Superman Movie Review - Gunn's Genius Masterpiece [Spoilers]

Welcome back to the channel. I hope you're having a good weekend. Want to talk about Superman. This was the genius of James Gunn. Um, so we're going to talk about why I thought, despite some of the, uh, criticism of the film, why I thought James Gunn nailed this film and why I feel we, we now have Superman back, um, something we haven't quite seen in a very long time, um, in my opinion. And, um, finally I think I understand why they wasn't able to, uh, make a, uh, a, you know, a good Superman film up to now, why I had to keep rebooting and such. And so we're also going to get into spoilers. So I'm going to try to give a warning before the spoilers get heavy, just in case you haven't seen the movie. If you're a Superman fan, you should have seen that movie on opening day, right? That's how the real Superman fans do it. So we're going to get into all that and I'm going to try to explain why I think they were failing and why James Gunn got everything correct. So first off, James Gunn, he, I think, did something that I hadn't seen done with a Superman film yet, and that is James Gunn seemingly put every element of the Superman mythos in this film. So what you end up getting, you kind of got what would be, uh, a more serious Superman film. I mean, emotionally, off the comic book pages, right? That's something that a lot of people, I think, wanted to see done. Correctly, yet embody what Superman was. So you, you, you get that realistic feeling movie, right? And then you get that straight from the comic books, uh, Superman movie, right? Where you got all the Superman elements in there. Um, and so you get a movie that its gravity where it's kind of the, the, the serious parts. I know a lot of people were saying, well, you know, it's the goofiness and they didn't want to deal with the goofiness and it was taken away from the film. But comic books, there are elements in most every comic book where there is that goofiness, right? And I think James Gunn does a good job of putting those elements in. And yet being able to give us this complete film. And I think that's what's been missing. I think that's why a lot of people, they're looking at the Superman film and they're going, okay, I like this film, you know, why does it feel kind of strange at times that I like it? What's, you know, what's— I feel like something should be missing, but maybe It isn't missing, and that's because you're trying to figure out what type of Superman film this was trying to be. The answer is, is all of them put together, and that's something we haven't seen done in a Superman film. I think even when we go back to the, the, the, the first Superman film, that to many is the pinnacle, right? And, and I agree, it's the pinnacle. But here's the thing, here's, here's the thing we have to understand about that. Right? You go back to The Pinnacle, you got these great Oscar-worthy great actors in it that bring that heavy weight to it. Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, right? And most of our Superman, uh, or most who we perceive to be the best, Chris Reeves, right? When, when that enters into that film, that film becomes so heavy, right, that even though we know it's comic book film, we feel it's a comic book film, uh, that's being a real movie, right? Whereas in James Gunn, we feel it's a comic book film that's being a comic book film movie, but it has elements of a real life film in it, right? So I think that those are kind of saying different things, but James Gunn manages to balance it all, unlike we've ever seen before in Superman film, right? And so I, I think it's very important we, we pay attention to those characteristics, right? Now let's get into the, uh, uh, uh, a very pivotal situation in the James Gunn depiction of Superman. Why it had to go this way. Like, you know, I know if you're a Snyderverse fan, you're going, oh man, this is just stupid, and it's gonna be a stupid, uh, world-building situation for Superman. But here's what you got to understand: it's a reason that this film needed to go that way, and it's a reason that I like the— where it starts at, where it doesn't start at the origin story of Superman. Because here's the problem, guys. We've seen the origin stories of Superman done in pretty much every version of Superman, I think, but this one, right? Well, there's a— yeah, there's a very, very, uh, uh, what I wouldn't call it an origin story, right? You know, you kind of see these little flashback clips or whatever, but not anything like we've seen done in other versions of Superman, right? And why'd I think that was important? Because I think the origin stories of Superman has been done so well. Um, we— they don't need any reboots. We don't need to tell that story over and over and over again, right? Superman meets Zod, Superman, um, you know what I mean, meets Lex Luthor, and so on. Even though Lex Luthor is the, you know, is like the main, you know, I guess you could say, guy in the, in the story, right? But, or villain. But it's a, it's a reason it needed to go this way, and that is, and it put— this is going to be like a vast universe, DC, right? So this had to be a launch pad, right? Uh, Superman didn't need to be rebooted, right? So what do you need to do is you needed to get Superman in a more vast world of these metahumans, which is what they did. And I, I was relieved to see that because as a lifelong Superman fan, I've just seen the origin story done over and over again. It's— and it's been done very, very well. It's been done the best it can be done. Doesn't need to be done again, guys. I know a lot of people wonder, oh, we want a standalone Superman, you know, uh, film. You know, we wanted to just be Superman, right? Nobody else. Uh, let's focus on Superman. This is our first introduction to Superman. But many of these elements of Superman I thought David Corensweth got right, was, uh, was well done, and it was enough to catapult us forward into where this Superman is going, yet be connected to all the past histories of Superman, right? That makes sense, right? So all of that makes sense when you think about all these various— there's a lot of— see, it's a lot of characters in the DC Universe. It's a lot. It's as many as Marvel probably, right? So, you know, we're already seeing several of them show up. They're already gelling well with this type of Superman. So bottom line, this is going to be a Superman that's going to be able to be intermingled into the world building of a large cast of DC characters, which is what we're likely going to see. We're going to see DC characters brought to the, uh, to the silver screen we haven't seen before. And I think that's quite important because if you think about the Chris Reeve Superman, would he gel? He, he wouldn't work well with the other Justice League members. I, I think looking at the Chris Reeve Superman is similar to looking at the Matt Reeves version of Batman. This, this, these are very much standalone characters. They're awesome as standalone in their, uh, specific worlds, but it's time to move the Superman story along. Now we want to see him interact with other characters. I'm on team for that, right? I want to see Superman go into areas, go into universes, go places in outer space we haven't seen him before on the silver screen. And in order to do that, I think successfully, you're gonna need someone like, uh, James Gunn, right? James Gunn fits that bill. Uh, you look at the Snyderverse Superman I wasn't a big fan of how they— he intermingled with those, you know, with the other Justice League metahumans. We saw that, uh, you know, some people liked it. You kind of still see there was goofiness in it, you know. He had goofiness with The Flash and you had goofiness with, um, Aquaman. And maybe that was, um, not Zack Snyder but, uh, the person who took over for Zack Snyder who His name escapes me for now, the director we know from all the TV shows like Buffy. I don't know why I can't think of his name right now, but he kind of— you can tell he was kind of leaning more to the comic booky stuff, whereas I think Zack was staying away from that. He was making a serious Batman-like version of Superman, right, that a lot of us true Superman fans didn't like. And, uh, so he gets, you know, latched on to the Justice League And a lot of, a lot of those characters, they're dark just like Superman, right? These are scary type aliens, and, uh, you, you— it's just not, it's just not, you know, embodying the spirit of the goodness of Superman, right? But anyway, uh, now we're going to start to get into spoilers into the movie. So guys, if you don't want to be spoiled, you haven't seen the movie yet, it's probably time to leave because I, I will be dabbing into that. So, um, all right, so let me jump right into the movie, right? I like this movie. How do I rate it? Um, I'm gonna give it an A, right? I'm gonna give it an A because simply because it takes Superman into his own world, own element, something the other Supermans I don't think done successfully. I think James Gunn's probably the only person who could have done this successfully, right? Because I, I, you gotta have an expansive, strange mind like James Gunn, I think, to get to that area, that zone where you could do a Superman movie like this. I don't think anybody could have thought about this any other way, right? So, um, let's get, let's get, let's get to it. The pacing of the film moved along great, right? Uh, in every Superman film, every— I mean, in everyone I've watched, right, every Superman film, there's been just— and you guys probably know what I'm talking about when you watch long movies, right? This movie wasn't super long, but it was— it, I think it would be considered more on the long end, right, compared to many movies we see today. But yeah, not, you know, not too long, but, you know, enough that you're gonna get just enough. You don't get enough of the film. Some people said they wanted more of it. I, I think you got enough. Um, the pacing was excellent. I never found like a moment where I'm ready for the movie to move along. Uh, uh, you know, if the complaint is people wanted more in this film, that makes sense because if anything, I felt, um, like, uh, the movie was moving along fantastically well, right? It moved great. It got what it needed to be done and it moved on. I like that. I never like when I feel like it's wasted time in a film, so they did excellent on that. Um, the actors themselves, uh, some people complained about Lex Luthor. Uh, I thought Lex Luthor was fine, right? Uh, I wouldn't class him as the best Lex Luthor. He wasn't the best Lex Luthor, but he was kind of like this young Lex Luthor who I feel— who I felt fit all or enough of the elements of— he embodied all the elements of what we know to be Lex Luthor, right, in a package. And, um, I, I thought that that was, uh a fairly complete Lex Luthor, right? I don't think he was the, you know, the most in-depth. I don't think he was like the greatest actor or anything like that in there, but I thought he, he did a, a great job, right? Uh, so, uh, Nicholas Hoult, whereas, um, um, I like him as an actor, uh, him playing Lex Luthor would be a, a win for me because I, I would give him an A rating because Uh, I just didn't see him, so he kind of surprised me. I didn't really always see him as Lex Luthor. I was always kind of like, okay, is he gonna work? And, uh, I, I think he worked, right? So in that regard, the surprise element giving a boost to that, I would give him an 8. Uh, David Coren Sweat, excellent Superman. He gets Superman down all the way. It's a, it's a Chris Reeves type feeling, uh, and then he can move into the— he fits well in the comic book world. Like, he doesn't feel like he's outside that world, whereas I could kind of see, like, if Christopher Reeves was in a movie like this, I could see him being outside that world. Uh, I definitely could see Henry Cavill being outside that world. David Corensweth can move in between the comic book world and the real world. Excellent, right? And Chris Reeves could do it too. Chris— but, but, but Maybe not on this level, right? So David Corenswet, he might just— he might end up being the best Superman of all Supermans, right? Simply because I, I, I just think he, he has it. He has that versatility, uh, unlike I've seen before. I think when— to be fair to Chris Reeves, when Chris Reeves, uh, you know, did it, he was a— he had done many productions, right? I think he was a very fresh out of Juilliard type actor, which David Corenswet comes out of Juilliard as well. So, but I don't— David Corenswet seemed like he had just— he was a little bit more poised, uh, in his first run as Superman. And excellent, uh, we have, uh, uh, I believe a, uh, the greatest Lois Lane we've had since Margot Kidder, you know, right? Um, uh, you know, hands down, uh, You know, I can't remember her name for whatever reason, but she gets it. She totally nails Lois Lane. It's believable, right? Now, some people were saying that the chemistry was a little tiny bit off, you know, not badly off, but I've heard some people say, well, yeah, they bought— they were genuinely, you know, energy romantically you know, compatible in the film. And I think they definitely was. I think any resistance— because I was trying to say, I do feel, what is this resistance I'm getting? Because if you, if you kind of make a comparison between Margot Kidder and Chris Reeves, right, uh, it was more like she was kind of putty in his hands, right? Uh, a very high level of respect throughout most of the film. But you got to remember, Margot Kidder, through the majority of Superman films didn't know he was Clark Kent, and there's a different dynamic. This Lois Lane is tapping into the, the human elements of Superman, so she knows he's a regular guy, Clark Kent, with flaws. And so much like in a normal relationship, uh, she's not seeing him as a god, she's seeing the flawed Clark Kent and Superman, right? So it, it, it's kind of going to where I feel like it's a situation where she's more into— he's more into her than she's into him, right? You know, as we can see in the film, and she's going, well, I thought this was a bad idea. Margot Kidder, uh, would she be saying that? Probably after she knew he was Clark Kent, maybe in a situation like what we got in Superman 2 where he gives up his powers for her. But it was always kind of like Superman was the good boy born to Lois Lane, then she was into him. She was kind of spunky, daring, out there, risk-taking person that if something didn't work, she just was out. Um, and, uh, that's how kind of how I felt about this. Lord saying I thought she did an excellent job, right? We're looking at Krypto. Let's get into the 800-pound gorilla in the room. A lot of people thought this was to steal the— steal the film show with Krypto. A lot of people didn't think Krypto was going to work at all. I thought Krypto worked great in this film. Yeah, he taps more into the comic book elements of the film, but, uh, there are— there's just some good energy, well, with Krypto. I think he works, especially, uh, we get to this very heavy spoiler territory at the end, which we're heading to. You should be out of here by now, uh, if you're not— you don't want to see the spoilers. But, you know, of course we get to learn that he is really Supergirl's dog. Right? And that is the big surprise at the end that I thought fit well in the film. I like how Supergirl is depicted. She's always kind of depicted as this young teenager that's kind of partyish, kind of defiant to Clark, who she's actually older than, but because of the, uh, the, uh, situation with her travels and her getting knocked off course and how time relativity time works, uh, she, she ends up, you know, being kind of the younger, uh, sibling, right? The cousin. Um, the Justice League, right? Let's touch on that a little bit. The Justice Gang, they're not the Justice League yet. There is a lot of people talk about how there's not really Easter eggs in here, and that's true. They're not laying heavy on any of that. It's not really. But, but if you guys notice when they go to see Guy Gardner and Hawkgirl and they're kind of sitting around, they're at the, uh, I was trying to read the, the title of the building. It's supposed to be like the Hall of Justice, right? If, if those of you all who are old enough to remember Super Friends or caught the Super Friends cartoon, that building is an exact— looks exactly like the Hall of Justice we see in the animated series, right? And I just love that. I, as a kid, I just went crazy for that because when I would come home from school, that building was just so iconic, how they show them line up in front of them. So it looks like James Gunn may be building a real— and if he is, that's going to be so awesome to see, right? Just an excellent film. James Gunn couldn't have done a— uh, he done an excellent job. I don't think he, he wasted any material or any sources. I think he put in there exactly what he needed to put in there for us to be ready to see the next movie with Superman in it or something from that Superman world, right? Now, another person who shows up in there is the Peacemaker. Now here's the crazy thing, I've never seen the Peacemaker series, but it's no surprise that in the Peacemaker series I did see clips of the final episode, right? Of the first season where the Justice League kind of shows up, right? And he's cursing them out, and it's the actual, you know, Justice League, right? It's the actual, you know, characters, right, from the film. And I was like, okay, that is so awesome to tie that in. But Peacemaker is in the— he's in the, uh, in, in the Superman movie. So I like that. That's gonna make me go watch season 1. Catch up to season 2. And, um, yeah, that's— I think that's awesome, the tie-in, and it's all part of that world building. Uh, so excellent, guys. Excellent, excellent film, right? Uh, Guy Gardner— a lot of people was wondering, is he gonna be too goofy for the film? Uh, Guy Gardner fits in excellent with the film. I like the com— he's very funny, but it's comedy that works, right? It's not like the stupid comedy you get, you know, when people try to put comedy in. James Gunn comedy actually works. It's funny in comic book movies. Like, because I'm— trust me, guys, I'm one of those people who say, why do you mess up scenes putting in the stupid comedy, comedy bits and stuff, right? It was something that would happen in a lot of Star Wars films that I hated. But let me tell you something, uh, for whatever reason, James Gunn has a formula where it works. Now If you're also like me and you love Creature Commandos, right, uh, there's— I don't want to say Easter eggs again, but in, in that, there is like in the Barovia world, right, that's kind of— I believe they go to in Creature Commandos, right, when they have the princess. Now they have a president, right? There's that office of the palace she, she lives in, and, um, that seems like to be the same palace that the Princess lived in. And so I just love all that connection, right? So James Gunn's doing that little Marvel connection stuff, but it's not poured on you too heavy to where everything has to connect. But you just love seeing that, oh, this is all part of the world James Gunn's building. This is real to his world and such. Another thing, a lot of you all who are concerned about Batman, uh, Batman's gonna work well in this world man. It's going to be so exciting to see, uh, a Batman in James Gunn's world, right? Because remember, this isn't like the, uh, the Matt Reeves Batman or the, uh, Christopher Nolan Batman, you know. This is basically the, um, more like— would be more like close to a Michael Keaton type Batman, I think, that's going to work in the James Gunn world, right? And, you know, whenever you think about— I think this is a good point point to make too, to especially like Snyderverse fans who, who hate James Gunn. They hate this kind of world, this kind of world that Superman inhabits, that if you're going to have a Superman, a world like this, it would have to be this way. Uh, if you think back to Michael Keaton's Batman, right, uh, how many of us love that first Batman, that first dark version of Batman that was kind of comical, goofy, dark humor with Uh, uh, the creator of the, um, uh, geez, what's wrong with me today? Why can't I remember, uh, the, the guy who, uh, Tim Burton. Tim Burton's Batman, right? Tim Burton. Uh, remember how that, how Batman was menacing and he was, he was in this kind of crazy dark gothic world of Tim Burton, but he was serious that Michael Keaton gave these serious— that's, that's what James Gunn's doing, right? That's, that's how I think of what James Gunn does with this Superman, right? And, and what it does is whenever you try to make a superhero film and you can't find out what's missing, that's what's missing. That's why Marvel dominated DC. Think about what I'm saying. It's not Spider-Verse fans. The reason that Marvel dominated DC is because at times it would just be a comic book movie that didn't take itself serious, but it would mingle with more serious characters, right, that happened to be part of that universe as well. If you try to make like a full serious comic book movie, like say you try to make an Oscar-winning Superman, like a Christopher Nolan version of Superman where he's serious person, right, um, you're gonna get some kind of disconnect or audience fatigue. I, I don't know if you're kind of like in this uncanny valley where you just can't accept this is reality, but whatever it is that has stopped these, uh, superhero films from being a success— Marvel long ago, uh, found the formula, right? When they have like Tony Stark flying around being funny you know, in a comic book world, but kind of being, you know, at the same time in a serious world. James Gunn knows how to do that, and that's why it works, right? And that's why you can have these comical bits like here with Superman and Krypto, and you're not taken out of the film. You're like, okay, this is their universe, right? This— it just happens that this is how when those metahumans were discovered, it just happens this is how it goes, right? So this was a great film, guys. I would debate anybody who says otherwise, uh, that this wasn't an A+ film for what its mission was and what it needed to do. I think it nailed it perfectly, right? I don't, I don't think it could have been too much any better, right, than this. I don't, I don't, I don't think it could have with the characters that were involved, what it needs to do, the type of people that Superman's going to be mingling with. Because again, guys, the Superman mythos and story— I am a diehard Superman fan, but the origin story standalone Superman, guys, we've told that story for the last 40 years. Don't you think it's time to move Superman successfully to the next area? And when I say successfully, I don't mean I don't mean guys, um, uh, like poor attempts at putting Superman in the Justice League, right? Like what we got in the SnyderVerse. I mean like it works, people like it, it feels natural. And Marvel, just like even how Hawkgirl was interacting with Guy Gardner and Mr. Terrific, I felt like I had been watching them on screen together for years. It It didn't feel forced. It just felt like they had been doing that a while and they knew Superman and they intermingled with Superman and it was a kind of camaraderie, good energy. But Superman wasn't with them, but he would work with them. I loved it because they were together like they were friends, knew each other. So you don't have to go through all the setting up, meeting every single character in this world, right? To, you know, get us in, into the world where we can have enough material to digest it, right? And so all that was excellent. Mr. Terrific was excellent. He did a great job. I'm not going to go deep into spoiler territory on that. Here's what I think the spoiler is going to be, uh, as I get out of the film. Just going to talk about, um, uh, we know that what do you want to call him, Bizarro Superman, Ultraman. It was just a clone, right? I, I— that's the, that's the part. Even though I was getting spoiled on a lot of things before I saw the movie, I, I, I managed to not know who was in the Ultraman suit, right? It's David Coren Sweat. Not a big deal. Um, I, I kind of would have liked if they showed like a distorted, ugly clone version of him where the clone and stuff didn't take well, but it was just him with long hair And I thought it was fine, you know. Um, I like that they got rid of Ultraman, right? So he won't be in the future. You kind of throw him in those pocket— that means locked in that pocket dimension like a Bizarro character, or maybe he's like an amalgam of different characters or whatnot. But I was fine with that. Um, and then of course at the end we get Supergirl, who's, who's gonna— with Millie Alcock, where they're going to tell a more serious story. And she kind of fits in the— you know, she's being comical— she fits in the, you know, in the, in the story, right, as his younger cousin and so on. But as she, you know, goes into her own story, her travels and what she had to go through on her, what will be her revenge story, right, if they're going to the area of the comic books, right, and her, uh, situation with Darkseid, uh, I know Millie Alcock to be a, from the House of the Dragon series, to be a very good actress. And so I think she's gonna do an excellent job in, uh, you know, fitting into that story and telling that story. I thought she did an excellent job. I love that those end scenes with her and Krypto, that how Krypto acts is normal to her. That's why he's doing Superman like that, you know. Uh, you know, even though, uh, you know, him being a troubled dog, uh, being a, uh, depiction of James Gunn's real-life dog, uh, he's just perfect for horror for Supergirl, and I just love that. Uh, did I leave anything out in this film that I want to talk about right now? Because I don't want to just go on for hours with this. Uh, some people are saying it's the best Superman film today. In some ways, they're correct. Um, I still like the, the heavy energy of Chris Reeve Superman. It's just something about that Superman Uh, you know, the storyline, it being the origin story, being a perfectly told origin story that just stands alone and fits on its, on its own. But definitely this, and, and that's exactly what it is. This is the best continuation of Superman, right? And that story moves forward. This is the best. This David Corensweth is the best successor of Superman, uh, as a full Superman character to date on film. Uh, I, I lend over to Smallville, and that's another thing. Let me get that spoiler in there real quick. A lot of people are saying, well, we have the surprise of, um, Superman, right, finding out his parents— and it was Bradley Cooper playing Jor-El— but that they wanted him to come to the planet and rule. Apparently Uh, it's a— it's a— it's the recording, uh, as it's put together by Lex Luthor and the, uh, the, uh, the Authority. Um, it's a real message, right? And in many depictions of Superman, Jor-El is good. In Smallville, he uses that as trials for Superman, which it could end up to be that in this version of Superman too, which is— it's taken from Smallville. That's kind of paying homage to you Smallville fans. You guys remember that Jor-El was bad through most of the seasons, but they were just trials for Superman. And maybe that— it could be— I would love if they put that in there later on because, uh, a lot of people think it destroys Superman. Those are people who are not familiar with Smallville, the Smallville mythos, and Superman. It does not destroy Superman in Smallville. It was used as series of trials, right? Uh, to growing pains to help Clark grow up, you know, to grow into Superman, to know that sacrifices have to be made and so on. And it was just well done in Smallville. And, uh, of course many of you all know James Gunn is friends with, uh, Michael Rosenbaum in real life, the guy who played Lex Luthor on Smallville. And I was hoping that Michael Rosenbaum could you know, have had some type of cameo or something. But maybe he might be used in a later— he might be— he might get to be the Flash, right? Who knows? Because, you know, he was the voice of the Flash, and he might get to play an older version of the Flash or something like that. That'd be cool. So we don't know yet, we're gonna see. But this was a great film. Let's see, did I leave anything else out, right? Uh, let's see, I feel like I'm missing something, um, to try to come full circle with it. But I, I, I think we got everything, you know. All the characters would have been Jimmy Olsen, Cat Grant, Perry Grant. I think they all just did a good job, right? I, I think they did enough of what needed to be done, um, you know, for this particular film. Because remember, still supposed to be be a Superman film. So, you know, a lot of people have problems with a lot of side characters, right? You know, they weren't supposed to have like real large parts, but, uh, for what it was, I think it, it did a great job. Of course, we had General Flag from Creature Commandos. I like that tie-in, right? Will the Creature Commandos ever end up with a live-action film? Who knows, right? But anyway, guys, that's all I want to say in this particular video. I thought the film was genius. I hope I tapped into everything that was pretty much overall important. But that's all I want to say. Tell me what your opinion is. Tell me what you liked about it, what you didn't like about it. Let's talk about it, because I think I can convince you as to why so much stuff worked in this film. Of course, the Fortress of Solitude, excellent. We saw in the previews the robots. I thought was excellent in the, in the film, right? So I'm gonna leave it at that, guys. If you like content like this, don't forget to like and subscribe. And don't forget to also join my social media network. You can earn money on there. You can earn money, you can post your comments, you can post videos, you can do anything you do on social media, and you can earn cryptocurrency doing it. So that ought to be fun. Uh, if you're a subscriber of us, check it out, right? I'll try to leave a link, try to make sure I don't forget to leave a link in description. Check it out, go ahead and sign up over there, have some fun over there, earn you a little bit of crypto. You can trade for Bitcoin and whatnot, and I think you'll like it. But that's all I'm going to say in this particular video. Till next time, as always, take care of yourselves and each other.