Monsters—from the Id!

We saw James Gunn’s new Superman movie on Thursday, and I have some thoughts about it.

I’ll start by saying that this isn’t a review. I don’t do movie reviews because I don’t feel I have the right background for it. I can tell you what I like and don’t like, but without at least a film class or two under my belt, I can’t tell you if what I see and like or dislike has a basis in anything other than just a visceral reaction. I’m also going to say up front that while I’m not a major Zack Snyder fan, I did like some of the DCEU films. I liked some of the CW for a while as well. For that matter, I’ve liked aspects of most of the DC movies and shows I’ve watched. I’m willing to go into most movies and shows with an open mind, and if I don’t think I’ll like it, I won’t watch it. Life’s too short, and I have the WT!S! gang to keep me going with stuff I may not like.

With that said, let’s press on.

One of the things I liked immensely is that this movie has color—more so than any of the DCEU or the CW—is how bright and colorful this movie is. The color is rich and warm, not washed out. Most of the movie occurs during the day, not at night, where it’s easier to hide bad CGI. That’s a mixed blessing, of course, because it means that flaws in the CGI are that much more evident, but honestly, a lot of CGI these days feels slipshod to me because as CGI has become cheaper and more common, it’s also become, well, cheap, like bad blue/green/black screen (1970s Shazam! anyone?). I’ll take the flaws in the CGI over setting everything in darkness and/or desaturating the color for an entire film.

Another major plus for me is how this feels like a more fleshed-out universe than previous attempts at a Superman movie. Of the various versions of the big red S on the big screen, only Superman Returns didn’t start with Krypton going boom. There are already other superheroes in this universe. This isn’t Superman’s first appearance to the public. There are Easter eggs for the comic book fans like me, but this movie reminds me of how Star Wars felt like it was a “lived-in” universe with a past to be explored.

I like where we are in this Superman’s career. He’s at a point where he’s starting to see that things aren’t so black-and-white, and he’s finally being put in a position where he has to rethink some of the things that make him who he is. He’s starting to lose some cockiness that we see hints of at the beginning of the movie. His interaction with his foster parents, the only real parents he’s ever known, feels genuine. I find the Kents believable—an older couple in the rural Midwest who aren’t the most technologically savvy but have a solid ethical compass and an understanding that parenting isn’t micromanaging. They remind me of Byrne’s version of the Kents—classic “salt of the earth” folks.

And I’m going to say this right up front: Corenswet’s Clark vs. his Superman is the best I’ve seen since Christopher Reeve pulled his glasses off and hastily put them back on in that one scene from Donner’s Superman. He really feels like two different people.

I’m not going to say this movie’s perfect, because it isn’t. I believe there’s never been a perfect live-action Superman, though some versions have come closer than others. I could give you a litany of reasons why, and here are some:

• Kirk Alyn and George Reeves were fun, but I found the serials and series boring after a while because they didn’t fight superpowered villains.
• No matter how much I may like Christoper Reeve, I thought the 1978 Superman suffered from an uninteresting Krypton (making you glad Kal-El got off that rock, especially with a father who mumbled words written on a diaper), a campy Lex Luthor whose genius seemed unearned, and a Lois Lane who—well, Margot Kidder might have been a good actor, but she didn’t fit my version of Lois Lane. And every film after the first just got less and less enjoyable for me.
• Lois and Clark had some good moments in it, but some of it was just downright too campy or (IMO) poorly written for me toward the end. (The House of El as Kryptonian royalty? Really?)
• Smallville lasted too long, IMO, and things like “he’s Jimmy Olsen, but not that Jimmy Olsen” and “no flights, no tights—for Clark, that is” eventually led to my skipping the last two or three seasons of the show (maybe more).
• Brandon Routh wasn’t bad as Superman in Superman Returns, but Bryan Singer’s slavish devotion to making a movie that took off (get it?) from Superman II just didn’t work for me. I enjoyed it well enough during the movie, but the more I thought about it afterward, the less I liked it.
• Oh, yes, the Snyderverse/DCEU. I’m not nearly as critical of it as the haters, but I’m not a Synder stan, either. I saw what Snyder was going for with Kal-El’s (and the rest of the universe’s) journey through darkness into light, and I think it would’ve made a great epic story arc. One of the major problems, however, is that, based on everything I’ve read, it was going to take several films, and I’m sorry, but that’s a lot to ask of your audience for a payoff that might never happen (and ultimately didn’t). And this doesn’t even touch on what I thought was uneven quality in the rest of the DCEU films, sometimes from one film to the next with the same character (I’m looking at you, Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984).
• Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman (not so much in Supergirl but rather in Superman and Lois) is one of the better takes on Superman, but I think it’s because he plays an older Man of Steel, and the family dynamic in the show was fantastic. Even so, it always bugs me that he looks like he’s got a permanent five o’clock shadow, and honestly, I think this show should’ve been called The Superman Family from the start because that was its real strength. Here’s the thing, though: I don’t think a perfect Superman movie should start with a Metropolis Marvel who’s already a father of teenagers.

And yet, despite the flaws I find in each version, I also like some things in each iteration. That brings me back to Gunn’s entry into the mythos. Not perfect, but enjoyable. Would I change some things? Yeah. Does that mean I hated it? Definitely not. Do I think it’s worth seeing? Absolutely. YMMV.