SUPERMAN II MOVIE MINUTE #24 - Sealed With A Kiss
Fire and Water Network All-Stars Chris Franklin and Rob Kelly bring you SUPERMAN II MOVIE MINUTE, where they analyze, scrutinize, and you'll-believe-a-man-can-fly-ize the classic 1980 film starring Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, and Terence Stamp, five minutes at a time!
In minutes 11500 - 12000, Superman and Lois have a heart-to-heart talk.
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Is it possible that we’ve all been kissed by Superman, and we just don’t remember it?
Disturbing….
The Super kiss doesn’t bother me in this instance. I would have preferred to have him say something along the lines of We have to break up as Superman and Lois but maybe we should give Lois and Clark Kent a try.
Unfortunately, It’s pretty clear that somewhere between the North Pole and Metropolis, Superman gave Lois the “Dear Jane”, speech and her comment about not being able to fly with him anymore was the conclusion of that conversation. So Superman flies off thinking everything’s all right and sleeps like a baby while Lois is up all night crying.
So the next day, he sees that he’s really misjudged how affected Lois has been by the fact that they can’t be together and he sees how she’s really not coping with it well so in order to help her move on, he’s giving her the Super kiss. Not so much so that he can continue to romance her, but so that the knowledge of everything they’ve done will be pushed down to her subconscious and part of her brain will be able to process it out as they go forward.
And in some ways, she does just that! (But we’ll talk more about that later in Superman III Movie Minute when you guys get to it.)
My real problem is with Superman IV…
At one point in the film, Clark reveals or re-reveals his secret to Lois, they go on a flight together and when they get back, he basically uses her for a sounding board for his doubts about what to do about the Kid who wants him to get rid of the Nukes. Lois basically gives him a pep talk and says to just do what he thinks is right. He then re-iterates the tired old line about not being able to have One person above all the rest but to love humanity as a whole.” at that point, he performs the second Super Kiss!
WRONG!!!!
At this point Lois has had some six years to process the whole Clark/Superman dynamic in her subconscious and get past all the tears and whatnot. Now she’s in a better place, she can handle the BS Kryptonian killjoy line and not get all broken up about it. (although it does help that he adds “it isn’t fair.” afterwards.)
I’d love to see an alternate ending where Superman kisses her, she swoons he changes into Clark, wakes her and later when she finds out he’s sick she reveals that the kiss didn’t make her forget the second time.
I actually think the “amnesia kiss” is a plausible superpower because it relates to his super-breath! lol Superman basically commits assault by sucking oxygen out of Lois’ brain, which then blacks her out causing memory loss. Eeeek!! lol
But more importantly, I thought that scene was so well written and performed. This is a comic book movie and the rom-com scenes by Reeve & Kidder are better executed than most rom-com films!
I always no-prized the kiss as an intimate application of super-hypnosis, a genuine(ly ridiculous) pre-Crisis superpower.
Rob, why don’t you just ADR the tiger growl? It’s Super-easy, and no one will think any Lester of you for it.
This scene never worked for me. Totally knocked S2 down several notches. SIlver Age-y or not, it’s messed up on a number of levels.
I wonder if Earth’s yellow sun makes Superman a really great kisser. I have the Action story Chris mentioned, When Clark and Lois get under the mistletoe, and Clark tries to avoid it, he says in his thought balloon he “kissed her as Superman” but he doesn’t make her forget or anything, she just swoons. There is another story from the 60s, and I can’t remember the issue number, where Superman is at some sort of meet-and-greet. An emergency comes up and he has to fly off. He plants a quick, super-speed kiss on each of the women at the meeting and they all faint.
Strangely, one of my favorite “goofy” Superman stories involves some villains removing his powers and stranding him on a planet where everyone has super-powers. A beautiful girl falls in love with Superman because he’s the weakest man on the planet and is later exiled backed to earth with him. When they return to earth and Superman regains his powers, she throws him over for a short, skinny, nerdy guy. For some reason, this story really spoke to me, may be because I was a short, skinny nerdy guy growing up…Of course, now I’m a short, fat, nerdy guy. Anyway, the girl in that story didn’t say anything about what a great kisser Superman was when they locked lips.
I would say that is enough of the Superman kissing, but strangely, the oldest issue of Action and the second oldest Superman comic I own has Superman kissing on the cover. The cover becomes way creepy once you read the story and find out who Mighty Maid is.
http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/comic.php?comicid=243
Don’t judge me, but my oldest Superman is a Lois Lane issue.
I don’t like the mind-wipe because I don’t like Superman taking it upon himself to mess with someone’s mind. I consider that an abuse of his power. Does anyone think Brad Meltzer was inspired by the scene for Identity Crisis? I’ve always been a Zatanna fan, and having her mind-wipe really destroyed the character…or it would if I didn’t dismiss the story from my head-cannon. Plus, you know, if Zatanna kissed me, I would want to remember it.
You guys definitely hit the bullseye with “put the toys back in the box.” It’s happened in both movies. Turn back time to save Lois life. Wipe Lois’ memory to reset their relationship. There’s definitely a “Not a dream, not a hoax, not an imaginary tale” flavor to the movies, where something MAJOR happens, but is undone by the end. And in typical Silver Age fashion, if you think about it, things get icky.
Wow, in the home stretch! Great job, guys!