Bizarro Superman movie

*Originally published on 4/15/09


Aint it Cool News posted a video made by Latino Review giving their thoughts on a script for a Bizarro Superman movie. While reference is made to the "disappointing" Superman Returns, it's never made clear what this film is supposed to be, a sequel? Spin-off? Reboot? It's most likely a mix between the first two, still a spin-off movie featuring Bizarro as the main character? Really?

For those who don't know, Bizarro is a Superman doppelganger. In some continuities he comes from a backwards "bizarro world" called htrae; in others, he is an inferior clone. He wears his S shield backwards and he is somewhat deformed. His view on reality is rather warped. He believes himself to be the real Superman and tries to act accordingly. While he tries to be heroic, it usually ends in disaster. His speech is warped, and he frequently says the opposite of what he means.

If you want to bring Bizarro in as a villain, that's fine. I just don't think that making a solo film about a potentially silly, little known Superman villain is the way to go about creating the next big blockbuster.

There are things I like about the script and things I don't. Apparently, the film is lighter in tone and more comedic. The action is still big, but the focus is more on comedy. I think that this is actually a good thing. Superman is one character where "grim and gritty" just flat out doesn't work. Don't make it comedic at the expense of the characters, but you can certainly make it a more light hearted adventure. You tried making it dark with Returns and it came out to be completely mediocre.

Bringing in a new villain is also refreshing. I'd prefer Brainiac, personally, and many are clamoring for Darkseid, but bringing in Bizarro shows that they are at least trying.

Bizarro is made when a scientist, experimenting with a machine to create food for the hungry, accidently hits Superman with a strange ray when he just happened to fly by. This is one problem. It's a nitpick, but it just reeks of bad writing. Having Superman just happen to fly by is lazy. Make the machine malfunction, have Superman hear the explosion and go there to rescue whoever is inside and do what he can to stop it, during this he can get hit with the beam and have Bizarro be created. It creates an actual story as opposed to just putting random circumstances together.

Better yet, have Luthor be the one to create Bizarro. If this is a sequel to Returns, then Luthor has Superman's DNA. Remember, he shived Superman with that piece of kryptonite so he has blood to create a clone. This keeps Luthor in the mix (as he should be given his status as Superman's greatest enemy) while giving Superman an enemy who can give him a good fist fight.

One other problem is that Superman leaves to go save a planet. The explanation is better than the previous "hey even though my planet exploded I'm gonna go see if it's still there" but the fact is that he just got back, why is he leaving so soon? How did he know that a black hole had formed? It doesn't make sense.

Oh, Zod and Ursa return. First off, where's Non? Secondly, one of the major complaints of Superman Returns was that it was just a rehash of the first movie. So, you're going to remedy this in the sequel by bringing in the villains from Superman II? What?

There's a good chance that this is just a rough draft. Scripts go through rewrites all the time so I wouldn't be surprised that if the film does come to light, it's vastly different from this. There is some good stuff in here. I had my problems with Singer's film, but I hold the hope that his sequel will be stellar much like X2 was vastly superior to the first X-Men movie. Keep Superman in the picture, keep the lighthearted tone, take out Zod and his crew, keep Bizarro and tweak his origin and you could have a great Superman movie that reminds us why he's the world's greatest superhero.