Superman

With the narrative sensibilities of Silver/Bronze Age comics and cartoonish visuals, that make the film feel more Fantasy than Sci-Fi, James Gunn mythologies Superman, his world and the concerns of our time, in a film thats bound to not too work for everyone; and in that way Superman feels like both one of the most comicbook-y and movie-y comicbook movies of all time.  In our post-Enlightenment world of rationality and logic, we still take a lot of the world around us for granted, including the idea of ‘nuance’, something we apply to anything and everything regardless of the substance or utility it adds to that conversation. Nuance or depth can be added to discussions about Israel/Palestine, or most other geopolitical conflicts, but only serve to fog the moral clarity of the situation - just as our adherence to ideas of states and nations acts as a barrier to Superman’s quest for good. The contradiction between the radical history of Superhero comics, and the overt fascist rhetoric that underpins them, is maneuvered by Gunn as he simplifies the characters and ideas of the film into easily digestible but grand images, creating a mythological world of Gods and Monsters where you can have a child friendly story about genocide, where the metaphors aren’t too muddied by the existence of superpowered beings. Are the politics of the film perfect? Obviously not, it gets messy in the details but its intent and simplicity makes it work well enough. Is it heavy handed? Yeah but in a time of rising fascism, where our media landscape is dominated by insidious grifters or cowardly liberals, where ‘nuanced’ satire is quickly co-opted by the forces they seek to criticize, I’m extra appreciative of how unapologetic this film is in its themes. It advocates for a goodness not just rooted in kindness, but in questioning everything around us, and in that way its about as radical as a film made by a billion dollar company can be. In truth none of this really matters and I just need an outlet to vent my frustrations! Kinda like what Pa Kent said, this all says a lot more about me than it does the movie. Our planet is rapidly heading towards environmental collapse (possibly within our lifetimes) and no piece of art, nevertheless a film that costs 225 million dollars and exists to sell plastic shit to impressionable children and stunted man children, is going to be our salvation. This, like most ‘leftist’ media, is a shallow grift to make more money. With that in mind I’d rather we get more of this than the propagandistic slop or cynically pseudo-intellectual but narratively tight movies that big budget cinema has become. Teach these kids that genocide and nationalism is bad before the podcasters get to them! Anyways to actually talk about the film: I liked it a lot! This kind of messy/bloated metaphor, maximalist and over the top style of storytelling works well for me (One Piece and Mickey 17 being some other examples). I expected it to be a lot safer than it was, it seems like Gunn wanted to adapt more than just the content of the comics - with the film having a sense of continuity and an episodic structure that feels more like classic comic storytelling than anything else. I totally get a lot of the criticisms I’ve seen for the film, but it just all worked really well for me. I kinda lost myself in this zany world, feeling the triumphs and tribulations of Superman and relating to both his love and frustrations with the world.