Feb 21st Comic RoundUp

posted by JediSheltie @ 8:47 PM

Sorry, phoning it in this week kids. I have a little additional review coming up sometime this week. I don't want to give anything away, but I have, indeed, peeked into the very mind of William Shatner...

Superman #659

Johns is getting all the press in Action, but I have to admit, Kurt Busiek is turning in some great work on the “namesake” title. He's also got a slightly faster art team, it seems. Heh, not that this issue wasn't tardy either. I think it clocks in at a month or so late. But I'm not here to review release schedules, after all.

The story is basically a flashback to Superman's early days in Metropolis, with a small framing story that sets it in line with recent events. Though why Superman standing around talking to some people on a roof would make the evening news broadcasts is beyond me...

The central story is about a very spiritual woman who happens to be fairly bad at crossing the street, very nearly fatally so. Clark steps in and gives some guy a big claim on his auto insurance, not to mention preventing the woman's death. This event is seen very differently through the eyes of each participant. To the man who can fly, he was just helping out because he could. To the woman he saved, she'd just seen an angel.

Having encountered her once, Clark remembers her, tuning his hearing to keep the proverbial. “ear” out. He saves her on multiple occasions, each time reinforcing her belief that he is not only an angel sent from God, but one that she can call down whenever she chooses. The prophecy becomes self-fulfilling, of course. She finds trouble, and Clark simply can't “not save” her.

Until of course the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Busiek takes a hard look at how those who desperately seek validation of their faith find it, no matter what, even when that validation steps up and says plainly he isn't an “angel.” It's a well crafted story that deal intelligently with how people perceive Superman, and how, no matter how strong he is, he can't do anything about it.

Wonder Woman #4

I think I said above I wasn't here to review release schedules, but man, that's a toughie here, isn't it? I honestly can't recall how long it's been since issue 3. Granted, a story in an arc called “Who Is Wonder Woman,” occurring, as it does, months after JLA and a few other comics have answered this very question pretty clearly, doesn't leave much in the way of suspense to keep you occupied while you wait. Rest assured though, issue 4 brings us the answer.

You know, the one you knew all along.

News has arrived that the final issue of the arc has effectively been boxed until some undetermined time in the future, perhaps when Grey's Anatomy is on summer hiatus...

Ironically, I didn't find the arc, the writing, and the art all that bad. Yes, it's certainly become hard to reconcile where these events fit into the current continuity thanks to the inclusion of the JSA. I also had one of those “where's Clark” moments I get whenever really bad stuff happens in other people's comics. I have to really ease back on those, though. Granted, the answer to that question may have been somewhat obvious if it weren't for the odd inclusion of the new, post 52, JSA.

In any case, the short, short version of the plot is Circe, freshly availed of all the “Wonder Women's” powers, (Diana, Cassie, and Donna Troy) goes on a world wind tour of liberation for all oppressed women of the world. Real gyno-solidarity there. She's apparently taking notes from Frank Castle, though, which is a bit problematic in the DCU.

The trail of dead male bodies is only implied though.

Diana and Hercules team up to put an end to it. Hercules, having that nasty Y chromosome, betrays Diana and reveals he was originally in cahoots with Circe all along, but broke the deal when they had a bit of a super-tiff. Diana proves that she's a bit smarter than the seven foot slab of beefcake, gets her powers back, and everyone lives happily ever after. Until all her bad guys show up at the big ending cliff hanger.

Does she survive?

Yeah, probably...

I said I liked this a few paragraphs ago, didn't I? I guess I still do. I think this might have made a really great prestige format graphic novel. A special one-off story. Granted, not like DC knew the crapstorm they were bargaining for when this all started. Hindsight is 20/20.

Amusingly, it seems most of the next 4 or 5 issues are virtually in the can, in about the same time as it took Heinberg to deal with his word processing constipation for a single issue.

"The Paradise Syndrome" ("Star Trek: Remastered" edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 11:09 AM

Star Trek (Remastered): "The Paradise Syndrome"
Remastered Episode #22 (2/24/2007)
Original Episode #58 (10/4/1968)

The Film Frontier's celebrity guest reviewer for this week's episode of Star Trek: Remastered is . . . uh, me. Well, that's true; I'm not actually a celebrity. And now that you mention it, I'm not a guest here either. Oh well, you're stuck with me, so on with the review.

Some people turn their noses up at all third season episodes of the original Star Trek. I think that's a huge mistake. There are three awful episodes in the third season. Most of the others are quite good, and some terrific. There were some unique adventures that season, including "The Paradise Syndrome."

Star Trek fans seem to either love or hate this episode. Aside from a couple of cringe-worthy moments, this has been one of my favorites for years. I am, after all, a sucker for sad endings and this has one of the saddest.

On their way to divert an asteroid the size of Earth's moon, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to scope out a planet directly in its path. They find a large, pyramid-shaped obelisk, created with technology that may be greater than that of the Federation.

The first thing that is noticeably different about "The Paradise Syndrome" compared to many other episodes is that it's actually shot on location, rather than confined to the sound stage. Though this means that the planet looks almost exactly like Earth, at least it serves to make the adventure seem more real. And they even include some story explanation later on as to why the planet looks like Earth, since it otherwise should have appeared quite different.

The inhabitants of the planet turn out to be Native Americans of Earth descent, a mixture of Navajo, Mohican, and Delaware tribes. Since the tribe does not have advanced technology, they could not have built the obelisk and the trio avoids contacting them. Kirk goes off alone to take one more look at the structure. As he calls the ship on his communicator, a trap door opens and he falls through. Grasping a computer console within to get up, Kirk accidentally unleashes a beam that wipes out his memory.

The beam also cues up a ham acting moment by William Shatner. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Shatner's and think his Star Trek performances are sadly underrated, but this particular scene isn't one of his best.

When a search turns up nothing, the Enterprise is forced to depart without her captain in order to intercept the asteroid. Meanwhile, the beautiful Miramanee--tribal priestess--and one of her handmaidens have made their way to their temple, the obelisk.

And from out of the temple, walks Kirk. Both immediately confirm what we have all suspected for years, that Kirk is a god. The women bow down to recognize him as such, but Kirk still has no idea who he is, much less who they are.

They take him back to the tribe, where a special council is held. Salish, the Medicine Chief who is betrothed to Miramanee, doubts Kirk's godhood. The session is interrupted when a young drowning victim is brought to the Medicine Chief, who pronounces him dead. Kirk intervenes and instinctively resuscitates the lad.

"Only a god can breathe life into the dead," says the tribal elder. Salish is stripped of his Medicine Chief title, which is handed over to Kirk. With the title comes Miramanee, who also seems to have genuinely fallen in love with Kirk.

With Spock in command, the Enterprise arrives at the asteroid. The original episode also contained some of the best special effects of any season. The shot of the Enterprise shown from the aft as she moves in reverse within the path of the asteroid was beautiful. Even when I watch today, I still find it amazing given when it was accomplished. The effect was later re-used several episodes later in "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky."

Since the upgrades air out of sequence, the remastered "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" actually aired a few weeks ago. The asteroid from that episode was not re-used in the remastered version of "The Paradise Syndrome," though. One of the nice touches of the remastered episodes has indeed been the use of "unique" planets, asteroids, and guest ships each week rather than stock footage.

The shots here are nearly identical to the originals, which I think is a good call for this particular episode. It was already an incredible shot, so no need to mess around with it. One piece that is different and quite interesting is that the deflector beam is actually shown emanating from the Enterprise's navigational deflector dish. This is shown from the side and slightly behind, though, so you don't get the full effect. Still, it's a nice use of the dish.

When the deflector beam doesn't work, Spock puts all of the Enterprise's power into phaser beams in an attempt to break the asteroid apart. This serves only to drain and damage the warp drive, much to Scotty's chagrin.

The Enterprise limps back to the planet at impulse power. A trip that would have taken several hours at warp will now take 59 days. The asteroid follows about four hours behind for the entire trip. Spock spends the time studying a recording of markings on the obelisk. McCoy spends the time alternatively pestering Spock or worrying about Spock.

Back on the planet, the tribal elder asks Kirk what he would like to be called. Trying to remember his own name, he manages "Kirr..uh..k" which the elder interprets as "Kirok." Yes, this is the episode that spawned the "I am Kirok!" riff used so often on Mystery Science Theater 3000. That's two key MST3k-referenced episodes in a row.

Full of rage at losing both his title and Miramanee, Salish attacks Kirok with a knife and cuts his hand. "Behold a god who bleeds!" mocks Salish. Kirok soon gets the upper hand but refuses to kill his attacker. That's right, Kirk always attempts to avoid killing. That instinctive part of his nature is still there, too, despite the memory loss.

Kirok and Miramanee marry, while Salish gives Kirok a temporary pass on telling the others about the whole god who bleeds incident. Perhaps he didn't want to admit to being beaten by Kirok, god or otherwise.

Kirok and Miramanee are deeply in love, and Kirok is more happy than he's ever been in his life. He does, however, have haunting dreams of what Miramanee calls a "strange lodge which moves through the sky." Kirok's other instincts also prove to be intact and Miramanee is soon expecting their child.

Part of Kirok's responsibility as god and Medicine Chief, though, is to protect the planet from an approaching storm (the asteroid) by use of the temple. Salish's father died before teaching him the secrets of the temple but as a god, Kirok is expected to have this knowledge in order to save the tribe.

Watching third season episodes like "The Paradise Syndrome" often makes me wish that NBC had stuck with the series for at least another year or two. In some ways, the show was really starting to grow up when the plug was pulled.

Despite its flaws, this remains one of my favorite episodes. Do the effects upgrades improve it? Not really, but that's no fault of the fine work presented here. It's simply an emotion-driven episode, rather than an effects-driven one. And the emotions of "The Paradise Syndrome" need no upgrade.

Dramatic Content: 9 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 7
Overall Experience: 9
Recommended: Yes

Related Film Frontier Articles

"Bryan Singer's Video Journals" DVD

posted by Tygrrius @ 11:09 PM

Superman: The Ultimate Collector's Edition
Disc 14: Bryan Singer's Video Journals

Until the release of Superman Returns, I actually managed to stay fairly uninformed about the movie. For one thing, The Film Frontier was in the midst of a hiatus so I wasn't following related news stories as closely as I do today. The other factor was that I had a dialup Internet connection.

This effectively locked me out of viewing the preview trailers online, only one of which I managed to even see in a theater. It also prevented me from watching director Bryan Singer's video blogs detailing the making of the movie, hosted over at BlueTights Network. That's not to say it would've been impossible, but trust me with dialup there would've been very little real point.

By the time I upgraded my connection, I had already seen Superman Returns and knew these journals were coming on The Ultimate Collector's Edition set. I patiently waited until now to watch them.

I must say, I envy those who watched the 27 entries available online before the movie. It was definitely a great strategy by Singer, a kind of grassroots effort to get Superman fans hyped up. As I saw certain tidbits of the film revealed, I imagined the fan reaction.

Of course, there's also something to be said for going into a huge movie like this with very little knowledge. That's harder and harder to do these days, and Superman Returns may have been the closest I've come in a long time to going in almost completely cold. And wow, what a payoff.

All that being said, the video journals actually started out rather slowly to me. I find this excusable, since obviously the early entries in particular could only reveal but so much. The other aspect working against them is that I had already watched the incredible Requiem for Krypton: Making Superman Returns on Disc 2 of Superman Returns: Special Edition. The three-hour documentary was longer than the movie, but quite entertaining.

In the first nine journal entries, the only one that really stood out was #7, "The Call." While in Australia, Singer gets a call from Peter Jackson. Jackson is busy filming King Kong in New Zealand and asks Singer to drop by to help him a bit. Jackson appears completely exhausted and Singer fills in as director for a day.

Things finally get rolling on the Superman front with #10, "To Fly," which takes a look at a flying rig used in the film. I believe there's a common misconception out there that all of the flying sequences in Superman Returns were achieved solely with computer animation.

In fact, I recall reading one review of Superman: The Theatrical Serials Collection that mentioned Kirk Alyn switching into a cartoon in order to fly in the 1948 and 1950 movie serials was not unlike how Brandon Routh flew throughout Superman Returns, except that Routh's Superman had a bigger budget and more advanced technology.

This is only true to an extent, though, as Requiem for Krypton and "To Fly" both prove that Routh spent plenty of time in various flying harnesses for this film. Routh performed the flying sequences with real grace, reminiscent of Christopher Reeve.

The remaining online entries, #11 through #27, kept the pace up and saved what I initially thought was going to be a disappointing disc. #20, "Love Previs," features some of the pre-visualization animatics. I found it interesting to see a very DC-Comics-looking Lois Lane in those CGI sequences, rather than Kate Bosworth.

A couple of entries later, Bryan Singer is shown in a Q&A session at the annual Comic-Con. Unfortunately, the entry is very choppy and suffers from an editing technique that intercuts Singer preparing for/traveling to the convention with scenes of him at the convention. I see what they were trying to do, but it quickly becomes annoying.

However, it was great to see Singer address the number one fanboy question of all time about Superman Returns: "I was wondering, why did you change the Superman costume?"

"Change it from what?" asks Singer.

"Well, the colors are darker and the S is different," notes the audience member.

Undoubtedly knowing the answer but wanting to make a point, Singer asks again, "Different from what?"

"The regular Superman comic books."

Singer replies in his normal, passionate style:

Well, now, in the regular Superman comic book the S has been all kinds of colors and all kinds of sizes. That's what people forget. Since the original Action Comics and the Superman comic itself, it was a tiny S, a yellow S. . . .

You don't want to be playing with these colors too much. You don't want to be playing with these patterns too much. . . . In terms of raising the S, I felt that the silkscreen felt a bit dated when filmed now. And it was also the suit that fit the man.

When I went back and looked at the other suits, the S is too large or it's silkscreen. I must tell you that it would look kind of, at this point, like a billboard or something. It had to be just the right proportions. You really have to go back and look, and see the evolution of the comic. It's transformed immeasurably in ways that would surprise you.

I can understand some of the reservations about the suit prior to the release of the film. The publicity photos just didn't capture it or Brandon Routh very well. Though I still think they went a bit overboard with the S's all over the boot soles and patterned on the main S, I'm definitely very happy overall with the way the suit looked in the actual movie.

Most of my nitpicks about it aren't even visible onscreen, anyway. I think the muted colors worked extremely well and that the three-dimensional S was a nice upgrade. As for Routh, I've noted a number of times here before that once I saw the film he convinced me he was Superman.

Bryan Singer's Video Journals was a disc that I had high hopes for, because my favorite bonus features on all three of the Star Wars prequel DVDs were the collections of web logs featuring the making of the movies.

While Bryan Singer's Video Journals doesn't quite match up to the web logs presented on the Star Wars prequel trilogy discs, they are still worthwhile viewing experiences. Incidentally, despite being their namesake, Singer doesn't actually appear in all of the video journals.

Requiem for Krypton is definitely better overall, and obviously much more structured. Superman Returns: Special Edition doesn't really lose anything by leaving the journals out, though they do make a nice addition to the collector's set.

BlueTights Network has a great discussion thread detailing the recommended viewing order of chapters of Requiem for Krypton and installments of the video journal.

There are also two "bonus" journals that were not made available online. #28, "Outré," begins with an interesting tidbit as to why it was not previously released:

Originally slated as Blog #12, "Outre" began as a sequel to the wildly popular "The Call."

Soon after, Bryan realized more than a few people actually believed he stepped in and directed part of KING KONG.

Bryan felt this blog, depicting another director taking over the reins of SUPERMAN RETURNS after he'd been unknowingly fired by the studio, might not be such a good idea...

Who would actually fall for that whole Bryan Singer directing King Kong for a day thing? Being the seasoned reviewer that I am here on The Film Frontier, I was with it all the time. You can't put one like that past me. Really.

"Outré" isn't actually all that funny, though, and the "replacement" director isn't even named Richard Lester or some variation thereof. Kate Bosworth does seem genuinely surprised when given the news that Singer had been replaced, but she is an actress after all so it's hard to tell if she was in on the gag or not.

The other exclusive entry, "KR83.80" is another poor attempt at humor, a look at the element Krypton featuring Kal Penn. No big loss that it didn't make it online.

There are some video problems, most notably parts of the on-screen text (and, presumably, the picture) being cropped off at times despite being presented in a letterboxed format. This is likely due to the Web origins of the blogs, though I don't recall running into this problem with the Star Wars discs.

Overall, this is a nice disc and a good companion piece to Superman Returns: Special Edition. It's not one I'll play often, but I may have to try it in sequence with Requiem some day when I have five hours to kill.

Features: 8 (out of 10)
Video Quality: 7
Audio Quality: 8
Bonus Features: N/A (the entire disc was a bonus feature)
Overall Experience: 8

Feb 14th Comic RoundUp

posted by JediSheltie @ 11:11 PM

Superman & Batman vs. Aliens & Predator #2

Great Rao!

This stunk.

Yeah, the lackluster start proved that one can have nowhere to do but down. It's sad. Annoying, really, as I had high hopes for this. Again, the problem was primarily the scripting. Ariel Olivetti's excellent painted artwork was wasted on a story and characterization that were just lacking all around.

This story was Kal-El as Superman. This is a characterization, that, though I suppose is valid, is one I never cared for. He shouts "Great Rao!" a lot and acts like a pretentious ass. He's the Superman most people hate. My personal preference for the character (while I'm on the subject) is Clark Kent as Superman. You may have noticed I refer to him as "Clark" a lot. He is Clark Kent, a kid raised in the mid-West on a farm by his adoptive parents. He seems to get along fine without listening to giant floating holographic heads.

Batman generally comes off as more personable here, which is an accomplishment. In any case, the World's Finest are in a rush to get the two rather disingenuous species off the planet before the TDI nukes the area. Superman again seems to suffer some weird power-issues when he just goes underground. Again, of all the excuses one could find to bring Kal-El in line with the foes of the piece, this one was completely ridiculous.

While Brainiac had rewired Metropolis during this time, so too had the Fortress of Solitude undergone some changes. Instead of a remote Arctic retreat (with or without large keys or crystal formations), the Fortress was a large metal ball that, if I recall correctly, was stored in Emil Hamilton's or John Henry Iron's basement. It was basically a round, futuristic looking TARDIS. I know a lot of you are going, "Oh yeah, got it." The rest of you can just click the Wikipedia link.

So, the surviving Predators are loaded on board the Fortress, where they proceed to wreak havoc while Batman and Lois alternately run and fight them. Kal-El goes about picking up some Alien eggs to bring to the party and then the little claw/blaster/batarang martini is shaken, not stirred. There's a brief dust up with a Queen before Superman flies the Fortress out of harms way, just as the nukes blow up the volcano. Sorry, guess that was a spoiler.

Yeah, happy ending, with the Predators and Aliens hustled on on board the Predator's repaired vessel and sent on its way home by Batman.

Sad the story didn't live up to the promise, or the art. Not really worth even picking up the trade, in my humble opinion.

Batman #663

Man, did I get gypped...

DC didn't ask me to illustrate Batman #663.

So, here we are, the triumphant return of Grant Morrison to Batman. After the rather pointless, pulpy detour through Grostek, we come back to... a novel. Funny, I thought I bought a comic book. I've read novels. I read them a lot. I buy comics to avoid having to do a lot of additional visualization. Grant saw fit to stuff 22 pages with pure prose and, amusing to myself, especially, Poser art.

I grant, I have no proof Poser was the tool of choice for the illustrations. If it was it certainly wasn't the only one. Photoshop enhancement is usually a must, trust me, I know. But my money is firmly on John Van Fleet being a registered member of DAZ3D.

Arkham Asylum, anyone?

Yeah, I know my Poser. Not that I can blame him, Stonemason's stuff is great.

Ahem, I digress. The story itself was decent. The Joker returns after his "minor" head wound in Morrison's debut episode, aiming to reinvent himself once by knocking off all his previous henchmen. That turns out to include his "main squeeze" Harley Quinn. Harley is little surprised at this fact, believing his ultimate target to be, naturally, Batman.

The art is... Well, for me the art was mostly interesting because it's done in a program I play around a little with myself. For the rest of you, it will depend on your taste. This is pretty good 3D stuff, nice attention to texture and a lot of good post work. I can appreciate the technical achievements more than most, which means most people won't give a crap. You'll probably either think it's really cool or really annoying.

I have to say I'll enjoy it when we get back to comic... comics. I really had to work to get through this, which I feel a little bad about. It's not that it was 'bad', per se, it just really wasn't what I signed up for. There's a few DC novelizations floating around, I haven't picked up those either. Maybe Morrison will get to write a full novel one day, more power to him. Just try to keep it out of the funny pages...

Memo to NBC:

I don't give a crap about The Black Donnelys. Stop plastering Heroes with annoying, interminable commercials about this steaming pile of dog dookey about people without super-powers.

If I want to watch drama about people without super-powers, I'll watch Battlestar Galactica. Why don't you advertise that during Heroes?

"Amok Time" ("Star Trek: Remastered" edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 8:34 AM

Star Trek (Remastered): "Amok Time"
Remastered Episode #21 (2/17/2007)
Original Episode #34 (9/15/1967 [2nd season premiere])

An old Vulcan axiom goes, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." The all-too-human James T. Kirk was fond of turning that one around whenever "the needs of the one outweighed the needs of the many." And one of the best examples of this is "Amok Time."

Under the effects of Pon farr, Spock must return to Vulcan to consummate his marriage with T'Pring, a wife linked to him in childhood. "The birds and the bees are not Vulcans, Captain," Spock tells Kirk when explaining that if he doesn't return to his home planet for the mating ritual, he will die.

Starfleet denies Kirk's request to divert the Enterprise away from its original mission to Altair. Knowing what his captain might do, McCoy warns Kirk that disobeying orders will result in him losing command.

Kirk will have none of it. "I can't let Spock die, can I Bones? And he will, if we go to Altair. I owe him my life a dozen times over. Isn't that worth a career? He's my friend." And with that, his mind is made up. William Shatner does a terrific job here, and throughout this episode. One of my favorite Kirk moments, showing that not even direct Starfleet orders can shake his intense loyalty.

"Amok Time," of course, is also a standout for Leonard Nimoy as Spock. We feel Spock's struggle as he attempts to hide the eruption of emotions from Pon farr. While talking to Kirk in one scene, he grips a stylus tightly behind his back, trying to maintain control.

"Amok Time" is not an effects-driven episode, but this Star Trek: Remastered does offer some nice shots of the Enterprise. Her starboard side is shown in extreme close-up at one point, giving an appropriate sense of grandeur to the vessel.

Seen for the first time in this episode (and not again until the animated series), Vulcan has also been spruced up by CBS Digital. The mostly desert planet now sports a massive ice cap, visible as the Enterprise enters orbit.

Spock invites Kirk and McCoy to accompany him to the ceremony, as his friends. McCoy seems momentarily taken aback but responds with, "I shall be honored, sir." One of those great DeForest Kelley moments.

The trio beam down to Vulcan and we are treated to new matte paintings of a sky bridge leading to the arena and an overhead view of the arena itself (see this article for pictures).

Suddenly, Vulcan is no longer a sound stage. Vulcan is real. I can't say enough about how beautiful these new images are. Though they only appear on screen for a few seconds, I can only imagine the amount of work that must have went into them.

The time spent was well worth it. The attention to detail here is amazing. The shots fit perfectly with Vulcan as later seen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. As someone who loves the classic Star Trek films above all else in the Trek continuity, I can really appreciate what they have done here.

After the tiny, computer-generated Kirk, Spock, and McCoy make their way across the bridge, we are back to the familiar arena. The new establishing shots were risky, but make me believe that the soundstage-grounded arena is actually perched high in the air.

The introduction of the new shots marks the first time that Star Trek: Remastered has replaced live-action shots of actors with new imagery. There are a few, corresponding seconds of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy making their way to the arena that are now missing from this episode.

One of the fantastic things about Star Trek: Remastered is the way it can open up the original episodes and make them feel even more real. They made the right creative choice here. I hope they will, with appropriate caution, allow themselves similar freedom in the future. Do we need every single "Sulu reacts to the main viewer" shot, for instance?

Once the ceremony begins, it turns out that T'Pring (Arlene Martel) has other plans for Spock. She invokes her right to name a champion to battle Spock for her. In a moment of pure logic that even impresses Spock, she chooses Kirk.

It's not that T'Pring wants Kirk, but she wants Stonn (Lawrence Montaigne). In her logical Vulcan way, she knows that no matter who wins the battle between Kirk and Spock, she will still have Stonn.

Thinking that he'll be able to throw the fight to help his friend, Kirk agrees. Once locked into the combat, he finds out that the fight is to the death.

There is a famous mistake in this episode. While supposedly deep in Plak-tow, Spock can be seen in the background leaning against a wall and looking about quite nonchalantly. Apparently, Nimoy was either unaware that he was visible in the shot or that cameras were rolling. I was glad to see that this little gem remains in the episode for the remastered version.

Star Trek was not perfect, and that was part of its charm. Updating effects and giving the sets more depth are great enhancements, but there is a danger in over-polishing all of the imperfections. This was not meant to be a high-gloss show. The original Star Trek's perfection is to be imperfect.

CBS Digital made the right choice by leaving in the moment, just as they did with leaving in the "James R. Kirk" headstone in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." In both cases, time undoubtedly played a factor as well. Sometimes a tight schedule is a good thing.

The Kirk versus Spock battle is one of the better fight scenes staged on the original series. Michael Okuda notes in text commentary to the original episode on DVD that Shatner and Nimoy did a lot of their own stunts for this sequence. When stunt doubles are used, they are not as painfully obvious as many other episodes.

I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the debut of the famous Star Trek "fight music" here, which would be reused on several other episodes. And for fellow MSTies out there, it was also a recurring riff on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Gerald Fried's best musical composition for "Amok Time," though, is the haunting, string theme for Spock--which may have even inspired James Horner's theme for the character in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

The Star Trek: Remastered team's decision to follow up last week's explosive "Doomsday Machine" with the character-driven "Amok Time" turns out to be a wise one. Another winner proves they are doing a great job minding the store.

Dramatic Content: 10 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 8
Overall Experience: 10
Recommended: Yes

Related Film Frontier Articles

Feb 7th Comic RoundUp

posted by JediSheltie @ 2:25 PM

Woo hoo! Johns and Donner wrote something!

Action Comics Annual #10

For a comic that started in 1938, the fact that this is only the 10^th annual is actually pretty impressive. The cover and episodic nature of the stories hearkens back to the Silver Age, though these stories are penned by Johns and Donner and very much within the post-IC continuity, well, perhaps with one rather brief 2 page exception.

Though the writing is consistent, the art is all over the board. The first story probably held the best of the bunch, in my highly subjective opinion. Also my favorite overall, featuring Lex Luthor pontificating on the myriad ways Superman can be killed. Perhaps a bit of a “love letter” to all the “haters” out there who complain that Superman isn't a compelling character because he's never in any real danger.

This argument always annoys me, but it's beyond the scope of this review to deal with why people who think that are delusional. Perhaps I'll save that up for an editorial some day.

We move on to the reintroduction of “Mon-El” to the post IC continuity. Never cared for the character, never read any of the stories he was in, and adding another “Superman power level” character back into the DCU is something I could do without. Since rumblings are afoot of the reemergence of a multiverse of some sort, perhaps they'll go back to where they came from and leave Clark alone as king of the hill.

I'm looking at you, Billy Batson.

There's a short 2 page interlude drawn by Joe Kubert, revealing the existence of a square Bizarro world under a blue sun. This is the one story that kind of smacked of an Elseworlds, but was not labeled as such. I'm kind of hoping this is unlabeled Elseworlds. Not absolutely everything about the Silver Age should be an "enduring classic."

Then we move to “The Criminals of Krypton”, the primary reason this Annual exists, also to kind of distract you from the fact that the comic for which this is an Annual hasn't actually hit the shelves in 3 months. It's the story of, well, you know already right? Yep, Zod, Ursa, and Non. I won't give away the details, but they have done something interesting with Non. I bet in judging from just the film, you wouldn't think, of the three, that Non would have the most complex back story. You'd be wrong.

Finally we tease the reintroduction of another Silver Age convention, that of a few additional shades of Kryptonite. Doesn't appear the complete stable has been returned, but old favorites such as red, blue, and gold are back, with all their former effects in place. I suppose black is also around, but Luthor wasn't adding that one to Metallo. Granted, I think gold is a bit “overpowered,” but I'll reserve judgment until I see how it's handled.

Other smaller features include a double page spread of the Fortress of Solitude, a mix of a few classic Silver and Modern Age elements with the film layout. Of interest is the key to the “old” fortress, as it is described, meaning the classic Silver Age, giant key/door fortress existed at one time in this continuity.

Finally, a “most wanted” section of Superman villains. There's been some controversy over the fact that Zod, Ursa, and Non take up individual spots, instead of being combined into one, and I'm in agreement there. There are some other classic villains that could have taken up the extra 2 spots, like Darkseid and Doomsday. Granted, both are kind of MIA at the moment, so, since it's a “most wanted” list, the argument can be made their inclusion wouldn't be accurate.

Supergirl #14

To quote the shadowy figure behind Supergirl's death warrant, “Didn't see that coming.”

I'll be polite, and keep the spoilers out, but it was an interesting twist, I'll admit. Like any good twist, it brings up a lot of additional questions. I had been wondering why upcoming solicitations were talking about “the truth about the girl from Krypton”. I mean, personally, I thought the story was actually pretty clear.

Zor-El, cousin to Jor-El, and rival, found out about the whole Krypton exploding thing, and the fact that Jor-El was sending his kid away before the big boom. Not wanting Jor-El's kid to be the last surviving Kryptonian, he sends his teenage daughter after him, to kill him on Earth, and become the real last daughter of Krypton. Problem solved, right? We've been all over this.

Well, there's apparently more truth, and perhaps (just a theory) a bit of nod, artistically, to Peter David's Supergirl.

Supergirl heads to the Batcave to find Cassandra Cain, nee Batgirl, because she's figured out it's Cain trying to kill her. Robin finds out that attempting to intimidate teenage Kryptonians with the “gravely voice” doesn't work so well, but warns Kara that Cain isn't someone to be toyed with, and she should figure out who's ordered the hit. Her plan, of course, is to shake that information out of Cassandra, up close and personal.

Kelly's writing in the Robin / Supergirl encounter is some of the best in the series. Robin's initial attempts to intimidate Kara, and her rather intimately cutting response flow nicely. It ends revealing the Internet mapping site of choice in the DCU. Well, kinda, it was a good line in any case.

Cain and Kara are shortly engaged in their life and death struggle, one in which Kara's in mortal danger due mostly to her inexperience. I could have seen Clark turning the tables in a similar situation easily, but have no trouble believing Kara's proximity to mortality since she hasn't been in quite so many legitimate fights in her short time on earth.

Bonus nerd kudos for red-sunlight katana lightsabers.

Kara discovers that Cain kidnapped her would-be boyfriend, Boomer, who's kind of shocked to find her arrival was a mere coincidence, and she was not his knight in shining miniskirt. About to be finely diced by Cain, that thing that kind of took me, and a lot of people, by surprise happened. Suffice to say, since the book isn't canceled, she's lived to fight another day, and it looks like that fight is to be with Power Boy.

Can't say I'm all that disappointed about that.

"The Doomsday Machine" ("Star Trek: Remastered" edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 9:58 AM

Star Trek (Remastered): "The Doomsday Machine"
Remastered Episode #20 (2/10/2007)

From the day CBS announced Star Trek: Remastered, pretty much everyone knew that the real test for this concept would come with "The Doomsday Machine." The Remastered team wisely decided against kicking off the series with this episode, though I'm sure they were tempted.

"The Doomsday Machine" is, after all, not only the most effects-heavy episode of the original Star Trek series, but also one of the most highly regarded. For Star Trek: The Next Generation, the episode "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1" could have been expanded into a great movie. For the original series, "The Doomsday Machine" was one that could have made a breathtaking film.

Attempting "The Doomsday Machine" too early in Remastered's run would have been a huge mistake, though. The computer-generated updates to Star Trek's effects had a rather shaky start, after all. The first several episodes featured a cartoony Enterprise that often looked less real than the original model.

Despite a tight timeline, the production team acknowledged the issues with the starship and introduced a new CGI model in "The Trouble With Tribbles," the ninth episode of Star Trek: Remastered. The new model also freed up more time to work on other aspects of each episode, and the quality has, for the most part, been steadily improving since then.

The other aspect that held back the team on earlier episodes was a well-intentioned but unnecessary goal of essentially duplicating the original shots each time. The results were CGI vessels that were still inexplicably constrained by 1960's television production technology.

The reaction from most fans, including this one, was that if you're going to go forward with a concept like Star Trek: Remastered, then you have to take that concept to its fullest extent. Show off some of that CGI technology, show us what could never have been done in 1967. Otherwise, why bother to upgrade them at all? We can just as easily enjoy the originals. Trust me, classic Trek fans don't get hung up on the effects, anyway. There's a lot more to the show than that.

While "The Doomsday Machine" is full of effects, it's ultimately the top-notch writing and acting that has made the episode so memorable over the years. "You mean you're the lunatic who's responsible for almost destroying my ship?" demands Kirk of Commodore Matt Decker at one point.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. After the standard beauty shots of the Enterprise, the first real test for the Remastered version of "The Doomsday Machine" is the battle-damaged USS Constellation, Decker's ship. The work from CBS Digital here is nothing short of incredible. The warp engine's nacelle caps are dead. Entire sections of the outer hull of the ship have been ripped away.

Apparently, her shields are now holding pretty well, though, as Spock soon tells us that, other than the bridge, the rest of the Constellation is still inhabitable. This is consistent with the shield technology later seen for the Enterprise-B in Star Trek Generations, so I'm not going to harp on the Remastered team for taking the battle damage to such a new level compared to the original episode.

Decker is the Constellation's lone survivor, having beamed his crew down to the solar system's third planet after a devastating attack from a robotic war machine. Though he was trying to save his crew, he actually signed their death sentence for the weapon then blasted the planet and consumed its remains to generate energy.

Nearing a nervous breakdown over the loss, Decker is beamed back to the Enterprise while Kirk, Scotty, and a couple of technicians ready the Constellation for towing. The planet killer returns, knocking out communications between the two ships.

I always loved the simplicity of the planet killer in the original episode, and I was glad to see that the Remastered version doesn't stray too far from the original design. It gives the same feeling, though certainly with more detail. The best part has to be looking down its "throat" to view the enormous, sun-like power within. Beautiful and effective.

When Spock refuses to battle the planet killer, Decker assumes command of the Enterprise and the real effects highlights of the episode begin. The CGI effects add a whole new dimension to the E's attack. The result is one of the most exciting Star Trek moments I've seen in a long time.

Seeing that the Enterprise is about to be destroyed, Kirk uses the Constellation to divert the attention of the planet killer. Once communications are restored, he demands that Spock take command away from Decker.

Decker steals a shuttlecraft and flies it down the planet killer's maw, sacrificing himself. The CGI shuttlecraft looks absolutely real, another stunning piece of work by the Remastered team.

Contemplating the death of his friend, Kirk says, "He gave his life in an attempt to save others. Not the worst way to go." Appropriate from the man who would later give his own life to save millions in Star Trek Generations.

Though Decker's attack fails, it does expose a weakness in the planet killer. It soon becomes obvious that Kirk has a plan.

Despite their brilliant work in this episode, the Remastered team is still uncredited within the episodes themselves. While I can understand their desire not to disturb the original credits of the show, I think a new title card after the closing credits proper would be more than appropriate.

With "The Doomsday Machine," they've just earned their pay for the week. And they've earned their credit, too.

Dramatic Content: 10 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 9
Overall Experience: 10
Recommended: Yes

Related Film Frontier Articles

"StarTrek VI RiffTrax"

posted by Tygrrius @ 12:04 AM

I must admit I had two slight reservations about the rifftrax for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

I wasn't worried about Mike Nelson & company making fun of one of my favorite movies. Though I love (most of) them, even I must admit that all of the movies we cover here on The Film Frontier are ripe for riffing. Maybe that's part of their appeal.

The great thing about rifftrax on a movie you love is that you can enjoy the movie even when the zingers occasionally aren't top-notch.

My first reservation, though, was Bill Corbett, who joins Kevin Murphy and Mike on this rifftrax. Bill took over for Trace Beaulieu as Crow when MST3k moved to the Sci Fi Channel way back when.

There's only one Crow. For me, the show was just never the same after that.

Though similar in some ways, RiffTrax is also quite different from MST3k. Mike and Kevin are funny here, but I already expected that from listening to them on the Star Wars: Episode I rifftrax.

I'm pleased to say that Bill was funny, too. Why the difference? Because he's Bill here, not Crow. Having three on the commentary seems to work better, too. Joel Hodgson was on to something, all those years ago. From the trio, the jokes just keep rolling.

Not long ago, I mentioned how Things We Thought We'd Never See tend to come about eventually. Another item that should've been on that list was MST3k-style riffs of Star Trek. Thanks to RiffTrax, we finally have that one, too.

Star Trek VI is actually the second Trek film to get the rifftrax treatment. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was one of the first rifftrax released, back in August. At the time, I was still on dialup so my Internet connection was so slow that had I started downloading it back then it wouldn't have been finished until, well, right about now.

One of the best riffs comes early on in the movie. Sulu mentions that the Excelsior has been cataloging gaseous anomalies in the Beta quadrant.

"Turns out all the gaseous anomalies came from Scotty."

As I'd always suspected.

Not much time to laugh, though, because it's soon followed up with another soon-to-be classic, "Starfleet instantly regrets their whole 'Let's make Sulu a captain' idea."

My other reservation was that I was half-expecting a couple hours of non-stop Shatner bashing. Let's face it, he's an easy target. I was glad to find out that there are plenty of jokes to go around for the whole cast, though. These guys are the riffing pros, after all.

As far as I'm concerned, Paramount should make these commentaries available on the actual Star Trek movie DVDs. And why not? They're fun and add a new layer to the film. Won't happen, but at least we have the RiffTrax option.

Incidentally, this rifftrax is for the two-disc "Special Collector's Edition" of Star Trek VI, which is a slightly different edit than the one-disc version (which, itself, was a different edit than the theatrical version . . . gotta love Paramount).

I have finally downloaded that Star Trek V rifftrax, and I'm actually looking forward to that one even more than this one. If ever a movie begged for the rifftrax treatment, it's Star Trek V.

As for Star Trek VI, this rifftrax is definitely worth checking out, too. If you frequent this site, the odds are you already own this movie. So download the rifftrax and enjoy it like never before.

(Overall Experience: 8 out of 10)

View The Film Frontier's Star Trek VI section.

Link: Mike Nelson's RiffTrax

Related Film Frontier Articles

"Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel" book

posted by Tygrrius @ 4:55 AM

Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel book (Dorling Kindersley Ltd., 2006 Updated Edition)
Author: Scott Beatty
Illustrations: Roger Stewart (and archival material by original artists)

This one comes to me courtesy of JS. It's always a little risky to review an item received as a gift. Well, actually, it's only risky if you don't love the item, and the person who gave it to you happens to read the site regularly. That narrows it down to two people. So, JS, if you're out there, uh, don't read this review.

The "coffee-table-sized" Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel looks like a wonderful book. In fact, I'd been eyeing this reference to the modern Superman comics for some time before it magically appeared on my doorstep at Christmas. Boasting an incredible cover and mostly fantastic illustrations throughout, The Ultimate Guide was a lot of fun to flip through.

So happy I was initially with this book that I even picked up a copy of the updated DC Comics Encyclopedia, also from DK, based solely on The Ultimate Guide's visual merits.

Then, with much anticipation, I read The Ultimate Guide. The love-affair with this book pretty much fell apart from there.

It starts out promisingly enough, with a section called "Birth of a Superman," which goes into details about Krypton, Smallville, the Kents, Superman's powers, weaknesses, and even his "super style" - a phrase I thought I coined but apparently not.

The other modern sections of the rest of the book cover Metropolis (and its associated characters), "Secrets of the Man of Steel" (including the Fortress, Godfall, and the Eradicator), and supervillains (Luthor, Metallo, Brainiac, etc.).

The text in these sections is dry and jumpy. The worst part is that it is often painfully obvious where the 2006 updates are (the original edition was 2002), as they are tacked on at the end of most entries while the opening text of the entries are not correspondingly updated.

So you read all of this dry material about a character's role in the comics and then get to the end where a final paragraph says something to the effect of: "Oh yeah, by the way, so-and-so later died in a tragic accident, came back as a supervillain seeking revenge, died again, and his remaining life-force became a super robot, later dismantled by Superman, but stolen by Lex Luthor." And that's a parody, by the way. Not a real character, so no need to check wiki.

The Superman history student in me had hopes for a strong finish, though, as the concluding section ("Superman's Career") examines the pre-CoIE comics as well, including a timeline. For whatever reason, the JLA and "Birthright" are tacked into this section as well.

The "Birthright" section is particularly interesting, as it pretty much tells you to forget what you already read in the earlier part of the book. Why not simply update the earlier part of the book appropriately? What a tangled web the DC Universe can weave, so I don't fully blame author Beatty for this part.

The overviews of the Golden Age and Silver Age of Superman comics are pretty good, while the timeline, which covers all eras, is disappointing. As a kid, I used to re-read the timeline/issue review presented in "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" (the last pre-CoIE Superman issue) over and over. It was captivating. Presented here, a similar timeline is a sleepy step through apparent highlights.

The worst parts of the timeline are in "The Steel Age" (post-CoIE to the present, though I've never encountered this designation for it until now). And by that, I don't necessarily mean the actual comic stories but just the writing of the timeline itself. Incidentally, the timeline and, presumably, the rest of the book cover Superman through the beginning of the recent Infinite Crisis series.

Beatty tries to instill some action by peppering the timeline with plenty of exclamation marks. "In this issue, Jimmy eats breakfast!" or "In this issue, Superman brushes his teeth!" But it just doesn't help.

In the end, The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel was a great idea for a gift and a lot of fun to look through. Sadly, it was just a chore to read.

Overall Experience: 4 (out of 10)
Recommended: Only if you want to look at the pretty pictures

Related Film Frontier Articles

Jan 31st Comic RoundUp

posted by JediSheltie @ 5:32 PM

Hey, cool, the Action Comics Annual will fill the seemingly gaping hole in my monthly Superman fix this week! Oh, right, delayed... This week looks good, since it's on Midtown Comic's release list. So, until then, perhaps.

Perhaps the next actual issue of Action Comics will limp out sometime as well. I really didn't think they'd let it happen to Action, but once Action falls, nobody is safe. On the up side, Johns is leaving Teen Titans, though it seems to be so he can work on more new projects, instead of getting his 'minor' backlog cleared out.

Speaking of which...

Teen Titans #43

I've never read a Teen Titans comic, ever. Have no connection to the team other than seeing an episode or two of the animated series on Cartoon Network, which only annoyed me due to the faux-anime design aesthetic. I didn't even decide to pick it up because Johns was leaving, because I didn't find out until a couple days after I'd thought, “What the hell?” and grabbed it off the shelf.

So, as someone with a clean slate regarding the characters, looking at the start of what, well, DC marketing promises to be a “big arc,” what did I think? Eh, it was okay. As my primary area of comparison, Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes, I found the characters less obnoxious and the general plotting to have a bit more gravitas. (Which is somewhat ironic, as the current Legion storyline has the entire planet Earth facing a mechanized Armageddon.) Granted, this is kind of a Star Trek II storyline, vs. the Star Trek I storyline of Legion. Which is to say, something with greater impact on a character level than on a “saving the universe” level.

Even being a more than a bit divorced from not just the recent, but long term history of the team, it was reasonably simple to climb on board the main plot train. Deathstroke, the old enemy from the past (the Khan role), is back with his own team of teens, whom he's calling the Titan's East, intent on destroying the “originals.” He blames them for the loss of all his kids, including the one that's a current member of the Titans, his daughter, who, inexplicably, seems to have her father's fashion sense... His other resurrected kid, Jericho, is also part of the Titans. I assume whenever the Titan's ever need new recruits, they look through all of Deathstroke's paternity lawsuits to find suitable candidates.

Johns propels the story well. Even the bits I wasn't all too clear on seemed interesting. I'd heard about the whole “evil Batgirl” thing, and that is explained in this issue. Granted, it's not a particularly compelling reveal, but there was a lot going on in this issue. Up next week evil Batgirl and... motivationally bereft Supergirl are going to go at it in Supergirl, so perhaps some additional back story will be found there. Daniel & Galphon's art is a solid, detailed realist take that I always enjoy.

All that being said, I might wait out the Titan's East story and then call it quits. Then again, I might do what everybody says they do, and “wait for the trade.”

JLA Classified #33

Nobody seems to have any trouble getting this out each month. Of course, that's what all patience-mongers plead about. Do you want delayed comics of quality, or crappy comics on time? I was a patience-monger, I really was... Action is starting to make me believe strongly in compromise...

JLA Classified is certainly an example of a regular comic that is currently not providing exceptionally stellar work in terms of storyline. This is hard for a guy who came to regular comic buying originally due to the Dan Jurgens' choreographed Death of Superman.

Jurgens' is scripting a story based on someone named Dan Slott's plot, so at least I have someone else to blame. Then again, the past couple issues of this “4^th Parallel” arc have produced some cringe-worthy dialog. This is a mostly Morrison era JLA, just with John Stewart as GL and no Aquaman (always a plus in my book). It's a story that evokes the time-honored tradition of DC mulitverses, in the form of a new “regular guy turned villain”, the Red King and his exploitation of 6 billion threads of reality.

The idea of “average guy / loser turns supervillain via deus ex machina” isn't particularly groundbreaking, though this particular loser is one of the better scripted elements of the story. His day-to-day ennui is transformed once he gets his hands on Dr. Destiny's Materioptikon after a JLA battle. Like a lot of guys, seemingly trapped in a mundane existence and waiting for something to simply happen to fix it all, he leaps at the chance once it appears. He wants to rule the world, but as the imprisoned Dr. Destiny points out, the JLA generally put an end to people with that ambition.

The Red King uses his newfound command of reality to engineer their downfall. This is the second installment of the arc, showcasing the first of the advertised “3” realities he will attempt to use to defeat the JLA. This attempt occurs from within, as a member of the JLA. He doesn't get around to betrayal by the end, simply explains how he becomes a member and attempts to “put the moves” on Wonder Woman. Suppose I can't really blame him. We're off to reality #2 next issue, so I guess this is some kind of “cliffhanger.”

I suppose I'll rationalize my continued pull of this comic as it is a regular monthly comic with Superman in it. I mean, that's gotta count for something in a time where books about Superman can't seem to achieve similar, apparently daunting, accomplishments.

"Superman III: Deluxe Edition" DVD

posted by Tygrrius @ 11:18 PM

Superman III: Deluxe Edition
The Christopher Reeve Superman Collection, Disc 7
Superman: The Ultimate Collector's Edition, Disc 8 (replacement version)

1983's Superman III has come to be known as "The one with Richard Pryor." It has also been judged as a disappointing follow-up to Superman and Superman II. The conventional wisdom is that the bulk of the movie's problems lay on Pryor's shoulders. Too much emphasis on Pryor and not enough on Superman.

Executive Producer Ilya Salkind disagrees with this assessment. In the film's commentary, he notes that the problems with the movie have little to do with Pryor or his performance. And I find myself agreeing with him, at least on what wasn't wrong with Superman III.

Superman III isn't a bad movie. Franchise film series tend to have peaks and valleys. Watching the ten Star Trek movies is a roller coaster ride of quality, for instance. The Superman franchise had two peaks in a row, and Superman III simply failed to live up to its predecessors. After Superman and Superman II, fans were expecting greatness and Superman III didn't deliver.

Salkind contends in his commentary that the main reason the movie failed to reach as wide of an audience as the first two films is that kids may have been baffled by Superman's darker personality traits taking over due to the kryptonite variant. He feels that those in the 5-to-7-year-old range in 1983 may have found the nearly evil Superman and his interactions with blonde bombshell Lorelei (Pamela Stephenson) confusing and the transformation of Vera Webster (Annie Ross) into a cyborg frightening.

I was barely eight years old when Superman III hit theaters, so I was pretty close to the age range Salkind talks about. I had no trouble understanding Superman's personality split at the time. In fact, I thought it was pretty cool--especially seeing "good" Clark fight "bad" Superman. The movie makes it obvious that the sudden change is due to the modified kryptonite.

As for the undertones of the scenes between Lorelei and Superman, they went way over my head back then. In fact, I didn't notice them at all, but it certainly didn't stop me from understanding the overall movie.

And Vera Webster was much scarier before she became a cyborg.

As a kid, I liked Superman III just about as much as I did the first two. I suspect it was actually older audiences that stayed away from repeat viewings and thus brought the earnings down. I don't know about you, but as a kid I generally didn't get to go see the same movie twice--no matter how much I loved it. It was high school and college students who were known for multiple viewings of movies like Star Wars.

While entertaining, Superman III doesn't really have a lot to come back for a second time. As an adult, I also see that it has three major flaws compared to the first two movies.

Though he does not really acknowledge it as a problem, Salkind actually remarks on the first of the flaws. He states that he viewed III as an "episode" of Superman, but "not part of the overall saga." While some credit must be given for not simply copying the first two movies, the problem here is that the first two movies establish something incredible. To simply ignore what came before and move on to an average episode was asking for trouble.

The film should have been treated as an event, as part of the saga. Richard Lester takes a lot of punishment from a lot of fans out there, and I don't want to beat up on him too much here. I'll simply say that his direction of the Metropolis and most of the Superman scenes are muddled, filled with gags and other distracting camp. Lester is at his best in the Smallville scenes, with Clark and Lana. He was great with the smaller, character moments, but didn't seem to have a firm grasp on how to handle Superman himself. Years later, he would've fit in quite well as a director on Lois & Clark.

Superman III's second major problem is that it lacks a villain worthy of Superman. The first Superman movie had Lex Luthor who, despite a lack of superpowers, proved to be a formidable and dangerous opponent. Superman II, of course, had Zod--admittedly a tough act to follow. With III, the villain is ostensibly business tycoon Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn). Webster seems to be no more than a weakened version of Luthor, though, and never poses a serious threat to the Man of Steel while trying to take over the coffee and oil industries.

Of course, the other major "enemy" of the movie is the super computer, or maybe computers in general. A quick sidenote: While Superman and Superman II have somewhat of a timeless feel, not often dated to the 1970's, Superman III is very much rooted in the 1980's. The treatment of computers, in particular, lends to this effect.

Lastly, the climax of the movie just doesn't deliver. After a great battle between "bad" Superman and "good" Clark, the good Superman taking on the super computer seems to only prolong the movie on its way to an inevitable conclusion. I can guarantee Mr. Salkind that no kid in 1983 for a moment thought that a super computer would be a match for Superman.

I've mentioned before on this site that the junkyard battle between Clark and Superman should have been expanded into the movie’s climax. The potential for evil that exists even within Superman should have been expanded into the main plot of the movie, rather than being wasted as a subplot.

Bonus Features

For me, the best bonus feature on Superman III was Salkind's commentary. Unlike his Superman commentary, he spent most of the time on the actual film rather than miscellaneous stories and often tied what he was saying into the on-screen action. Producer Pierre Spengler spoke a few times but, as on Superman, the commentary was almost all Salkind. (I have not yet watched Superman II: Special Edition, so I'm missing the "middle" of their three commentary tracks until I do so.)

As a movie fan, I love hearing about alternate concepts for movies--particularly alternate concepts for movies that didn't fare very well at the theater. Salkind briefly describes his original treatment for Superman III, which would have involved Mxyzptlk teaming up with Brainiac to take on Superman and Supergirl in an interplanetary battle. Brainiac also would have devised a way to control Superman, turning him into his "super henchman."

Sounds like a nice concept, and certainly of the larger, epic scale that I think would have helped the movie. There was one other piece to Salkind's concept, though. Superman and Supergirl would have fallen in love with each other during the course of the movie, before finding out at the end that they were cousins. Ick. Maybe Salkind should have made movies with George Lucas.

Salkind's concept was rejected for being too costly and they decided instead to do an Earth-based story centering on Richard Pryor, who had expressed an interest in appearing in the next Superman movie on The Tonight Show. A year later, Salkind would make a Supergirl movie, though without Brainiac, Mxy, or Superman. Given Salkind's plans, maybe it's for the best Superman wasn't in it.

Along with the obligatory preview trailer (which was unremarkable--possibly another source of box office trouble), ten deleted scenes are included, almost all of which are actually expanded versions of existing scenes. None of them are terribly interesting, nor would they have helped the movie had they not been cut.

The 1983 television special The Making of Superman III rounds out the bonus features. While I enjoyed 1978's The Making of Superman: The Movie on that DVD, this one is not nearly as interesting. I often felt like I was watching a 1950's era educational film, but without the assistance of Mike and the bots to make it more palatable. The special also shows just about every major scene of the movie, even Clark defeating Superman is given away. The special teases, "Does Superman survive?" during the final showdown with the super computer, indicating that you'll have to see the movie to find out. Then it shows you the destruction of the super computer. All that smoke may have actually been Superman III's box office potential going up in flames.

* * *

Lana's son, Ricky, has a great line in Superman III that summed up the movie fairly well:

"Superman, you're just in a slump! You'll be great again!"

It took 23 years, but Ricky was right. Thanks to Superman Returns, we can finally say "Superman Super Again."

Movie: 7 (out of 10)
Video Quality: 8
Audio Quality: 9
Bonus Features: 7
Overall Experience: 7
Recommended: Only if you do not already own the 2001 edition, or if you are purchasing as part of a set

Related Film Frontier Articles