Superman

Last week, I watched the first two Superman movies. It was really exciting for me because I hadn't watched them for many years, and the first movie has been made into a special edition. Her Nibs, a huge fan of the Incredibles, loved them. I was incredibly surprised that she kept up with what was going on. Even when Superman loses his powers in the second movie, she knew what was going on.

Personally, I'm interested to see Superman 3, which is coming today from Netflix. You see, the man who directed the first movie and much of the second, Richard Donner, got fired before he could finish, and Richard Lester took over. Donner's stuff is much better than Lester's and Lester did the entire third movie himself. I saw this movie years ago, but I'm thinking that Richard Pryor just won't be a good villain. The fourth movie will be the real test of my will. I've never seen it, and by all accounts it is terrible. It's coming next week, and I may not get through it. I may need to watch the Richard Donner Cut of Superman II to excise all memory of 3 and 4 from my mind.

I didn't bother to see the new Superman movie because the ads made it seem lame. The whole Lois Lane has a kid angle put me off. I will give it some credit: they pretended as though Superman 3 and 4 had never happened. It's kind of like an unsuccessful Batman Begins, I think. Batman Begins completely reinvented the Batman saga, and I am really excited to see the next film. As for Superman, I think his day is past.

Personally, the only film series I think have successfully gone past two movies are Star Wars (not counting the new three), James Bond, maybe Lord of the Rings, and Rocky. Indiana Jones doesn't count because the second movie was so terrible. And don't laugh at me for including Rocky. Rocky 3 and 4 were awesome. I mean, they have some of the best movie quotes of all time in them. Then Rocky 5 happened. I don't know what they were thinking.

Maybe we should institute the term limits ban on movies.