James Gunn’s SUPERMAN is a pretty good film. Deeply flawed, the film still manages to generate some real emotions once it gets going.
That I liked SUPERMAN is something of a miracle. I did not
expect to like it, I am not a fan of James Gunn's, and to be honest his set up of just dropping us into the fray
has problems. The idea works on some level, but the truth is that he leaves too
much unexplained and it takes a while to get our feet grounded. While I have no
problem coming in mid action, I felt like I was coming in after missing the
first film in a series or the first hour of the movie despite knowing the characters from the comics.
The basic plot has a still green Superman in trouble because
he stopped a war. his gets everyone talking-Should the meta-humans be involved in politics? Billionaire Lex Luthor is
claiming no and is working on stopping Superman anyway he can, which involves a
super armored army, and a guy named Ultraman. Stuff happens, not much of it
deep, including the discovery of a message from his birth parents that he is supposed to subjugate
humanity (a massive re-write of 80 years of continuity) not help it. Lex is
revealed to be the real bad guy.
The problem with the film is the script is really kind of simplistic. I know James
Gunn was a fan of the Christopher Reeves films, but God damn they are like a Tolstoy
novel compared to this film. Frankly, the simplicity and dumbing down of the writing is akin to some
the crappy comics writing in the 50’s and 60’s. This is Superman for pre-schoolers down. I
may not have liked some of what Zach Snyder did with the character, but his
writing was not on a grade school level. At least the Snyder world made sense, nothing
in Gunn’s world does. The character interactions are not really connected to the world the inhabit except to put people in danger. No one interacts with real people. Whatever the meta humans do is somewhere else unless monsters attack. I kept wanting to stop the film and ask question. Things are
either black or white. There is no middle ground. Worse there is no world creation or details of Metropolis.
I won’t even talk about the narrative flow because there is
none. Things just happen -because Gunn needs them to. While I don’t mind some
of what happens, like the giant monster attack, I don’t like that Gunn’s
choices are geared more toward something cool to look at rather than something
that makes narrative sense. (the Justice Gang fighting the dimensional sprite is just there for literal background coloring)
Details aren’t there, and neither are some of the
characters. I love Hawk Girl, but she is a nonentity, as if Gunn had no idea
what to do with her other than have her look cool. Metamorpho is just a deus ex
machina. And Ultraman is ultimately a moron? Oh come on.(His inclusion serves zero point other than as a way to get Lex in the Fortress of Solitude)
Do I even want to discuss Lex Luthor? Of course, the far
right hates this film Lex is redrawn as a smarter Donald Trump who doesn’t care
about anyone or anything. But Lex’s plan makes no sense on any number of
levels, and it’s cartoony to the nth degree. And which is Luthor’s goal – to become
king or kill Superman- the film ultimately isn’t clear.
And yet the film works on its own broken terms once it gets
going. Once there is a forward momentum and we are at the point where we just have to let it go it mostly works. We genuinely have stakes to fight for. Sure, the battle with Ultraman is
old hat, but it’s kinda fun. The film has some touching moments, such as Superman
with his parents. They may not be earlier incarnations but the amount of love
and humanity in them is light years beyond what we have seen in previous films.
The superman/Lois romance works. There are times when Gunn actually seems to
understand the character and the film soars (though it would have been nice not to reference/ steal/ lift from the Reeve films)
I liked the film, or the second half. I’m curious where he
may take the character, but I still expect to be disappointed because Gunn is
too intent on controlling the story and infusing it with humor at the wrong time. Gunn
speaks of the character with reverence but also treats it without any. (Let's face the choice of Guy Gardner is purely so he can use low brow humor)
It’s an interesting miss fire that I don’t need to see
again.
(And this would have been different if I wrote this right
after I saw the film but the truth is it isn’t bad enough to have all the wings
and legs pulled off it.)
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