Thanks for the review 'coast! You & me both, I wasn't too interested until I heard how much it's fluffing the extreme right, so I'll probably see this sooner or later (they're a great marketing campaign). On that note, is there anything in the story itself that promotes him as an immigrant, or was it just Gunn's offscreen comment?

It bodes well that there's humor & personality to this incarnation, I think that's what appealed to me about the Reeve era. The movies didn't take themselves too seriously.

The abundance of cgi is unfortunately a drawback for me. I think you pegged why: "unbelievable antics onscreen, not to mention confusion." Somewhere along the way, cgi rewrote the laws of physics onscreen. Everything moves 10x faster and nothing has any weight to it. Like literally watching a cartoon.

How did the audience react? Any cheering, lols, etc?

@rooprect said:

Thanks for the review 'coast! You & me both, I wasn't too interested until I heard how much it's fluffing the extreme right, so I'll probably see this sooner or later (they're a great marketing campaign). On that note, is there anything in the story itself that promotes him as an immigrant, or was it just Gunn's offscreen comment?

It bodes well that there's humor & personality to this incarnation, I think that's what appealed to me about the Reeve era. The movies didn't take themselves too seriously.

The abundance of cgi is unfortunately a drawback for me. I think you pegged why: "unbelievable antics onscreen, not to mention confusion." Somewhere along the way, cgi rewrote the laws of physics onscreen. Everything moves 10x faster and nothing has any weight to it. Like literally watching a cartoon.

How did the audience react? Any cheering, lols, etc?

Hi, rooprect!

The story does spend a fair amount of time on the "illegal [literal] alien" angle, but honestly, James' Gunn's remarks really served to amp it up. Pretty clever on Gunn's part, really, because, as you implied, roop, he baited the Right, which might actually be helping the movie. For a group that claims to be able to "see through the hype to the truth", the far Right really are like bugs to an electric light on a hot summer night surprisingly often.

As far as audience reaction? I think they liked it. But it's hard to tell. We Midwesterners are a strange people. In my experience, we are pretty dopey when it comes to movie reactions. Whether we like a movie or not, we tend to pretty much stay on one, relatively indifferent plane.

(I do recall, a couple years back, the audiences I was part of audibly reacted, in a positive way, to both Barbie and Oppenheimer, so there are exceptions).

Oh, before I forget-- there were certain parts of Superman that my audience really did enjoy-- which were any of the scenes featuring Krypto, Superman's dog. I enjoyed those sequences, too, although I am not sure at any point that they actually used a real dog. I suspect he may have been entirely CGI.

I think as an animal lover, rooprect, you will greatly enjoy those scenes, too.

@northcoast said:

@rooprect said:

Thanks for the review 'coast! You & me both, I wasn't too interested until I heard how much it's fluffing the extreme right, so I'll probably see this sooner or later (they're a great marketing campaign). On that note, is there anything in the story itself that promotes him as an immigrant, or was it just Gunn's offscreen comment?

It bodes well that there's humor & personality to this incarnation, I think that's what appealed to me about the Reeve era. The movies didn't take themselves too seriously.

The abundance of cgi is unfortunately a drawback for me. I think you pegged why: "unbelievable antics onscreen, not to mention confusion." Somewhere along the way, cgi rewrote the laws of physics onscreen. Everything moves 10x faster and nothing has any weight to it. Like literally watching a cartoon.

How did the audience react? Any cheering, lols, etc?

Hi, rooprect!

The story does spend a fair amount of time on the "illegal [literal] alien" angle, but honestly, James' Gunn's remarks really served to amp it up. Pretty clever on Gunn's part, really, because, as you implied, roop, he baited the Right, which might actually be helping the movie. For a group that claims to be able to "see through the hype to the truth", the far Right really are like bugs to an electric light on a hot summer night surprisingly often.

As far as audience reaction? I think they liked it. But it's hard to tell. We Midwesterners are a strange people. In my experience, we are pretty dopey when it comes to movie reactions. Whether we like a movie or not, we tend to pretty much stay on one, relatively indifferent plane.

(I do recall, a couple years back, the audiences I was part of audibly reacted, in a positive way, to both Barbie and Oppenheimer, so there are exceptions).

Oh, before I forget-- there were certain parts of Superman that my audience really did enjoy-- which were any of the scenes featuring Krypto, Superman's dog. I enjoyed those sequences, too, although I am not sure at any point that they actually used a real dog. I suspect he may have been entirely CGI.

I think as an animal lover, rooprect, you will greatly enjoy those scenes, too.

A super dog definitely caught my attention! I hopped over to youtube and watched the scene where Krypto demolishes the fortress of solitude... hilarious! Then I went down the rabbit hole and found an interview with Gunn where he reveals that Krypto was modeled after his own dog, a destructive little guy named "Ozu" (more bonus points as I'm assuming Gunn named him after one of my fav directors Yasujiro Ozu), and for the jackpot of bonus points Gunn says he rescued Ozu from a breeder/hoarder situation.

You're right, from that 1 scene I can see there's a ton of humor and personality to this version of Superman, and that plus the fact that the movie is delivering a wedgie to MAGA's collective underwear definitely makes me want to see it. I won't expect a life altering experience, but a fun popcorn flick is as good as any 90 mins.

About audience reactions, come to think of it I haven't observed many audience reactions in recent years either, so maybe it's not just a Midwest thing. Although I do remember seeing that Midwestern stoicism the one time I was passing thru MT. There was a hot air balloon show in town and I couldn't stop hootin & hollerin like it was a UFO invasion. Meanwhile the locals were like 'uh you don't get out much do you?'

https://www.thefp.com/p/superman-woke-or-not

@rooprect said:

@northcoast said:

@rooprect said:

Thanks for the review 'coast! You & me both, I wasn't too interested until I heard how much it's fluffing the extreme right, so I'll probably see this sooner or later (they're a great marketing campaign). On that note, is there anything in the story itself that promotes him as an immigrant, or was it just Gunn's offscreen comment?

It bodes well that there's humor & personality to this incarnation, I think that's what appealed to me about the Reeve era. The movies didn't take themselves too seriously.

The abundance of cgi is unfortunately a drawback for me. I think you pegged why: "unbelievable antics onscreen, not to mention confusion." Somewhere along the way, cgi rewrote the laws of physics onscreen. Everything moves 10x faster and nothing has any weight to it. Like literally watching a cartoon.

How did the audience react? Any cheering, lols, etc?

Hi, rooprect!

The story does spend a fair amount of time on the "illegal [literal] alien" angle, but honestly, James' Gunn's remarks really served to amp it up. Pretty clever on Gunn's part, really, because, as you implied, roop, he baited the Right, which might actually be helping the movie. For a group that claims to be able to "see through the hype to the truth", the far Right really are like bugs to an electric light on a hot summer night surprisingly often.

As far as audience reaction? I think they liked it. But it's hard to tell. We Midwesterners are a strange people. In my experience, we are pretty dopey when it comes to movie reactions. Whether we like a movie or not, we tend to pretty much stay on one, relatively indifferent plane.

(I do recall, a couple years back, the audiences I was part of audibly reacted, in a positive way, to both Barbie and Oppenheimer, so there are exceptions).

Oh, before I forget-- there were certain parts of Superman that my audience really did enjoy-- which were any of the scenes featuring Krypto, Superman's dog. I enjoyed those sequences, too, although I am not sure at any point that they actually used a real dog. I suspect he may have been entirely CGI.

I think as an animal lover, rooprect, you will greatly enjoy those scenes, too.

A super dog definitely caught my attention! I hopped over to youtube and watched the scene where Krypto demolishes the fortress of solitude... hilarious! Then I went down the rabbit hole and found an interview with Gunn where he reveals that Krypto was modeled after his own dog, a destructive little guy named "Ozu" (more bonus points as I'm assuming Gunn named him after one of my fav directors Yasujiro Ozu), and for the jackpot of bonus points Gunn says he rescued Ozu from a breeder/hoarder situation.

You're right, from that 1 scene I can see there's a ton of humor and personality to this version of Superman, and that plus the fact that the movie is delivering a wedgie to MAGA's collective underwear definitely makes me want to see it. I won't expect a life altering experience, but a fun popcorn flick is as good as any 90 mins.

About audience reactions, come to think of it I haven't observed many audience reactions in recent years either, so maybe it's not just a Midwest thing. Although I do remember seeing that Midwestern stoicism the one time I was passing thru MT. There was a hot air balloon show in town and I couldn't stop hootin & hollerin like it was a UFO invasion. Meanwhile the locals were like 'uh you don't get out much do you?'

I’m glad to see so many people enjoying it. We filmed some out of theater audience reviews to the movie (spoiler free). I wanted to share the video with you guys because I saw people were curious about the audience reactions. What do you think about their thoughts or ratings? Check out the video on YouTube!

@farmerpigproductions said:

I’m glad to see so many people enjoying it. We filmed some out of theater audience reviews to the movie (spoiler free). I wanted to share the video with you guys because I saw people were curious about the audience reactions. What do you think about their thoughts or ratings? Check out the video on YouTube!

Great questions & reactions. I like how that one guy explained that the Snyder/Cavill version was darker, in keeping with Batman of the 2000s-2010s, while Gunn/Corenswet is a return to colorful, comic-booky & fun. It seemed to get a lot of 10 ratings & high 8s even from the many Reeve fans.

@rooprect said:

@farmerpigproductions said:

I’m glad to see so many people enjoying it. We filmed some out of theater audience reviews to the movie (spoiler free). I wanted to share the video with you guys because I saw people were curious about the audience reactions. What do you think about their thoughts or ratings? Check out the video on YouTube!

Great questions & reactions. I like how that one guy explained that the Snyder/Cavill version was darker, in keeping with Batman of the 2000s-2010s, while Gunn/Corenswet is a return to colorful, comic-booky & fun. It seemed to get a lot of 10 ratings & high 8s even from the many Reeve fans.

Thanks so much for the kind words and for watching! The comic book assessment was very accurate. It seems like the movie is enjoyable to Superman fans of all ages!

@rooprect said:

About audience reactions, come to think of it I haven't observed many audience reactions in recent years either, so maybe it's not just a Midwest thing. Although I do remember seeing that Midwestern stoicism the one time I was passing thru MT. There was a hot air balloon show in town and I couldn't stop hootin & hollerin like it was a UFO invasion. Meanwhile the locals were like 'uh you don't get out much do you?'

You guys have shattered my illusions about US audiences! I always imagined they were more demonstrative than us buttoned up Brits - though maybe not quite as demonstrative as Indian audiences seem to be https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tBIlRaELgDI. Over here there is usually laughter at appropriate bits; though I often find that my wife and I are the only ones getting certain jokes, and maybe some subdued sniffling at the sad bits but that's about it. No applause, even at the end. The only times I can remember anything more was a couple of lads who dressed as Jake and Elwood who got up and danced in front of the screen at a Blues Brothers re-release and when Darth Vader finally turned at the end of Return of the Jedi which actually got cheers and applause.

Anyway, went to a nearly empty theatre last night and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. In motion and on the big screen David Corenswet looks much more like "Superman" than he does in the stills and I really appreciated the way that centuries of DC/Superman history were summed up in a few lines so that we didn't have to get the whole origin story/meeting Lois etc etc (that everyone knows already) and the film started at the end of a battle that Superman has lost. The cast is generally spot on, though I have my doubts as to whether Skyler Gisondo/Jimmy Olsen is that irresistible to women IRL. The CGI could be good, but suffered from that murky look a lot of the time, especially in the "prison" scenes.

Plot wise, it had a lot of setting up to do and generally did a good job of setting out a new DC Universe including some of the wackier elements like Krypto and a kawaii dragon beast in Metropolis. It wasn't perfect: the appearance of a new character at the end makes you wonder why Kal-El doesn't know more about his parents, for instance. Also, where is the disputed country supposed to be? One side of the line seems Eastern European while the other Indian or maybe Middle Eastern.

Politically this is a Superman who does want truth and justice above all (though the actions he ends up in trouble for are what many outside the US would see as "The American Way"). I wonder if the humanising of Luthor's henchpeople was meant to show the audience that supporters of "the other side" may not necessarily be evil; they've just bought into a charismatic leader's vision.

A strong start to Gunn's tenure.

P.S. I'm guessing Mme LeMarchand is a Cavill fan as she doesn't find David C attractive and found the movie too dark. She lost interest during the "Russian Roulette" scene.

@M.LeMarchand said:

though I often find that my wife and I are the only ones getting certain jokes, and maybe some subdued sniffling at the sad bits but that's about it.

Careful, there, mate. Any more gratuitous displays of emotion like that, and you might just end up in the Tower of London! :)

Anyway, went to a nearly empty theatre last night and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. In motion and on the big screen David Corenswet looks much more like "Superman" than he does in the stills and I really appreciated the way that centuries of DC/Superman history were summed up in a few lines so that we didn't have to get the whole origin story/meeting Lois etc etc (that everyone knows already) and the film started at the end of a battle that Superman has lost. The cast is generally spot on, though I have my doubts as to whether Skyler Gisondo/Jimmy Olsen is that irresistible to women IRL. The CGI could be good, but suffered from that murky look a lot of the time, especially in the "prison" scenes.

Plot wise, it had a lot of setting up to do and generally did a good job of setting out a new DC Universe including some of the wackier elements like Krypto and a kawaii dragon beast in Metropolis. It wasn't perfect: the appearance of a new character at the end makes you wonder why Kal-El doesn't know more about his parents, for instance. Also, where is the disputed country supposed to be? One side of the line seems Eastern European while the other Indian or maybe Middle Eastern.

--- Spoilers follow for those who have not yet seen it --

Good observations, Marchand.

To your point about Superman losing-- among the reactions of those who do not like the movie, that one seems to be their biggest gripe. Superman frequently gets his butt kicked, and is held in a weakened state throughout much of the film. But to me, that made the film-- and Superman himself --more relatable. Back in the 1980s, this is also why I preferred Stallone over Schwarzenegger. Sly, while strong, inevitably got his clock cleaned from time to time (whether he was Rocky or Rambo). But no matter how bad the beating, Arnie always seemed unfazed. Can't relate to that.

Yeah, and the locations of the warring nations were like, what? It was some crazy thing, like Serbia and Syria shared a common border. Or like you implied, maybe Serbia and a (much smaller and weaker) India.

I didn't think Superman not knowing more about his parents was much of a head-scratcher. Recall that his cousin Supergirl was around the same age as him, maybe even younger, so she wouldn't be able to tell him anything (that might seem impossible, but if I remember the lore correctly, Supergirl might have been born later on, to other Kryptonians who were already off Krypton at the time Kal-El was sent away).

I have to say, I really liked that they left it open as to whether Superman's parents really said all those things in their message, or if Lex Luthor and the Engineer doctored the broadcast. The fact that this was never definitively answered, and left up to the viewer, harkens back to more traditional, darker DC storylines.

@northcoast said:

--- Spoilers follow for those who have not yet seen it --

Good observations, Marchand.

To your point about Superman losing-- among the reactions of those who do not like the movie, that one seems to be their biggest gripe. Superman frequently gets his butt kicked, and is held in a weakened state throughout much of the film. But to me, that made the film-- and Superman himself --more relatable. Back in the 1980s, this is also why I preferred Stallone over Schwarzenegger. Sly, while strong, inevitably got his clock cleaned from time to time (whether he was Rocky or Rambo). But no matter how bad the beating, Arnie always seemed unfazed. Can't relate to that.

Yeah, and the locations of the warring nations were like, what? It was some crazy thing, like Serbia and Syria shared a common border. Or like you implied, maybe Serbia and a (much smaller and weaker) India.

I didn't think Superman not knowing more about his parents was much of a head-scratcher. Recall that his cousin Supergirl was around the same age as him, maybe even younger, so she wouldn't be able to tell him anything (that might seem impossible, but if I remember the lore correctly, Supergirl might have been born later on, to other Kryptonians who were already off Krypton at the time Kal-El was sent away).

I have to say, I really liked that they left it open as to whether Superman's parents really said all those things in their message, or if Lex Luthor and the Engineer doctored the broadcast. The fact that this was never definitively answered, and left up to the viewer, harkens back to more traditional, darker DC storylines.

More potential spoilers below.

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2

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I though the early beating was a great way to introduce some risk to the movie as Superman's nigh-invulnerability makes it too easy for him to win. (One of the reasons I've never been a huge fan of the character).

Re parentage, I guess that the series could come back to that but the choice of videos at the end suggested that Kal-El was happier with one set of parents over the other. If the footage as decoded is genuine, it makes life on Krypton seem quite different to our normal impression. I guess Jor-El could be an outlier, though. Whichever way you'd think that Kara might have put things straight or Kal-El would have at least asked her. Of course, Kara's backstory could be quite different in the new versions and she may not know.