James Gunn's Superman

 So I saw the new Superman by James Gunn. (SPOILERS)

Little bit of backstory on me, I've never really been a huge DC fan, not out of any dislike for it but kind of just a lack of exposure to a lot of the better DC properties. I vaguely remember seeing Batman TAS on TV and enjoying shows like Batman Beyond and Young Justice but not really engaging with them too much and it's been a very long time since I have seen them. I didn't grow up on the comics or the Tim Burton Batman movies. Man of Steel was okay for what it was but the general trend of the "DCU/Snyder Verse" didn't really appeal to me and started a very long era of DC material that fans and critics generally had nothing but negative things to say about. Every single time a new DC property was adapted into either a live action movie, an animated movie or even a video game, I would hear fans complain about how terrible it is and how the people in charge of adapting it misunderstood the source material. The last decade and a half had to have been exhausting for hardcore DC fans I would presume based on the consensus I've heard.

In more recent years I have taken an interest in a few pieces of DC media. I am still in the process of reading through all 72 issues of the Cassandra Cain Batgirl comic series from 2000 on recommendation from my friend who's a huge fan of it. I also picked up the comic series Allstar Superman from 2007 and I found a hardback collector's edition that has the entire comic run in one book. It's an extremely nice high quality book and the story so far is excellent. I've started to realize that among DC characters, Superman is my guy. Lots of people say dumb shit like "Superman is boring or not as complex or interesting as the character that I like" and sometimes I feel like that is edgy teenager shit when I hear it. I think there is something extremely heartwarming and compelling about a hero whose motivations are genuinely 100% altruistic. His only goal is to help as many people as possible and to do as much "good" as possible. There's something aspirational in that, like how badly I wouldn't want to be that much of a source of "good" at the very least in the lives of my friends and the people I care about. That aspiration to continue to become a better, stronger, more positive, more "good" person in those people's lives is highly motivational while understanding that you will always be a few steps short of perfect. You will never be perfect, that's okay. But Superman IS perfect and would tell you that you can do anything. So you should never stop trying. In this day and age I guess "Kindness really is the new punk rock." 

Anyways, with that introspection out of the way. When it was announced that James Gunn was directing a Superman movie I was definitely interested in it and going in with an open mind. I'm not super in love with James Gunn's style, it's fine. I could take it or leave it. But a campy, over the top, goofy, colorful Superman that feels very cartoony or comic-booky would feel like such a breath of fresh air after the Snyder-verse. I went in with an open mind and generally zero expectations, I didn't need for this movie to be a masterpiece. But in short, I quite enjoyed it a lot! I would happily rewatch this over any other DC movie off the top of my head, more so than any of the DCU/Snyder-verse movies and more than the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy. I really enjoyed all of the actors, I enjoyed the use of the original John Williams Superman theme and I enjoyed that it wasn't an origin story. The continuity of this movie is a few years into Superman being active on earth and Metahumans are a pretty common occurrence. 

Before I go any further into discussing the plot, I need to address the elephant in the room which is the politics of the film. The movie has some VERY blatant and borderline satirical political and social commentary which has caused the "Internet outrage merchants" to get back on their bullshit to complain on social media about "Superman going WOKE" or whatever. Missing the point entirely of most comic book superheroes in the first place. I take a lot of joy in right-wing reactionary crybabies getting pissed off so I enjoyed a lot of the political messaging in the movie. The central conflict that the plot hinges around at the beginning is a geopolitical situation involving two fictional nations where one is getting ready to invade the other on really spurious grounds and it's militarization has been provided to it by richer nations. Superman intervenes purely just to prevent loss of life. This conflict is clearly a reference to how global superpowers like the USA intervene in foreign nations by providing them with weapons, but more specifically you can just substitute these two fictional nations for Israel and Palestine and you get the picture. Then we have Lex Luthor, played by Nicholas Hoult who while maybe not being super faithful to the comics is PERFECT for this movie's plot and political themes. Luthor is basically a stand in for Elon Musk and other wealthy billionaire losers. He has all the money in the world but not enough to satiate his ego, he wants to "buy" people's admiration and adoration but he can't, because he's a fundamentally selfish and unlikable person. He is influencing this war between the two fictional states by providing the aggressing state with weapons purely to manufacture a situation where he can have a slice of land to call his own so he can establish a cult-like kingship there. But also, to manufacture a situation where he can get revenge on Superman because he is deeply petty and insecure. If you are Lex Luthor in this movie's parody of our current society, how do you destroy Superman? you attack his reputation and sabotage him in the public eye. The media expose/slander campaigns that happen to Superman in the first act and again to Lex himself in the finale are so over the top and ridiculous that it HAD to be intentional. I feel like those scenes are deliberately trying to make you feel "wait, no. you can't be serious right?" as a intentional satire of how real world confirmation bias, lack of critical thinking and misinformation impacts our society. It is FRUSTRATINGLY true to life. My jaw was on the floor when I saw that Luthor literally has an army of monkeys screaming and slamming on keyboards to manufacture internet outrage and "discourse". Once again, a frustratingly appropriate metaphor. I also caught the dictator of the aggressing nation saying "Superman thinks the women of this country are the most beautiful so he wants to take them into his harem" which is a reference to the fascist rhetoric of "foreign degenerates are trying to enter our nation to steal our women and pollute our bloodlines with their inferior genes". Once again challenging the audiences political literacy and ability to spot fascist dog whistles when they see them. There's also the plot point of "Superman is an alien/immigrant" and the movie rightly condemns a lot of the US fear mongering about immigrants right now. They basically say "being an immigrant is at the end of the day kind of an arbitrary label, where you live is where you live, it doesn't matter where you came from." While not the most nuanced take, I do appreciate that they show the montage Clark growing up with the Kent family and all of his memories. It was extremely heartwarming and got a strong emotional response from me as someone still grieving the loss of a parent from this year. The final message of the story being "Your home is wherever you want to be and your family is whoever you love and want to care for." 

Anyways, with the politics out of the way we can talk about some of the other plot details. I really enjoy how this is not an origin story, I know yet another superhero origin story would definitely have turned off audiences with how many superhero movies exist now. There is this visual aesthetic to the comic book technology in the movie that feels very retro/space age and fits right into the tone of the story. I love that Lois and Superman are already an item and she already knows his identity. They absolutely didn't have to go that route but I feel like they have good chemistry and the first scene of them being romantic together my first thought was "oh thank god now we don't have to deal with any will they won't they and we get to indulge in their relationship." I really like Lois Lane a lot in this movie, she's pretty, smart and one of the most active members of the cast in terms of getting things done and having an important role in the story.  Superman in this movie is "not perfect" in the sense that he does sometimes act on his own interests. He pursues a relationship with Lois because he loves her and he wants to. He is naive to a fault, trusting everyone on a level that the average person would never do which is something Lois envies about him. But this Superman isn't imperfect like the Snyder-verse Superman. This Superman doesn't kill people and doesn't allow people to die in the crossfire of his battles which I feel like is a VERY important thing to get right and something that the movie only draws attention to through visuals and not through dialogue. It need be taken for granted that Superman doesn't kill people. It goes without saying. Many of the shots of him in fights focus on him getting civilians out of the way including a dog and a squirrel in one instance. I enjoyed the supporting cast as well. Mr Terrific steals the show when he's on screen. Nathan Fillion's Green Lantern is SUCH an asshole and it's great. Hawkgirl I feel like was very underutilized and I would have liked to have seen more of her for sure. I like the depiction of the fortress of solitude in this, the robots as well as Crypto the dog were great. I don't really have a whole lot of negative things to say about the movie at the end of the day. I didn't have any issues with it from a film production standpoint either like editing or cinematography or anything like that. I was all done fairly well to where you "didn't even notice it" and the movie was visually very appealing partially by not really trying to be very true to life. 

And with that, I feel like that wraps up a lot of my major thoughts around James Gunn's Superman! Overall I definitely enjoyed it and I do recommend you go see it.