James Gunn, who wrote and directed Superman Legacy 2025, shows this Superman movie will be Something Different from the opening scene where Superman is defeated and injured–we actually see Superman’s blood!
Superman–played by handsome, smart, and funny David Corenswet–faces a hate campaign by Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) who wants to destroy Superman (and start a war).
While the casting is good in this movie–I really liked Nathan Fillion as a surly Green Lantern, Isabela Merced as a feisty Hawkgirl, and Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific–these superheroes are mostly wasted. Instead of superhero action, there’s a lot of blah, blah, blah.
Rachel Brosnahan (aka, Mrs. Maisel) as Lois Lane was an unusual casting choice, but there is definitely chemistry between Lois and Clark. But, once again Brosnahan’s talent is wasted as she mostly flies around in a vehicle that looks like a jelly bean.
The most divisive character in this movie is Kypto, the Superdog. Some of the SRO audience that watched the movie with Diane and me at our local AMC Theater loved the doggie…others booed him.
For those of you who saw James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, you’ll remember the humor and the silliness as well as the incredible action scenes. Superman Legacy 2025 follows the same playbook. GRADE: B
Although I have previously been less than impressed with all of the preceding SUPERMAN films (and television shows), I will probably give this one a try — as long as it is not on a day when I am scheduled to fold laundry.
Jerry, Warner is betting a lot on this new Superman movie. Plus, they plan a Supergirl movie, a Green Lantern TV show, and a series of Batman movies.
I read my older brother’s comic books as a kid and went through a brief Superman phase like a lot of boys back then but none of it was a big part of my childhood. The closest I ever got to being a fan of any of it was the Adam West “Batman” and “The Green Hornet” television show in First and Second Grade.
I saw the Richard Donner “Superman” (shrug) and the Richard Lester scab-job on the sequel (bigger shrug) when they were new and passed on the rest. The Fleischer cartoons were in some ways the coolest of the lot, especially the giant robot one that was lovingly homaged in “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.”
I briefly toyed with seeing this but Gunn comes from the hyper-jokey Joe Dante and Peter Jackson school of filmmaking so this one is a pass. The internet seems to love Krypto, for whatever that’s worth. This movie will probably do OK at the box office but I wouldn’t count on another big wave of comic book movies.
Byron, Warner is hoping Gunn’s SUPERMAN makes over $500 million which will help fund the upcoming SUPERGIRL movie, the Green Lantern TV show, and a series of Batman movies. Half the audience at the SUPERMAN performance Diane and I attended loved Krypto, the Superego…and half of the audience booed him every time he showed up on screen to save Superman.
I have to admit that I’m not a superhero fan – didn’t read Batman, Superman and the other comics when they appeared in Germny.
But in the New Yorker I found an interesting article on the new film:
The Simplistic Moral Lessons of “Superman”
In James Gunn’s reboot of the franchise, the titular hero’s credo is as shallow as it is broad.
By Richard Brody
Wolf, with SUPERMAN or any other Hollywood movie, it’s all about the money.
Alice is optimistic about this film; we’ve been away from theaters for so long (even before the pandemic), she’s feeling the lack. People hated the way Krypto was portrayed, or that the superdog was even a part of the film, or both?
Todd, tell Alice to keep the bar low, and she’ll come away satisfied with SUPERMAN. Krypto the Superdog annoyed some of the audience. However, the dog plays a key role in saving Superman a couple of times in the movie.
Hero comics were never my primary interest, though I read some Batman and Werewolf-by-Night hero/anti-hero comics when I was 8yo, while mostly focusing on the more horror-oriented titles, and MAD and such imitations as PLOP! (somewhat horroresque in its grotesquerie).
Todd, I started reading BATMAN comics back in the late 1950s when Batman was more of a detective. Once the TV BATMAN show affected the Batman comic books negatively–just made them more silly–I stopped reading them. Years later, I read some of the BATMAN graphic novels. Very dark.