Mailbag: August 25th

Well the blog seems to be getting around the Net, and we've been getting email feedback from both sides over the past few weeks, and thought that instead of emailing readers back and forth, we'd just address the most common comments/questions here on the blog every so often for all to enjoy. Its also been brought to our attention that the blog isn't setup for readers to make comments. Apparently in our haste to get this thing setup, we skipped that step. So we've now gone ahead and changed that so that now everyone can share their input on our articles, even those of you who are too scared to own up to your comments can now input those as "anonymous."

So now let's get on to the mailbag (user names and emails have been erased to protect the innocent):

"Why "Singerman"?"

It's simple and I'll refer you to one of our initital rants HERE.

"I really enjoy reading your blog, and the way you cut through WB's and Singer's bullshit and rhetoric about this film and its shortcomings. As a longtime Superman fan I was extremely disappointed by the rahashed crap Singer gave us."

I appreciate the comments, but all in all it's not a very hard thing to do. It's simple math really when you take a look at the film and its numbers, and weigh those against what its expectations were from fans, investors, etc. Then again, Singer and Co. make it like shooting fish in a barrel with some of the commentary they've given us over the last few months. More or less, we've just been putting the spotlight on the painfully obvious.

"Why do you constantly compare Superman Returns to Batman Begins? Are you just some lame Batman fanboy with too much time on your hands? Besides "Singerman" as you call it, will most likely outgross Batman worldwide anyway."

Well I do like Batman and always have, but I've always been a much bigger fan of the Man of Steel. I've got just about every significant Superman TPB from the past twenty years, and would've gladly given them to Singer if it would've meant getting a better film. Trust me, if we didnt care so much about Superman, we wouldn't have started a blog to point out how badly Singer screwed him up.
And actually I wasnt the one who started the Batman Begins comparisons, those started from certain people in the media, and a lot of fans who were using that as some kind of barometer for the film's early success. Now that the "worm has turned," you rarely hear it anymore from anyone looking to try to put a positive spin on the film.
As for the gross amounts, Singerman may indeed outgross Begins worldwide (although it wont happen domestically), but revenue is irrelevant in a profit driven business. Would you rather spend $100 to make $500? or spend $300 to make $600? I rest my case.

"Your just an idiotic Smallville fan and Brandon Routh hater who's jealous cuz Tom Welling didn't get the part in the movie."

Oh boy, these are some of our favorites. Apparently you've been able to extract the fact that we're jealous Smallville/Tom Welling "lovers" from the what? The two whole posts on this entire blog that reference the show and the guy? You're deductive reasoning skills may need a bit of sharpening. Of those two articles, one was used to show how there was a lack of character empathy in Singerman, which was one of our myriad of issues with the film. We also, btw, pointed out there that Singerman wouldn't have been any better with Welling or anyone else in the lead role. The other article where Welling was mentioned was more about Routh looking bad, and the irony of Welling looking sharp and presenting Johnny Depp an award than anything else. We know it was only the TCA's but the situation is still amusing. Like it or not with Singerman still in theaters across the globe and the DVD and video games yet to start hitting the market, anytime Routh goes to a public event he's "selling" the film. He's the face of a $200+ million franchise. For anyone who hasn't seen the film (and let's face it. that's A LOT of people) if they see Routh for the first time and he looks like an elongated Tom Cruise in kick-around clothes, they're not exactly going to be motivated to check him out as Superman.
And yes we do enjoy Smallville for what it is, or at least the 11 or 12 decent episodes of it that come out each season. It's not a bad show when they're not blowing up babies or ripping off the plots from the popular films of the day, and Welling has grown into his role. However, they're merely a speck on the rich history of the Superman character. A history, which has seen tremendous growth in the past 25 years, most of which was largely ignored by Bryan Singer. Therein lies a good deal of our problems with him.
As for Routh, we've stated before we don't dislike the guy, and have nothing personal against him, he just seems to have an uncanny knack of taking unflattering photographs and can apparently be a bit of a diva, which at times seems to run contrary to what WB is trying to get across with the film, which in turn makes it more humorous. While we do think he left a little to be desired in the lead role, with a better director and writers in place (not to mention a better publicist), he may have been a lot better.

Well that's it for the mailbag. Feel free to email us HERE with any comments, questions, suggestions, death threats, etc.