Superman (2025): Not great, not bad - will make a ton of money
I really feel as though DC is supremely kicking Marvel's ass this year so far and while this movie isn't spectacular they did manage to make a movie without making some sort of real life political statement or doing anything that could be considered "woke" - what ever that even means anymore
What we get is a CGI filled and reasonably entertaining mindless 90 minutes of crazy stuff happening on screen intermingled with a lot of attempts at humor, some of which actually work.
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The film starts out with a bunch of words on the screen and if you miss that, well you are going to be a bit lost as to where you are in time and space, so face the screen for a few minutes ok? At first I thought this was a really lazy way of introducing what is going on, but after we got our wordy "fast-forward" I was kind of glad that they did it that way.
They need to create a real enemy for Superman and I suppose this was probably easier than trying to give us a drawn out backstory and since it is Lex Luthor again anyway, we don't really need it.
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It starts out with Superman near defeat, lying in the middle of the snow and this is how we get introduced to "Krypto" his super-dog. Why does superdog have some level of superpowers? Don't know! If the idea was to throw him in there for some sort of cute effect it worked on me and I think most other people.
Then we get down to a fast-forward of what the current conflict it and how it came to be. This all, thankfully, happens rather rapidly and doesn't get to much into little details that honestly, can't really be explained. The underlying reason why the world turns on Superman is actually pretty stupid, but I wont spoil it for you so you can find out for yourself.
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When you see it you'll know what I mean and it is wildly dumb. I do think though, that they were trying to say something about how rapidly people can have their opinions changed by news stations having an agenda and also being propped up by bots on the internet with social media. They don't make a lecture out of it, which I would have hated if they tried, but the subtle inference that all of us are just automatons waiting for our masters to tell us what to love or hate next, is kind of true in today's time.
Whatever, they needed to create some sort of reason why Superman was going to become an enemy of the state and I guess they kind of did that.
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They introduce some other characters into the film which was seriously camp but in a way it kind of worked out pretty well because they don't focus on any of them for too long and other than one of them, I don't really see DC trying to pull a Marvel and create an entire new franchise merely because they were in a Superman film. God I hope not. They server their purpose though and some of what happens with them is actually kind of funny.
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This movie was always going to be a blockbuster regardless of whether or not it was actually any good but there is one character in particular who I really didn't care for at all and that was Lex Luthor. Maybe it is just because I have been exposed to him as a villain since I was a little kid and wish that they could come up with someone else... I mean, there ARE other villains in the Superman universe is there not? Does it always have to be Lex and if Lex is continually doing stuff like this over and over again, how on earth is he not in a supermax prison or put to death. That part of it doesn't make a great deal of sense to me .
I don't really fault Nicholas Hoult for his portrayal of Lex, it is just a badly written character. Some of his dialogue is interesting but as the story goes on he willingly divulges every single piece of his evil plan to everyone, even though the "battle" is still ongoing. In the end his motivations for having done everything he did is kind of "meh" and since he is the villain, obviously none of it works out.
I mean we all knew that Superman was going to emerge victorious, that is no surprise, but long-winded announcements coming from both Lex and Superman before they actually butt heads left me sighing and rolling my eyes in seat F-16 in the theater.
Should I watch it?
Honestly, I think this is one that most people can skip at the cinema. It wasn't a bad movie, it just relies very heavily on the action scenes for entertainment and while those are very well done I can honestly say that 90% of the non-action stuff / dialogue that happens in this movie is just something that would have encouraged me to switch it off entirely if I had been watching it at home. Almost all of the dialogue is borderline insufferable and it is salvaged only because it is a visual spectacle, which was expected of something with a $225 million budget.
That being said, the experience in the theater is definitely going to be a lot better than it will be once it releases to streaming - I don't think I would have made it all the way through this had I not been in a movie theater. The big screen and probably especially if you have the chance to see it in 3D will make it perhaps worthwhile to some.
If you are expecting some sort of wonderful story this is definitely not going to provide that. Most of the story honestly feels like it was written by children.
The only legal way to see this movie now is to park your butt into an over-priced cinema
So far I have seen 3 movies this year and as sad as it it considering none of these films are great, here they are in order of how good I felt they were from best to worst.
When it comes down to Superman, I remember as a kid enjoying the series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and later also enjoying Smallville.
Never really got into the movies though and if I had to choose I guess I would rather look at the old Christopher Reeve movies instead of the new ones. At the same time, these new movies do usually provide a good time when watching them on the big screen.
if you can't / wont see this on the big screen I don't think there is any reason to bother. Honestly, that's why I put a "maybe" on this one. It isn't particularly good even for superhero movies.
I thought Smallville was a good show as well.
I hate contemporary "cinema" so much. It is formulaic, tired, boring, and uninspired. It is too safe, too rigid, with no "original" stories or writing.
Production is cheapened by soundstages and VFX, lazy, flat lighting in favour of LUTs, and acting so banal you can see the fifteen different takes they stitched together into a single scene.
I can't really remember the last film I saw in a cinema that I actually enjoyed, that actually moved me, that inspired me. That I didn't leave thinking "oh ... someone really enjoyed working on this, and told the story they wanted to tell their whole life"
It feels as though these adaptations are just going through the motions, without true passion. Recycling old material, not "created" for the medium, but adapted to try and fit within its confines.
It's like... if we get a XKCD movie, or another web toon turned into films. Perhaps that will be the cinema we get in two decades when the current crop of comic-book driven nostalgia is over.
I agree with everything you said here. I just go to see the things that have clearly been designed to be experienced with a huge screen and loud soundsystem. the only film I saw in theaters that I thought was maybe going to be a "labor of love" was 28 Years Later and that was absolute shite IMO.
I remember Arrival in the cinema, and Blade Runner: 2049. There's one thing in common: the director.
I also went to see the new Dune films as well, again, the same director :P
Definitely a pass for me and never really been a super hero fan and have not seen any of the spin offs from Marvel. These films will always make money because every generation needs their own Superman, Batman and Spiderman.
Or several of them it appears. I keep waiting for superhero movies to die out, which I would prefer, but they make money in Asia and Asia is driving the market these days.