SUPERMAN by James Gunn (OUT now)

[In The Zone '98]

Its Monday...

 

[The War Report]

Bro, these are civilizations on EARTH. Krypton is a dead planet hundreds of thousands of miles away from Earth

Hundred of thousand of miles away? Nah


Krypton was in a different star system my man.

 

[MenacingMonk]

What drastic change?

You haven’t been reading what I’ve been arguing?

Spoiler

The El family wanted little Kal to be King of the Plebeians. At least that’s what we got right now.

Hundred of thousand of miles away? Nah


Krypton was in a different star system my man.

It doesn’t matter. Humans can decipher alien language in 2 days. We r smrt.

 

[King Static X]

I mean, in Superman (1978), Kryptonite was randomly found in a meteorite in Ethiopia, lol.

Humans deciphering an alien language in a universe with different alien beings isn't a big deal to me. Obviously, the technology and knowledge on Earth is more advanced in the DC universe than in real life.

 

[The_Sheff]

The more I think about this movie, the more I like it for not race or gender swapping anyone just for inclusivity.

They took an underused black hero and gave him some shine. Didn’t kill him off or make him job out either.

I can respect that.

 

[CHICAGO]

Her and Ultraman together went toe to toe with Superman and she still got washed, but I get your point.

YOU SOUND CRAZY.

THEY DIDNT GET WASHED AT ALL.

SUPES HAD TO DO A SUICIDE DIVE
FROM 100K FEET
JUST TO GET HER OFF OF HIM
AND WAS IN A SUBMISSIVE POSITION
AS USUAL WHEN ULTRAMAN
GO KNOCKED INTO THE BLACK HOLE
BY SOME DEBRIS


​

 

[Dr. Narcisse]

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

You haven’t been reading what I’ve been arguing?

Spoiler

The El family wanted little Kal to be King of the Plebeians. At least that’s what we got right now.

It doesn’t matter. Humans can decipher alien language in 2 days. We r smrt.

its arguments like these /\ that dumb down movies. Netflix 'second screen' dialogue shyt. Why in comic movies characters will meet and be like "alright, you go to BASE CAMP ALPHA and get the MCGUFFIN, which we will use to TAKE DOWN THE FINAL BOSS...while you do that, I'll GO TO WASHINGTON DC and talk to the PRESIDENT and ask that he PARDONS YOUR DAUGHTER, who [EARLIER IN THE MOVIE] was accused of a crime that THE FINAL BOSS committed. Then we'll lure FINAL BOSS HENCHMAN to an abandoned area so limit casualties."

everything has to be fukkin laid out flawlessly. Some are valid (@CHICAGO mentioning the engineer for example...personally i'm fine but i get it) but "why can these super geniuses who cloned a fukking kryptonian and can travel thru universes and are KNOWN and ESTABLISHED GENIUSES, translate a message from a computer that WE HACKED WITH A NANOBOT HUMAN HYBRID?!?! Why did they not show Krytonian DuoLingo?!? this is trash" is supreme nerd shyt

 

[Dr. Narcisse]

People like to gloss over Supes being a being brand new and was fighting military vets in MoS. In this new joint, Supes is mindful of destruction and casualties so he can't focus 100% on fighting like in MoS.
I saw a pic of Gunn that confirmed my suspicions but I believe he was greatly influenced (of course not only) by the John Byrne's Superman. I felt the same way with Zack Snyder.

I'm a fan of Man of Steel but this made some good points;

God I hope The Batman can remain its own thing.

Whereas I thought James Gunn’s weirdo punk-rock style worked great with Guardians of the Galaxy, and well enough with Suicide Squad, with Superman it feels like he turned that dial all the way up to hyper-whimsy, and I know this is probably a matter of taste, but for me it just robbed the movie from any real gravitas. I’m sure some comic books fans will rejoice at the idea of the ‘Sunday morning cartoon’ vibe, but if this is going to be the fabric that the new DC universe is made up of, I don’t think it’s going to be for me.

What perplexes me most about this new Superman is how, despite looking like something completely different, it’s still very much the same thing that Zack Snyder offered; a lot of visual mush, a lot of superpowered beings flying around and weightlessly punching each other in the face as buildings crumble around them, a lot of rushed world-building to establish a cinematic universe, and a lot of jarring “what if Superman existed in our real, politically complicated world” allegorical parallels.

That last one bothered me especially for some reason. Besides feeling some frustration about how we’ve seemingly forgotten how to tell stories with more mythological distance from our immediate reality, there was just something particularly depressing (borderline cruel, even) to me about seeing complex real world issues being smashed together corny comic book resolutions. Some spoilers from here on out, but like, seeing a powerful billionaire being taken down by an established newspaper posting about a corruption scandal just reminded me of how much that would never happen in our actual (dis)information age where that kind of institutional trust has long since eroded. And seeing those definitely-not-Palestinian kids being saved from eradication through superhero intervention just made me painfully aware of how many actual Palestinian kids are praying for a salvation that isn’t coming.

And maybe that was point? But then again, I don’t think the movie truly grapples with its own complexities in a meaningful way. There are a bunch of explicit thematic statements here, you know; “this is what it means to be human”, “caring is the real punk-rock”, and so on, but I don’t think any of these truly emerged naturally out of the story. To be fair, Corenswet does a great job at balancing the ‘good boy’ with the ‘all-powerful savior’, but the key moments in what seemed to be his main moral struggle felt like they happened off-screen, or just not at all (e.g. he doesn’t want to kill the big monster but feels nothing after yeeting his ‘twin’ into a black hole?). His relationship to the public also felt weirdly disjointed, with most of the significant swings in public opinion – both for better and for worse – being prompted not by Superman’s actions but by social media stories about him. Again, maybe that was the point. Maybe that’s what it means to bring Superman into the modern age, but I don’t know, I just didn’t feel like the essence of his character; his fundamental philosophy of goodness and caring, was ever truly at stake, nor was it ever truly the source of any real, cathartic transformation.

So yeah, I realize I might be an outlier here, but while I had a nice enough time, the whole thing just left me kind of unmoved and disinterested. I think Gunn is just working on a different emotional wavelength than the one that I’m attuned to.

PS. Props to Mr. Terrific (Edi Gatgehi) for stealing the show.

A review of Superman (2025)

God I hope The Batman can remain its own thing. Whereas I thought James Gunn’s weirdo punk-rock style worked great with Guardians of the Galaxy, and well enough with Suicide Squad, with Superman it feels like he turned that dial all the way up to hyper-whimsy, and I know this is probably a...

letterboxd.com

 

[King Static X]

Clearly, he hasn't watched anything Superman-related outside of the first two Reeve movies. That's probably his only reference for Superman.

Just an old man yelling at the cloud

 

[Silver Surfer]

You haven’t been reading what I’ve been arguing?

Spoiler

The El family wanted little Kal to be King of the Plebeians. At least that’s what we got right now.

It doesn’t matter. Humans can decipher alien language in 2 days. We r smrt.

The fact you are discussing it means mission accomplished.

James Gunn has people head spinning.

I have seen the movie twice and my 11 year old daughter was grinning ear to ear

 

[MenacingMonk]

its arguments like these /\ that dumb down movies. Netflix 'second screen' dialogue shyt. Why in comic movies characters will meet and be like "alright, you go to BASE CAMP ALPHA and get the MCGUFFIN, which we will use to TAKE DOWN THE FINAL BOSS...while you do that, I'll GO TO WASHINGTON DC and talk to the PRESIDENT and ask that he PARDONS YOUR DAUGHTER, who [EARLIER IN THE MOVIE] was accused of a crime that THE FINAL BOSS committed. Then we'll lure FINAL BOSS HENCHMAN to an abandoned area so limit casualties."

everything has to be fukkin laid out flawlessly. Some are valid (@CHICAGO mentioning the engineer for example...personally i'm fine but i get it) but "why can these super geniuses who cloned a fukking kryptonian and can travel thru universes and are KNOWN and ESTABLISHED GENIUSES, translate a message from a computer that WE HACKED WITH A NANOBOT HUMAN HYBRID?!?! Why did they not show Krytonian DuoLingo?!? this is trash" is supreme nerd shyt

We’re arguing over a comic book IP. fukk outta here trying to one up me on what’s nerdier when you’re writing fan fiction.

Ol pot calling kettle black shyt.

Stans always wanna make some big deal over something someone calls out.

 

[MenacingMonk]

The fact you are discussing it means mission accomplished.

James Gunn has people head spinning.

I have seen the movie twice and my 11 year old daughter was grinning ear to ear

I’m not even hating on the movie; I even said I thought it was good. But I call out one plothole and the weirdos bring out the pitchforks and assumptions when movies are supposed to explain things as best as possible. fukkin lame asses.

 

[AyBrehHam Linkin]

Gunn makes a drastic change to one of the biggest comic book characters family origins and clowns are like, “it’s ok, let it slide without explaining why. Let us assume why.”

Morally questionable Jor-El is not a new Superman concept, authors have explored this before

 

[MenacingMonk]

Morally questional Jor-El is not a new Superman concept, authors have explored this before

To my knowledge, new to the movies.