Superman Returns director offers mea culpa

Filmmaker Bryan Singer admits he made some mistakes with the superhero film and wishes to remake the original with a different pace.

Filmmaker Bryan Singer admits he made some mistakes with the superhero film and wishes to remake the original with a different pace.

The 2006 movie Superman Returns was supposed to reignite the comic-book character for big-screen audiences and make a star out of unknown actor Brandon Routh. While critics praised the film,it underwhelmed at the box office,earning 391 million worldwide.

Now,with another Superman film in the works Zack Snyders Superman: Man of Steel,which stars Henry Cavill in the title role Superman Returns director-producer Bryan Singer says he made some mistakes with his own film.

I think that Superman Returns was a bit nostalgic and romantic,and I dont think that was what people were expecting,especially in the summer, Singer said.

What I had noticed is that there werent a lot of women lining up to see a comic book movie,but they were going to line up to see The Devil Wears Prada,which may have been something I wanted to address. But when youre making a movie,youre not thinking about that stuff,youre thinking,Wow,I want to make a romantic movie that harkens back to the Richard Donner film that I loved so much. And thats what I did.

Many moviegoers criticised the third act,in which Lex Luthor Kevin Spacey stabs Superman with a shard of kryptonite,but then the two characters dont appear onscreen again for the rest of the movie. In defending the scene,Singer said he tried to insert a religious analogy his storytelling,which was probably too heavy for a summer movie.

Ive always felt that the origin of Superman is the story of Moses the child sent on a ship to fulfill a destiny, said Singer,a producer on the upcoming X-Men: First Class. And this was a story about Christ its all about sacrifice: The world,I hear their cries. So what happens? He gets the knife in the side and later he falls to the earth in the shape of a crucifix. It was kind of nailing you on the head,but I enjoyed that,because Ive always found the myth of Christ compelling and moving. So I hoped to do my own take,which is heavy for a summer movie.

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Singer said if he were to take on another Superman film,he would do a reboot of the franchise by remaking the original and would make it a more balls-to-the-wall action movie with a different pace from Superman Returns.

Despite the disappointing performance of Superman Returns,Singer still says hes proud of the film.

There are a bunch of movies Ive made where Im,like,Yuck,that was weak or That couldve been better, and I can see why. But with Superman Returns 8230; If I could go back,I would have tightened the first act.