David’s reviews

My rating: Bazinga!

I had a lot of fun watching this movie; it was a different take on Superman.

Photo by DC Studios

If I had to describe this film in a few words it would be: fun and funny, and I’m not sure a Superman film is supposed to be described that way.

So here’s the things that didn’t sit well with me, Jor-El and Lara, Lex Luthor, jokes.

Jor-El and Lara were portrayed as bad parents who only wanted their son to rule over another planet. Historically, Jor-El and Lara have served as positive role models for Clark, and have helped him to become a better man, and the hero he is. It’s been like this in films, and comics alike. I cannot think of a comic that has portrayed his parents in a bad light (correct me if I’m wrong). I feel like this plot change was wrong, and his Kyrptonian parents’ legacy shouldn’t have been tainted. Even if this gets changed later on in other films, I still think it was messed up to even attempt to change his parents’ legacy.

I think live action Lex Luthor has been an issue for a while, and it is still an issue in this film. I didn’t like Luthor’s portrayal in this film, I felt he was portrayed as a prissy little tat. I wasn’t a fan of the “1A, 22B” strike moves he would tell Ultraman to use. I understand where the logic comes from, but that was a no-no for me. Another point, I guess I have never seen a Lex Luthor who used his own hands to kill someone in live action, and I don’t know if I liked it here either. He is a genius psychopath, and he does kill, but usually it’s usually through hired guns (correct me if I’m wrong), or himself but in a Luthor suit. One of the plot points was that he blackmailed Rex Mason (Metamorpho) to create kryptonite to imprison Superman, didn’t like that. And the whole pocket universe thing, nope.

I’ll give credit where credit is due, when it comes to portraying the hate for Superman and ego of Lex Luthor, Hoult gave a phenomenal performance. It came through, and towards the end of the film, Luthor has a stare towards Superman, where he’s even in tears, that one scene was great, I could feel the hate brewing. And I did not like his ending, although I like the “Belle Reve” mention.

To this day, I still believe Gene Hackman has given the best performance for Lex Luthor. He was menacing, psychotic, hateful towards Superman, Hackman delivered with Luthor.

The last thing I didn’t like was the amount of jokes used in the film, in other words, it was still very much a James Gunn film. I like the Guardians of the Galaxy films, but Superman shouldn’t be similar to the Guardians. Superman has never been a comedic relief, and DC has never been known as the comedy type, Marvel is. Everyone kind of shared with the comedic relief, Superman, Mr. Terrific, Guy Gardner, Lex Luthor, Eve Tesmacher, Jimmy. I think it was too much.

With the negative out of the way, here are my positive points, Superman, Justice Gang, Lois Lane, Jimmy, and the ending cameo.

I believe David Corenswet’s portrayal of Superman was good. He was hopeful, like Superman has always been. There’s a line Lois tells him, “You think everyone is beautiful” and he responds, “Maybe that’s the real punk rock”. Superman has always been hopeful, and brings out the best in others. I felt like he constantly tried to do that throughout the film, even with Luthor. That’s Superman. I don’t like his comedic relief moments, so that’s the only thing I’ll ding him on. And his last lines with Luthor were a bit cheesy, and over-the-top, but Superman is those things. He tries to do the best for mankind, and be a good person.

I do not like the “Justice Gang” name, that’s awful, but I liked each of its members. Guy Gardener was great, Nathan Fillion did a fantastic job. He served well as the comedic relief, his character was the right choice for it. Can’t wait to see more of him. Hawkgirl was the least developed member of the group, and you didn’t learn a whole bunch of her. Overall, I hope her character gets more development, and superheroes usually have a code against killing, so let’s see what they do with her. Mr. Terrific was arguably the best of all of them. I loved seeing him on-screen for the first time ever. He’s a great character, and I hope he gets more development going forward.

I thought Lois Lane’s portrayal was good. She had a much larger role in this film, and had interaction with the other superhero characters. Usually, she’s always in danger or in some action scene, but this time around she wasn’t a damsel in distress. Rather, she was a reporter, and only involved herself in one action sequence to save Superman.

Another scene stealer was Jimmy Olsen. A confident, up and coming reporter, (not photographer for some reason), who has all the ladies after him. I liked his Jimmy Olsen. He brought a smile to my face every time he came on screen.

And finally, the ending cameo. I was not expecting Supergirl to show up, so that completely threw me off guard. But it was a pleasant surprise. Milly Alcock’s portrayal seems to be the same one for Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, where Supergirl is a party girl, but she helps a young woman avenge her father’s death, and helps give this young woman hope for a better future. Krypto is her dog, just like in the comic! So I can’t wait to see what they do with her movie, and I hope her film adapts the Woman of Tomorrow storyline good.

Overall, there were some things I did not like about this movie, and I feel like there’s still work left to be done, but I had fun with this film. I look forward to the new DC Studios, and am hopeful they’ll do a good job.

By: David Rivera