Mailbag: February 24th

Been a bit busy the past week or so, but wanted to take the time to answer a few of the deluge of emails we've gotten recently about our views on certain hot topics regarding Singerman, etc. Instead of emailing readers back and forth, we thought we'd just address the most common comments/questions here on the blog. We did this once before back in August and figured we'd give it another shot here since the emails picked up again.

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

"Hey! I cant believe this blog is still up and running and still getting so many comments! Kudos to you on the dedication. I think the blog has actually outlived the interest in this crappy movie. If they feel the need to punish us with a sequel, I'll look forward to getting the "real news" here."

Thanks, and that's the beauty of these things I guess. There's so much that goes on now with films after the theatrical release between the DVD's, financials, awards, etc. that there's usually something every couple of days worth noting. Plus the fan response has been great, and knowing there are a LOT of people out there who share our feelings about this keeps us going.

"I was just wondering whether or not you post on any Superman-related message boards on the Net like SuperHeroHype, Supermanhomepage, BlueTights (LOL), etc. and what your screen name was?"

Posting on message boards isn't really our thing. Every once in a while we'll peruse a couple of them just to see fan reaction to certain things, but we've never had a serious urge to really post much. There seems to be a lot of vitriol on message boards (especially on one certain board anytime we post anything here) and too many people think that their opinion is THE ONLY opinion that matters. We have our opinions on things and feel strongly about them but don't begrudge others who feel differently (why do you think we dont moderate the blog comments?). SuperheroHype is an excellent site as a news source though and seems to be the most neutral out of those you listed.

"It's funny how you mock SR for not getting any worthy Oscar nods and make fun of Bosworth for her Razzie nomination, but yet you mention nothing about the TEN Saturn Awards that SR was just nominated for. A little unfair, no?"

The only reason we even mentioned the Oscars was because of that silly poster WB put out to the Academy. In our opinion at least, the Oscars are really the only one of all these silly awards that are handed out this time of year, that really mean anything. The fact that Singerman didn't get nominated for any of the awards outside of one for visual effects was no real surprise to us, just like the fact that Date Movie wasn't nominated. The fact that WB thought the film was worthy enough to grab a nomination is what we found truly humorous.

We pointed out Bosworth's Razzie since it had to do with one of our major critiques of the film, her abysmal performance. The Razzies are the anti-Oscars that are sort of a tongue-in-cheek thing in Hollywood. If she wins, and is a good sport and actually accepts it like Halle Berry did a few years back, we'll give her all the credit in the world.

As for the Saturn Awards, I'm not sure why the fact we didn't post that they were nominated would surprise you? This is after all a blog about for people don't like the film. Do the sites that shill for Singer post anything even remotely critical of the film? I must ask though, is a nomination for one of these really that big of a deal? What is a Saturn Award nomination supposed to mean? I see films like Snakes on a Plane and X-Men 3 nominated for Best Film awards. Are you sure you really want to put yourself in league with those kinds of movies? (although we TOTALLY would) Kate Bosworth for Best Actress??? C'mon now.
This all seemed a bit odd to me so I did a bit of digging into just how these awards work and why they were nominating such bad movies like Singerman. Well as it turns out they're pretty much like the Oscars where they have committees of film professionals who nominate films in the genre, but low and behold look at what we have here!!! Who's name should appear as one of the committee heads for the Saturn Awards? None other than Bryan Singer, himself! And who else do I see as committee heads? Brandon Boyce, who wrote Apt Pupil for Singer, and WB executive Bradley Marcus! Hmmm very interesting to say the least, that explains a LOT of things.

"Hey SSS, I found the following image throughout my travels on the internet. Thought you might get a "kick" out of it. LOL. Sort of sums up these two movies, no?"

Heh, that is pretty cool. OWNED indeed. Could you imagine those two facing off in a potential Justice League movie? Talk about a mismatch.

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

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.