Superman
I have never really been much of a Superman fan. An immortal guy with the moral compass of a literal saint isn’t exactly my cup of tea. When Snyder decided to go with a darker route with Superman, I was insanely hyped. However, the Snyderverse unfortunately sucks. As I grew up and started watching more CB movies, eventually the concept of pure hope in a hero began to sound pretty appealing to me. I was tired of the whole idea of a dark, depressed Superman, and when I heard that Gunn was taking over, I became obsessed. I don’t think I have ever had higher expectations for a movie, and holy shit, it was completely justified. James Gunn did it again, he created one of the greatest comic book movies ever, starting a new and way better phase in DC than Snyder had.
Superman has always been associated with the idea of pure kindness and unconditional love, which I think is captured pretty well in this movie. Him saving a squirrel during a fight scene shows what Superman actually represents. He saves humans, animals, robots, and even monsters, THATS MY SUPERMAN.
The movie itself is so fun to watch. You got everything you might ask from a superhero movie. There are awesome fight sequences, emotional scenes, and typical stereotypical cheesy humor one liners. The vibrant, beautiful colors make the movie even more pleasing to watch. Gunn decided to have more of a comic look, and I think it worked phenomenally. Soundtracks and scores were spectacular. Especially loved "Punkrocker", I sat through the entirety of the credits just to listen to that song.
Fight scenes went insanely hard. The zoom on the Superman logo had me hyped every time it happened. The last fighting sequence was also unbelievable. Lasers everywhere, teeth hitting the camera lens, it was such a thrilling and beautiful scene. Escape from Pocket Universe was another mesmerizing segment. It was so beautiful to watch how hard Clark was trying to save a child he had never met before.
Commentary on the modern political crisis was so surprising and heartwarming. How Superman sides with humanity rather than rich, power-hungry bureaucrats was tearsheddingly beautiful.
The casting is another strong point of this project. Every single one of them delivers an amazing performance. David Corenswet was literally born to play Superman. Rachel's Lois is incredible as well. And all of the side characters’s actors and actresses are just as marvelous.
Speaking of actors, I have to mention the insane performance that Nicholas Hoult delivers. His Lex Luthor is easily the best one out there. He is the embodiment of hate. James Gunn captured Lex's hateful and envious nature insanely well, and Nicholas read the script and delivered an Oscar-worthy performance. All of his scenes show the pure hatred he has for Superman, to the point that he literally risks destroying the universe just to mess with Clark. He is a great character who had an insane first act, an unbelievable second phase of the pocket universe thing, and a great conclusion.
This movie was amazing, but it's not all high points. Clark Kent barely exists in the movie, which made Lois' and his dynamic a bit superficial. Pretty much all of the connection I felt was the beforehand interviews between Rachel and David. They still had a few cute moments, like the apartment scene and the final kiss one. The Justice gang's introduction and development were also kind of shallow. Guy and Mr. Terrific are awesome characters, with actual remarkable moments and scenes. However, Hawkgirl was definitely left behind. That one scene was funny as fuck, but that's all of the contribution she had in this movie. I also did not appreciate the over-quirkiness of the characters. Some of the jokes definitely landed, but it all felt a bit too much for me.
Milly Alcock killed that 30 seconds of screen time, I can't wait for the Supergirl movie to release.
Overall this movie was amazing, and as a lifelong DC fan, I am so fucking happy that we are finally getting some good movies. I love you, James Gunn and Matt Reeves.