Introduction

And so, the DC reboot has begun! A couple of years ago, James Gunn took over as co-CEO of DC Studios and announced that DC was going to be doing a complete reboot of all the characters in previous films. The only confirmed superheroes that has made it through these reboots is Robert Pattison’s The Batman and John Cena’s Peacemaker (who actually makes a surprising cameo in this movie!)

When the reboot was first announced, I was a little bummed because in the Black Adam post credit scene, we got a tease that Henry Cavill was returning as Superman. I am a huge fan of Henry’s Superman, so naturally I was excited. However, once DC took things in a different way, I didn’t know what the new DCU would look like. This film is the first of what I’m sure will be many DC films to come, and today I’m going to share my thoughts on Superman!

The Setup

This film wastes little time going through Superman’s origin story. We get a few moments of sentences telling us what has happened in the past and then it’s right into the action. Superman has been known by the public for three years and recently, a evil CEO named Lex Luthor has been developing meta-humans, i.e. humans with supernatural abilities, to fight Superman. The two most prominent metahumans that work for Lex are the Engineer and the Hammer of Boravia.

The film follows Superman’s journey of discovering what his actions tell about his character as he tries to defeat Lex Luthor and his goons while also showing the world that he is there to help and not to rule over them.

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

What I liked

There are many things that I liked about this film, and I can’t think of anywhere better to start than Krypto the space dog. This is one of the few times we’ve seen Krypto in a Superman movie and the character is really funny. Krypto steals every scene he is in as he acts like your pet at home would which helps make audiences be able to relate to Superman when he says “bad dog!” and stuff of that nature. Every time Krypto is on screen, you will find yourself laughing.

Another thing that I really liked about this film was the surprising plot twist. At the beginning of the film, we find that Superman has a recording of his parents telling him about Earth and that he is to go and serve and protect the people. However, the second part of the message was corrupted, so Superman always assumed that the rest of the message followed the serve and protect idea. However, after Lex storms the Citadel and takes the recording, the Engineer is able to recover the rest of the message. The rest of the message tells Superman to dominate over the Earth and rule the humans.

This one twist sets this Superman apart from all the others, and it really gives Lex a motive to kill Superman. Humanity now has a legitimate reason to fear Superman rather than just speculation such as with Cavill’s Superman. This Superman now has to prove that he hasn’t been grooming humanity into accepting him and that he actually only cares about doing good. This was an amazing twist and I really enjoyed how they carried that twist throughout the movie, especially with Superman ending the film with recordings of his Earth parents instead of his biological ones.

This film has the best version of Lex Luthor that we have ever seen in live action. He’s very smart, but also very evil at the same time. There is a couple of scenes where you just don’t know what Lex is going to do and what he always does is very menacing. Some have been saying he could be the Loki of the DCU, and I am inclined to agree with that.

This film’s pace is also another thing that was really great about the film. The film is just over 2 hours, which is not bad for a superhero movie. The film’s plot continues without any real slow moments, and it really flows together for the most part.

What I didn’t like

While the movie is called Superman, we don’t see a lot of Clark Kent. In all, I think we see maybe five minutes of Clark, which was interesting. Since we had so little of Clark, there wasn’t much focus on Clark and Lois’s relationship. I honestly didn’t understand Lois’s  reasoning in this film. At the beginning, Clark and Lois are in a relationship and they don’t know if it’s going to work out in the long run since Lois is a journalist and Clark is Superman. However, as the film progresses, Lois begins to think about dumping Superman. But after the final battle, she tells Superman she loves him. There seems to be a little lack of continuity in their relationship in this film that hopefully will be explored better in the future.

The Justice Gang, Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, and Mr. Terrific, are a new introduction in this film and while they have some good moments, I didn’t really care for them in the film overall. The film was supposed to be about Superman and how he fights for good, and then you have the Justice gang show up and start killing people, which is something Superman won’t do. And don’t get me started on how annoying Hawkgirl’s scream was…

At the end of the film, we see a Supergirl cameo and it is revealed she is the real owner of Krypto. However, she is very drunk and said to enjoy getting drunk. That really didn’t feel like it was a necessary cameo and a terrible introduction for a character into the DCU.

One final thing to mention that I didn’t like was the amount of language in this film. There is a running bit where people online are calling Superman “Super sh–“. Besides that, there are about 25 other words ranging from s, d, h words as well as some of the Lord’s name. There were no f bombs, however. This wasn’t very necessary in this film.

Is it Woke?

A few days before the film released to the public, there were influencers online saying the film portrays Superman as an immigrant and that his new motto doesn’t have the American way in it anymore and that it is the human way to be more “inclusive.” When these reviews first came out I thought that they may be true, but when I actually watched the film, I found that these reviews were FAKE and very hard to find in the film.

Superman is an alien, and that’s part of his story, so to say that is something new, it’s not. Also, he is portrayed as the strongest metahuman and he may be an alien, but he acts just like humans do. I really don’t see what other’s were saying about this film being woke, and I highly encourage you check the movie out for yourself and making up your own mind.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a great film that sets the tone for future DC movies. With James Gunn at the helm, we can always expect some comedy and probably some rock music. Superman is now seen for who he truly is because his actions speak louder than what people tell him he is. This is the overall lesson of the film which is a good one. Actions speak louder than words and fighting to protect people is the right thing to do. I’m excited to see where the DCU goes from here and hopefully we will get another Superman movie in the future!

Let me know your thoughts on the movie in the comments below!