[TV Superman better than Henry Cavill's Superman]

Hey Superman fans, welcome again to this channel. Today we're going into controversial territory. I'm going to talk about why I feel the latest TV Superman is better than the one from the Man of Steel movies, Henry Cavill. And this Superman, I believe, is better than what representations we've gotten from the DC Cinematic Universe and probably overall in general Superman we've ever seen. Uh, now how we're breaking this down is through category. Category, I'll contrast TV Superman to the film version. The first category will be the outfit. Category 2, the comic book and how it relates Category 3: Hero Life. Category 4: Arch-nemesis. Category 5: Love interest. Category 6: Government Liaisons. Government can tell them to do or not to do. Category 7: Flight. Category 8: Knowledge. And Category 10: Superpowers. Let's look at TV Superman's costume as portrayed by Tyler Hoechlin. First, I like the color. It's a brighter blue. Now, we very well know that the color of superheroes' costume is going to say a lot about what type of superhero they're trying to be. A lot of times, lighter colors are used. It symbolizes a good character. And in our Superman mythology, he's always, for the most of his superhero life, been developed as the epitome of what is good in our heroes. Costume black and silver. However, this development, um, even from his introduction, uh, has mostly been with lighter colors. So this development of Superman is the one we have spent most of our time with. In contrast to Man of Steel, they've done everything they could to make sure we got the darkest colors possible with that blue suit to drive home to us this is a darker, grayer Superman. I don't feel personally it worked at all. Now TV Superman, he does have some additives, I guess you could say, I've never seen before on a Superman suit. That is, there is this connector to his cape. It sort of looks like how Doctor Strange's cape connects to his body. It accentuates, or it's accentuated in like this gold metal And I think it works great. Uh, Henry Cavill's Superman, if you pay close attention, he has this weird-looking wrist guard. And the wrist guard, the way it's wrapped around his arm, it just reminds me of Batman wrist guards. Again, with the suit used in Man of Steel, they try to do everything to just give you this feel he's a badass. He's basically more leaning to he could be as bad as Batman. Just very weird costume design choices made with that suit. Uh, now the TV Superman crest, as you can see, it's, it's big, which I like. I like the big crest. It's big, red, and yellow, and again, it works. I'm the type, I don't like things to look too comic booky because then when they enter a live-action production, it can look a bit silly. But this just works. They did a great job with TV Superman's suit. It's designed right with a type of metallic-looking neutral blue color, pretty plain and simple. And that's fine because sometimes less is better and simple is better. Now as we compare that to Man of Steel, and we'll get to a photo of him a bit later, he has a weird belt. And from the belt there's a button with these wing-like designs coming from the belt. Just again, very odd choices. I don't know why they thought that would be a good idea. The crest is a good size, but once again, they do all they can to help you understand that this is not a cheerful Superman. His crest, of course, is dark. Now, when it comes to the cape, although I like TV Superman's cape, This is the one thing film Superman gets right and wins in, I believe. I think it's a CGI cape, but it's well done. And in any event, I have to give him a point, uh, for that cape. But as far as overall outfit, uh, TV Superman wins in this category. And so the next category is comic book. Uh, now what I'm aiming for in this part is to see how relatable to the TV and film adaptations the comic book is. Now some say, "Well, it doesn't have to be like the comic book," but my issue is this with that. When they do these Superman movies, the reason we watch them is because of the popularity of the comic books. To watch a Superman movie based on anything other than that makes me feel like you're really looking for a completely different character. So when they chastise comic book geeks and nerds about us being fanboys, I think it's a bit unfair, as the only reason the movie exists is due to the creation of them in comic books. Now, the original Superman comic was more closer to the Henry Cavill version, or film version of Man of Steel. He's picking up cars, people are afraid of this alien, he doesn't seem to care that they are afraid. Similar to how I saw Man of Steel. I saw Superman who was afraid for the lives of other people. Even if you watch the 1970s to early '80s Chris Reeve Superman films, you see Superman just so concerned and devastated about what happened during the fighting in Metropolis with Zod. He was like, "No, the people!" And you could really feel his sense of emotion and concern He tried to actually lure Zod away. Man of Steel just did a poor job of conveying any concern that Henry Cavill may have had. It's almost like a street brawl that happens and the fighters involved don't even care about their surroundings. They just care about getting through the brawl and defeating their opponent. So in a way, I could give Man of Steel a point here because the original Superman did seem more like this version. However, I won't do that, and I'll explain why. Uh, the original Superman comic in sales did very poor. Superman sales didn't pick up until they changed Superman into a more likable hero, similar to the one we saw in the later films, uh, with Chris Reeves and Brandon Roth, Superman Returns. So I still got to say, based on market sentiment and popularity of Superman as we know him It's actually in the comics more closer than the TV Superman is how he is today. The TV Superman portrays him closer, so I have to give a point to TV Superman overall again. Now we move into category 3, conflict in regular life and superhero life. So in Man of Steel, in Superman's regular life, as we can see, he doesn't really deal with problems well. And I'm going to base that on a lot of his flashbacks of growing pains, etc. However, the problem I had in the movie was he meets his father for the first time, you know, or his consciousness, or Will. And there, um, and there's this, I'm assuming, educational scene, uh, where he's teaching him to be who you are and you can aspire all, and he becomes the hero still without training. And the excuse the film makes is it's okay, it's like his first day on the job. But if we compare that to, um, again, Chris Reeve's, um, the '70s, '80s Superman— Superman is educated by Jor-El before he even embarks on his journey to actually go out as a hero. So they have alien technology that is different than what a human transition will take. So there's really not a lot of need for a learning curve situation or a need to make tons of mistakes. And the reason I think it's important that I bring up this is because Superman's modern redevelopment, or the redevelopment of Superman, has been the go-to Superman to create Superman's personality, as in how he deals with personal issues and being a hero. And that has been quite successful. So I didn't understand the need Man of Steel films to make it so much like he's this bumbling human trying to figure out what to do. And even if you wanted to go that direction, I think it would have made more sense that he got the proper training before he even decided it was a good idea to venture out as Superman into the world. Now TV Superman, as you can see, he continues that legacy of the Donner films or even the Superman Returns film. So because he's so close to those characterizations, I'm going to assume he deals with being Superman personality-wise the same good ways they have. And in his real-life relationships, as portrayed on Supergirl, he would— he has a real good relationship with Kara, who plays Supergirl. He has a great relationship with the people around him. With Man of Steel, his relationships in his regular life to me always seemed— and even in the second film or the Batman vs. Superman film, they always seemed uncomfortable because they tried to move along so fast without developing his character. And I have to blame that on the film. But as, you know, as they rush to create Justice League and to keep up with Marvel, it's clear to me Superman has chosen, or the film Superman has chosen, to forego developing Superman in his personal life and even his superhero life. His character development is pretty underdeveloped to me. So again, I have to give a point to TV Superman to win in real-life relationships and superhero ones, though it's so early on for this Superman on TV He's already done such an amazing job with the little bit he's been given. I can only imagine he can get better. Next up is arch nemesis category. My goodness. Now some people won't agree with me on this. However, I didn't want to see General Zod first to go up against in the Man of Steel franchise. I thought bringing Zod out was too early. I think Lex Luthor first would have worked and Zod second. That's just me. I just thought it complicated the movie more as we hadn't got to see this Superman have enough time to develop already. But again, they were trying to hurry along, get some big action and destruction so they could satisfy mindless, brainless fans who just want to see like the Dragon Ball Z fight sequences, which is, which is not a problem. I like that too, but develop character first as we really didn't even know if it was Superman or just some alien pretending to be Superman. So I didn't like how the arch nemesis was presented to us, and I thought Michael Shannon as Zod did an excellent job as far as the acting. And even Henry Cavill, I think if he was given more, he could have really killed that role as Superman. But you know, even so, due to the the way the story went, I still felt Zod was out of place. The story didn't work well for him as the villain. And by the time we get to Batman vs. Superman and we're introduced to the tech version of Lex Luthor, which they say now that it was supposed to be Lex Luthor's son, actually, or Alexander Luthor Jr. If I'm not mistaken. However, they didn't say that earlier, which makes me think maybe they added on to that later as they maybe didn't like Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal. But in any event, this Arsenis's version of Lex Luthor I thought was horrible. I thought he was very awkward. I thought he didn't measure up to fighting against a hero like Superman. Now with TV Superman, because this is on Supergirl right now, and so his story is kind of in the background, it's more about Supergirl, and only the only Luthor so far the series is actually Lex's sister. So if she turns out to be a villain, which I'm not even sure she's gonna be a villain or not, she would be more of an arch-nemesis for Supergirl. But from what we get from the scenes, the Lex, the Lex Luthor that Superman encounters as they tell the story, he seems to be more of that standard corporate comic book Lex Luthor Sr. that we're accustomed to, which I still think makes a better villain than Lex Luthor Jr. or the tech whiz Lex Luthor. The next category— oh, so I'm sorry, so I need to still give that point to TV Superman. So he, he wins an arch-nemesis category, but we'll move on now to love interest category. Um, Now, in Man of Steel, a lot of people complained that not only Lois Lane, played by Amy Adams, was not a great choice— I don't know, maybe it was because she wasn't a brunette— but also that the chemistry between them wasn't great. You know, it felt rushed at times. It just wasn't captured well on screen. And I guess you blame that on the actress or the actors. Normally I would, but in this case, the writing and the film direction really overshadowed the actors so much that I think it hurt their performance to the point it was beyond even blaming them. And it was a lot of underdevelopment because again, they want to make this Michael Bay Superman film where we see a lot of destruction and CGI and not enough time to properly focus on actors. The movie just moved along in pieces with one-liners of greatness but no real meat and potatoes in the scenes after. In TV Superman, we don't get to meet Lois Lane, but there is a phone call between Superman as Clark and Lois, and she's calling to check up on him. And Supergirl goes, "I like how she worries about you." And Clark responds, "I do as well." So although we haven't met Lois Lane, that scene was so emotional and well done that I just am completely on board that if TV Superman gets his own series, that Lois Lane storyline will do very well. So because I didn't like the film Superman and I like the scene with the emotional atmosphere in TV Superman towards Lois Lane, I once again have to give it to TV Superman on love interest And to add, uh, he does give off this funny and easy, and easy likable charm, which usually works well in romantic relationships, as opposed to conflicted heroes or dark heroes like Batman who can't ever have a healthy love, love life. And unfortunately, Man of Steel has tried to copy The Dark Knight so bad that I think maybe that part of it has rubbed off on him as well. Weaknesses. Now everyone knows that Superman's weakness is kryptonite. You know, it has to be one of the most popular and well-known weaknesses of a superhero. And both TV and film Superman do use kryptonite. They both got that right. However, I just don't like how it was used and introduced in the, in the film version, or the Man of Steel movie. Like We do get to see kryptonite in Batman vs Superman. We don't know anything about it in Man of Steel. Not a big deal. I just don't like how it was introduced or used. I thought it could have been done better. And in TV Superman, they have kryptonite as a weakness. You know, we've seen Kara be affected by certain types of kryptonite as well, or Supergirl. So TV Superman, uh, Man of Steel gets a slight edge because I just didn't like how they used the kryptonite thing in the films. So we move on now to government liaisons. You know, what's the government's relationship with Superman? Well, in the Man of Steel film, we see there's a very concerning relationship between Superman and the government as well as the general public. You know, it's just pretty divided, you know. That's fair, I guess. You, you got people who are very fearful in the government and public and others who seem, uh, or look at Superman as a deity or some savior. The only issue I have with that is that those type of situations kind of make me spend the entire movie going, is this a hero or just some alien visitor we're concerned about? Or like, um, in a scenario like that, it's not really a establish if Superman is an actual undeniable, unmistakable hero. And in a lot of incarnations of Superman, it's pretty much established the world sees him as a hero. In the Man of Steel films, I never— or rather, I never got that in the Man of Steel films. Superman is good or bad in the Man of Steel films —based on what day of the week it is, you know. Whereas TV Superman, it's pretty much clear that the entire world likes him, sees him as a hero or Superman. And with the government, there is some tension on the TV show about kryptonite being held to use on Kryptons, but not particularly against Superman, but other Kryptonians that have existed or do exist And even in that, the government agency that monitors all of those issues, they decide to give up their supply of kryptonite as TV Superman makes it clear he won't work with them unless they do. So the situation with the government and Superman is good, whereas we can see in The Man of Steel he's separate from the government, which means he's kind of then operating on his own without government clearance or being okay to do that. You know, he's just doing it because they can't stop him, whereas TV Superman is working alongside with them. So again, TV Superman, I have to give a 2, or he clearly wins in that department. Our next category, flight. Now for the Man of Steel fans who really want to bite my ear off right now, and I welcome you all in the comment section, I really would appreciate some reasons why you all think this Superman in the Man of Steel films is better. But I will give you this category hands down. When it comes to flight, Man of Steel Superman kills it. I have to admit, that was the best flying I've ever seen in the Superman franchise. I mean, on my Man of Steel DVD It's the only thing I like to watch in my screening room from that movie. That's the only scene, just him flying. Um, it's the only likable part of the movie really for me. Uh, but the film does get it right, and they do get the point in this category. However, I would like to say that TV Superman, his, his flight is pretty darn good for a TV series with a limited budget. They have gotten really good with special effects And so I was still very impressed with his scenes and his flight for a weekly TV series with a limited budget. So although TV Superman doesn't get this point, he gets top ratings for TV show special effects. Um, next category is superhero origins. Uh, again, in the Man of Steel franchise, his origin story does something we didn't get a lot of before, and that is life on Krypton. And, um, hold on one second, let's get over to, um, I can find it here. I want to go over to the Man of Steel page, so look at him right quick as I continue on with, uh, oh, let me type it in. As we— as I continue on with the category of, um Superhero Origins, because I just want you all to take a look at, um, the film version so we can get an idea better of what I'm talking about. And you can also get a look at the suit, um, which I have brought up in the earlier categories. And you can kind of see, uh, what I'm, uh, what I was going on about and why I was so disappointed in the suit. I think it does an important job of making the hero, but as the picture comes up here, you can kind of see the button thing, and you can just see some of the things I didn't like about it. But getting back to the origin story, or Superman's origins, you know, in the Man of Steel film, we did get to see what life on Krypton was like. And myself being a Superman fan, I always wanted to see a greater exploration of Krypton in films. However, painfully, this was the most horrible representation of Krypton I've ever seen. And a lot of people say it copied many films, and I could see some elements of different films. So the problem was it just made Superman look like a weird sci-fi movie. So I thought it was not an idea to focus so much on Krypton in that version. So, you know, as the story progresses, we see him being born on Krypton, and it's pretty much the same story, you know. However, you know, Jonathan Kent in this origin story, he doesn't die of a heart attack, you know, which he usually does. He actually dies by a tornado. Um, um, and, um, you know, in this film version origin story, he's trying to find himself. We get to see all the elements of him being an outsider or being different growing up, you know, which is classic Superman. But how they do it, uh, it just seems so unwell planned. Uh, like if you sent your child someplace else, and I'm talking from the perspective of Superman's parents Jor-El and Lara, you want them to have the tools to understand whom they are and where they came from. And in this origin story, I just thought they did a bad job of introducing Superman to Superman. Like, in some versions Superman is called either by some alien technology he's given, or he's visited by maybe some Kryptonian. Whatever it is, this film did a bad job of helping him find himself. Now, in TV Superman, we pretty much can see his origin story is the traditional one. You know, he comes to Earth I can tell the planet of Krypton is closer to the Donner films and the technology. So although we don't see this TV Superman's origin story per se, we can deduce from the way Krypton looks and how the Fortress of Solitude looks that it's probably more closely following those Supermans, which I prefer because as I said, I thought how he's contacted in these films and told who he is, you know, meaning the Donner films and the other, the other incarnations of Superman. It's done much better than the film Superman, so I'm gonna give that a point to TV Superman. Our next category, uh, is superhero hideout. Every superhero seems to need one. Now, you don't get too far away from Superman without the Fortress of Solitude coming close behind. So in the film, we don't even hear the term Fortress of Solitude, and it seemingly is that the Fortress of Solitude in this film, I guess it takes the place of a spaceship because that's where Superman gets his knowledge, his knowledge of self in his suit, whereas in many other stories he got it from the Fortress. So at this point in the film, Superman, um, he doesn't even have a hideout, you know, unless you count that ship, and The ship, according to the film, came there like 20,000 years ago as Kryptonians were once explorers. So it would seem the ship wasn't even meant for him. So many Superman fans love the Fortress of Solitude, and to be fair, I don't know if in the films he will find a way to create the fortress. I just don't know what he'd do it from because I don't see any Kryptonian technology left around that he can build it from, you know, as it's generally built by Kryptonian technology. So at this point, I have to assume Superman doesn't even have a decent hideaway, whereas TV Superman, he has a wonderful fortress in a mountain. You walk in and it's these monumental statues of Jor-El and Lara, Kryptonian robots that aid him, and the control consoles. And I just thought TV did a great job with that. I very much like that. So obviously TV Superman once again scores a point for that. So in closing, appearance-wise though, I think film Superman really looks the part. He looks like a Superman as far as his physical attributes that I see in a comic book. Also, the film, as far as cinematography looks, it's awesome. But again, a lot goes into making Superman, and I think with Superman It always has been about his super character, his super morals, the super things he's done as an alien and a person. And I think that's what TV Superman understands and gets right. I think TV Superman is better. I know some of you disagree. I know some of you love Man of Steel. And to be honest, I will continue to watch Superman fiction movies no matter what. However, I think they can do a lot better than they've done with the DC Cinematic Universe. So please post your comments below. Let me know how you feel. I'm not indestructible, but I do think I'm indestructible to bad comments. And if you can't comment, maybe you're in jail.