going to be something even greater.
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