THB #728: Superman

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What is the greatest challenge of Superman as the center of a movie franchise?

Long established, the problem with having an all-powerful character is that the filmmaker has to spend their time trying to figure out how to make the character vulnerable. Famously, there is the Bigger Suit angle, the Multiple Character angle, the Weakened Superman angle, and the Call of Humanity/Sex angle.

And at the heart of James Gunn’s Superman, the first of this era of DC films, are all 4 of these limitations for Superman. It was apparent in the trailers. How many times have you seen Superman getting his ass kicked?

Even in the IMAX trailer above, which leans more to the heroic than earlier trailers had, there are 4 moments in which Superman is being hurt or recovering from being hurt in fights.

The opening written set-up in the opening seconds of the film tell us that Superman has been beaten for the first time since becoming Superman.

There are lots of specific events in the movie, which is loaded beyond the gills with Stuff. Some will be loved, some liked, some not liked at all. Opinions will vary. But the key to the movie… the soul of Gunn’s vision… which is not a retread of Guardians of the Galaxy, as some have suggested, is that the ultimate man is still, for all his power, just a man.

And this very unique take on Superman - even more so given the world of computer graphics that can seemingly do anything, which is still in evidence here - is not only the heart of Superman, but, it seems, the heart of Gunn’s overall vision for this DC Movie Universe.

But did I like the movie?

Yes.

It is a pleasure in a way that, really, no other superhero movie has been before. The film takes place - as described at the very start - in a world in which metahumans (known as mutants or supers elsewhere) are not unknown or even all that rare. But the story is not overwhelmed by supers. There is Superman, there is “The Justice Gang” and its 3 members, there are humans who have been physically manipulated by Lex Luthor for his purposes, and a few others who ultimately show up, only one of which is a significant part of the story.

This big pile of metahuman without metahumans leaking out of every seam is very much the tone of what the entire film is. Hard to nail down. Intentionally, I think.

There are all kinds of loose threads in the film… a taste of a character or a group… that leaves us slightly unsatisfied, but before we can really be unhappy, we are on to the next thing, whether it’s back to Superman or onto some new thinly drawn situation.

The character who seems, at first, like the most shallow, Eve Teschmacher turns out to be one of the most developed in the film, behind only Superman, Lex, and Lois. In her characterization, there is a lot of commentary on the social media world in which we currently live and on the status of women in society.

But this movie is about Superman, first and last. Clark Kent, aside from his earth parents, is really just a construct that happens to be a part of the story… a sidebar.

The next most important character, which becomes much clearer in the 3rd act, is Lex Luthor… whose story would be even more interesting if the film was less loaded up with Stuff.

Lois is #3. She is smart and feisty and pretty… but pretty much sexless and unemotional in the relationship (which exists going into the story). It’s not Rachel Brosnahan’s fault. She can do sexy and she is a beautiful woman. It’s the design of the screenplay. It felt very intentional. And it’s not a James Gunn thing, as he made his fierce women in Guardians sexy as hell.

But the pants (below)!!!