Superman 2025

[Barry]

This was a hard and difficult review for me.

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I am pretty sure Superman  has been the most produced character since his creation in 1938. While Law and Order probably has the most TV shows, if you add the nine movies and 2,088 radio shows to TV’s Superman (George Reeves)  (104 episodes); Lois and Clark (88); Superboy (100); Smallville. (218);Superman and Lois (53) and Supergirl (126) he will win.  And that is not counting the cartoons and comics and his appearance in “I Love Lucy!”

I am a Silver Age Superman kind of guy.  Christopher Reeve, in his first two Richar Donner movies, is my favorite and the one I judge them all by.

I did not like “Man Of Steel” which gave us a cold, detached hero, who would watch his father die to keep his secret identity. I love Amy Adams, but Lois Lane should have a bit of zaniness in her.  Lois was never really a reporter, just as Quincy was never a doctor or Perry Mason a lawyer. They all played detective.

BUT, I have seen enough of Superman so see that they ALWAYS DO and COVER they same things:
1.  Superman’s origin.  He from Krypton and that part has grown oerr the years and adopted by the Kents.
2.  We will see Lois and Clark Meet; or They know each other but she does not know his identity; Or they are about to married.
3.  Lex Luthor is almost always the villain.  But usually for no reason.
4.  Kryptonite.  It is supposed to be rare, but it always there.


Rather than give this movie a grade, I just consider it unnecessary. A disappointment.



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In the commercials you see a bleeding Superman.  Here is just not as powerful as he used to be.  In fact, he needs three members of the “Justice Gang” to help him.

This comes from the new director, James Gunn, who put together the Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel. Here is doing the same sort of thing, obviously using the same formula to create the Justice League. The three, Geern Lantern, Hawkgirl and Mr. Terric are not the original version but the second and third ones, who are a bit non-functional, just like his Guardians.

Christoper Reeve was my favorite. His Superman had an inner strength and valor along with humor that drove the character. David Corenswet has a bit of that, but not really enough to convince me he could be my Superman. I didn’t see enough of chemistry or playfulness with Rachel Brosnahan. The trouble with the character, as time goes by, is that each generation of her character has to make her stronger and more independent.

There is little time here for personal relationships. Perry White gets little screen time, Jimmy Olsen a bit more.

Lex Luthor is the villian and he has several schemes going to capture and kill Superman. Not very original. But Nicholas Hoult plays the character very well, yet, towards the end, not very believable.

But more and more, comic book movies seemed to be pieces of a jig saw puzzle that are not complete until all the pieces are put together. By introducing so many new characters, Gunn was more concerned to set up a new DC universe than to tell a story about Superman.


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This is not my Superman.

The audience seemed to like it and applauded at parts.  My friend John though it was the best Superman movie.

Not me.

While his origin was not shown, it becomes a major part of the movie.  Jor-El and Lara, his parents, are shown, on video, telling him to take over the Earth and have children with a lot of EARTH women.

A good part is how his parents, Ma and Pa Kent raised him despite his parents.
He now has more weaknesses, but they still use kryptonite.

My biggest objection is once again they have to use Luthor, a mortal who has been in 7 of the 8 Superman movies.  Here, however, he is a political leader causing wars, has super-villains with amazing powers doing his bidding, has invented a passage way to another universe where he keeps hundreds prisoners in their own cage, and, with a help of a huge staff has a machine that is cutting real estate and building in half.

Why is he doing this? I don’t know. He says something ridiculous.  But he is killing tens of thousands and, of course doesn’t care. He does it first in a war with Pentagon backing and then in a machine invading and destroying metropolis. But neither do the dozens working with him care as they see building falling down and Superman saving a squirrel.


I don’t hate it. I had just hoped for something differednt.

[Paul Heroy]

Word of mouth I've gotten has been very positive overall. I'm planning to see it in IMAX next week. 

I'm not the Superman aficionado that you are, Barry, much less the comics guru. I suspect part of the general audience reaction may be just that the overall DC movies have been fairly poorly received over the last several years and there is hope that the new crew with Gunn will at a minimum make movies that aren't as dark and are more fun. Plus, we're getting old man... a lot of the audience hasn't necessarily seen even the Christopher Reeve versions.

[Barry]

Word of mouth I've gotten has been very positive overall. I'm planning to see it in IMAX next week.

I'm not the Superman aficionado that you are, Barry, much less the comics guru. I suspect part of the general audience reaction may be just that the overall DC movies have been fairly poorly received over the last several years and there is hope that the new crew with Gunn will at a minimum make movies that aren't as dark and are more fun. Plus, we're getting old man... a lot of the audience hasn't necessarily seen even the Christopher Reeve versions.

Paul, I think you are right on all counts.  Everyone I know likes the movie, some more than others, but they like the movie. And you’re right also that those who didn’t like the last few movies were looking for something like this. Youn are also right about the Christopher Reeve situation. we just needed to believe a man could fly. Today he has to fly, fight monsters, and do A heck of a lot more.

[Barry]

Two things you may not know about Superman, Lex Luther, and kryptonite.

Kryptonite was invented on the radio show so that Bud Collier , the actor who played Superman, could go on vacation. The storyline would always have him under the influence of kryptonite, moaning, and groaning, which could be done by anyone, and people like Batman looking for him. So Bud got a week or two off.

Why does Lex Luther hate Superman? Luther was a villain that occasionally popped up to fight Superman beginning in 1940. He had hair. But a few years later, Later by accident, the newspaper comic strip printed him bald and he’s been bald since.

In Remaking the DC line of Comics during what is called the silver age there was a story in 1960 where Lex and Superboy were friends. Lex was a scientist and caused a fire in his laboratory. Superboy comes to rescue him and blows out the fire, putting some chemicals on Luther‘s head , creating his boldness.  So that is why he hates Superman.

[David Vaughn]

My daugher and her husband liked the movie, but I'll wait to see it at home. One of her college friends composed much of the movie (Jake Boring--look for his name in the credits). He works for Hans Zimmer and keeps moving up within his company--hopefully he'll receive top billing at some point soon. 

[Barry]

I forgot to mention  to stay throughout the end credits. There is a scene in the middle and another one at the very end 

[Paul Heroy]

Saw it last night with my friend and his son (my regular theater buddies). They both liked it a little more than me, but my less enthusiastic reaction was in part due to just being a little overwhelmed visually and sonically at times. We were in what should be optimal location, mid theater in a laser IMAX cinema, but it was on the edge for me of being too loud (forgot to take my "hifi" earplugs, which would have helped) and very busy visually at times. We all had trouble understanding dialog occasionally with it being overwhelmed by sound effects and music.

I'd forgotten Barry's comments about Superman needing help - he seemed to get upstaged a bit in his own movie at times. I like Nathan Fillion a lot (since Firefly, though I never watched Castle) and the guy playing Mr. Terrific was, well, terrific too. Some of the story is ripped from current headlines, and that's a bit subjective but might sway some folks. I think they struck a good balance between not overtly telling an origin story that everyone knows, but incorporating those elements into this movie. There was also a nice explanation for why people never recognize Clark as Superman.

There are some very good humorous moments and overall I think they did a pretty good job on the writing front of working a lot of things into the movie. We compared a bit afterward to Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and the consensus was that Gunn did a better job here on the humor and tone being organic and less of a jarring shift. (I wasn't crazy about GotG3 being a bit maudlin at times.)

I think I'll like this a little better on a subsequent watch.