[DISCUSSION] Superman (2025)
The DCU kicks off with James Gunn's Superman!
Spoilers for the film, obviously.
Film has a brief mid credits and post credits scene.
Anyone notice they made Superman's clone look a little bit like Henry Cavill during the fight scenes when he's choking Superman? Or was it just me?
Reminds me of how they did the voice-over for Saruman/Gandalf when he re-appeared as Gandalf The White in Fangorn.
Caught it last night... Tonally, Gunn absolutely nails it. The main characters are perfectly done, the B-list characters like Mister Terriffic and Metamorpho are perfectly done.
There are issues with some of the C-list / background characters.
Hawkgirl didn't really have much to do and I don't think Gunn knew what to do with her, which is a shame. Giving her a hawk shriek instead of actual dialog was... a choice. She needed more speaking lines.
Similarly, the background characters at the Planet, Cat Grant, Steve Lombard, were just kind of "there". Nobody, not even Perry White, has a "Hey, where's Clark?" moment. I think Gunn was just working from a checklist of who to include.
Ma Kent... I don't know where she's from, but it aint Kansas... Loved the Kents interactions with Clark, but... OK, I'm biased, I married a woman from Kansas, I've been to both Oklahoma and Kansas... I don't know what that accent is.
All of those are minor quibbles. It was a great way to do Superman.
Now: Spoilers:
::: spoiler spoiler
Easter egg reference to Mister Mxyzptlk. Lois and Clark are having a serious conversation while outside the window Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl and Mister Terriffic are fighting a giant glowing eyeball. "Oh, it's just an extra-dimensional imp, they got this."
Setting up Supergirl - Krypyo is her dog, Supes is just pet-sitting while she runs off to a red-sun planet so she can get plastered. The opening of Woman of Tomorrow.
With Mister Terrific and Metamorpho in the same movie, we've now had 1/2 of "The Terriffics", all we need now are Plastic Man and Phantom Girl(!)
:::Hawkgirl didn't really have much to do and I don't think Gunn knew what to do with her, which is a shame. Giving her a hawk shriek instead of actual dialog was... a choice. She needed more speaking lines.
Personally I thought the shrieking was fun. I do agree she should have had more dialogue and story in general, but the story was already full, so I understand somewhat. Mr. Terrific got a great story beat. Guy Gardner stole a lot of scenes he was in. It would have been nice to give her something more.
And I say "something more" because I do think her dropping the villainous president of the foreign country was a key moment.
We see earlier in the film when everyone is fighting the kaiju that the Justice Gang™ don't have much appreciation for it as a life form. But also they don't have many options.
But when Hawkgirl has the dictator, she absolutely has options. In fact he barely seems bothered as he mocks her. And then she drops him to his death.
We know how Superman would react to that. But what about Gut Gardner? Mr Terrific? Lois's interviews with Superman seemed to imply that actually unilaterally is a problem. Isn't that what the Justice Gang just did? Superman gave him a stern talking to. Hawkgirl killed him.
While this doesn't tell me a lot, it does make me interested in her as a character and keeps me looking forward to wherever she shows up next.
I'll be seeing it in a few hours, so I'll update this comment when I come back.
Okay, so before the movie started, we got a special trailer for "The Naked Gun" with Liam Neeson. This is what he said (paraphrasing):
"I know you're here to see a movie about a Man of Steel. Well, I may not have an S on my chest, but I'm also heroic. Enjoy seeing a movie about a man flying around in his underwear."
And we also finally got the trailer for The Odyssey! It looks darker than I was expecting, but I'm definitely seeing that in 2026.
Okay, now onto the actual movie. It begins in medias res, with Superman having just lost a battle for the first time. The opening scene does a great job of establishing the tone for the movie. It's almost exactly what we saw in the Sneak Peek back in April.
Like others have said in this thread, it's a weird film, and I'm not sure how that will affect the general audience's reception. It truly does feel like a "comic book come to life", but I don't know if that's always a good thing, because there are things that work in comics that don't always work in film, and vice versa.
As for "The Message"? I don't believe it. I don't want to believe that Jor-El and Lara Lor Van intended for Kal to rule Earth under an iron fist. Lex and The Engineer totally manipulated that footage.
I really appreciated Anthony Carrigan's performance as Metamorpho. Speaking of which, that scene with the falafel salesman was brutal.
And at the end, it was extremely satisfying to see Lex get thrashed by Krypto.
Like I said, it's a great film, if a little weird and offbeat, and because of that I see general audiences not being so enthusiastic with this than comic fans.
I'm seeing it again on Monday.
Ultimately that was a weird film. Which is to say A LOT was happening. Breakdown YouTube channels are going to have their hands full. But importantly it was fun. There are lots of moments that I enjoyed.
My highlight has to be Superman and Lois having a serious conversation after Superman is accused of trying to form a harem. The background where Guy Gardner is just whacking a space being. Perfect balance of serious and comedy.
Overall however the just appreciated how we are clearly just placed in this universe. We learn so much about different characters and who exists and what powers they have, but despite or being so much, I think they do a great job of having it all work and make sense.
Take kryptonite for example. We learn that it exists, it weakens Superman but supposedly it's all gone. But Lex has a solution. Then Superman is out in his cell and we see this person/creature just sitting there. Oh! It's Metamorpho! Of course Lex has him and has this series of prisons and has his son. Each of those is a plot line of their own, but in this film we're just going and I think it works.
Did anyone else notice that they sent Lex Luthor to Belle Reve? Will we see him in a Suicide Squad-type gang in the future?
I'd have to watch the film again but publicly I thought Luthor was just in trouble for starting/funding a foreign war. Which, while villainous, doesn't seem super villain to me (and make Belle Reve necessary). Plus, apart from being super smart, his tech wouldn't be available to him in prison.
My guess, given how high up in the government it seems General Flag is, that he pulled some strings to get him somewhere he has influence and insight into.
Although I'm guessing someone like Amanda Waller is more than willing to make a deal with someone like Lex and that will be how he gets out early.