Mrs. Know-It-All isn’t a big Superman fan, and she walked out of Superman telling me David Corenswet is her Superman. I didn’t put her up to it. I even told her our marriage isn’t at stake if she didn’t like it, and she’s allowed not to like stuff.
This is the spoiler-filled one. I’ve got a non-spoiler review out there already, so if that’s what you’re looking for, that’s where you want to go. I said in that one I might change my number, and I’m still a little up in the air, because really I need to see it again. I’ll probably see it this weekend. I hate going to the movies alone. To me the movies are a communal experience. And I’d absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, go by myself to watch this one.
We saw it at the AMC early screening through Fandango. It sold out super fast, and around us it was only at one theater across town, with seats Mrs. Know-It-All isn’t too fond of. But it was a fan screening, and she said the people in that theater alone made it fun. We even had a Krypto. You could tell this person was a diehard Superman fan, because their service dog was a white dog, the whole nine yards, collar and all. She went looking to see if she could make that collar for our dog. Too intricate, she says.
A Comic Book Came to Life
I said it in the theater and I said it in the non-spoiler review: it’s like a comic book came to life.
I’ve seen a whole bunch of complaints online that it feels overstuffed, or it’s too much. What the movie does is drop you right in the middle of events. You get about three sentences on screen telling you what happened this many years ago, three weeks ago, three hours ago, boom, boom, boom, and you hit the ground running. There’s no preamble. According to this movie he’s been Superman for three years, which solidifies for me that we’re playing in some New 52 territory. In the comic books, the New 52 was sort of a soft reboot DC did, and this looks a lot like that setup. You get way more Superman than I expected because of it.
As comic book fans, we deal with this all the time. Not every comic book opens with where we are so far. Sometimes you just jump in with a dude swinging on somebody and a little caption that says “continued from last issue.” Got it, we’re in the middle of a fight. I’ll pay my buck 75 and I’m good to go. I don’t have the first two issues? Whatever, I’ll move on.
I don’t think every moviegoer is like that, though, and I think a lot of people are going to interpret this as confusion. A lot of the people giving their opinions online, same as me, are holding this to another movie’s standard, where every movie should have these pieces. Fine. But you should meet movies where they are.
Mrs. Know-It-All isn’t a comic book person, and she had no issue at all. She’s seen enough Superman movies, and it’s probably why she’s not a big fan: it was always the same thing. The origin story, watching him grow up, learning how to do things. Here, as she put it, he got his butt whooped, he whistled for the dog, and that’s all you need.
It opens exactly on that preview we saw. He crashes, he calls the dog, the dog comes, and he says take me home. When they get there, his presence makes the whole thing rise, and you see the Fortress of Solitude. It’s very inspired by the old Richard Donner movie, crystals going in pointy directions.
He’s Clark the Whole Time
I had an epiphany on this one. I always felt like there was a switch that got flipped, and he suddenly goes from being aw-shucks Clark Kent to “I’m Superman.” The truth is he’s never not going to be that Kansas boy. Several times you catch him using these really crazy country expressions, and you’re like, bro, you’re a farm boy in a costume. On some level there’s got to be some part of him going, man, I’m a fraud, people are going to realize I’m just this dude from Kansas who maybe knows what he’s doing and has the ability to fly. When I had that realization I thought, this is wonderful. It makes so much sense.
It’s right there in the second end credit scene. The building didn’t line up correctly when it got put back, and it’s literally him and Mr. Terrific standing there staring at it. Terrific’s like, what do you want me to do, take it apart and put it back together again? Then he walks away, and Superman’s like, darn it, why are you so mean? A boy from Kansas. He doesn’t swear. I love that so much.
Rachel Brosnahan’s amazing as Lois, and the chemistry those two have on screen is unreal. There’s a real moment where she says she thought about breaking up with him. Even though they feel like they’re made for each other, she’s still struggling with who she is in this relationship. And the interview is where Mrs. Know-It-All said you see the human side everyone’s talking about: the frustration. He makes the best choices he can, now people want to question them, and he’s saying if I didn’t do something, somebody was going to die. Period.
Her Superman, and Whose Generation This Is
I asked Mrs. Know-It-All a loaded question on purpose. When I have her on, I’m looking for her as a novice, someone who hasn’t lived in this the way I have. We had a production company, but she handled the business side. So I asked for her impressions of David Corenswet next to Henry Cavill, the Zack Snyder version, Man of Steel and Batman v Superman.
“Out of all the Supermans, he’s my Superman.” Then she said it’s like when you ask who’s your Doctor, and David Tennant’s her Doctor. That’s hilarious, because it’s the exact example I used in my solo review. She said maybe it’s because she wasn’t into Henry Cavill’s Superman, and the only other one she really knew was Christopher Reeve, who’s always going to be Superman to everybody.
I don’t know about that last part, because I feel like David Corenswet’s about to carry that torch. Brandon Routh tried to step into the Christopher Reeve role in Superman Returns, which was supposed to be that same Superman come back to Earth, with Kevin Spacey standing in for the Lex Luthor from the original. I think this Superman’s going to define a generation. Henry Cavill’s defined a fan base. There’s a difference. Our generation was exposed to Christopher Reeve first, so we say he’s the end-all, be-all. I think David Corenswet’s about to redefine Superman the way Zack Snyder wanted Henry Cavill to.
Snyder went dark, very serious, big cinematic, and he went for the godlike. This character’s been portrayed in every style possible over all these years, so I’ll say it tongue in cheek: that’s never been the core of who Superman is. He’s got the power of a god, sure, but he’s always been humble about it. This one stands next to the Christopher Reeve version as a different flavor of that same style.
Ma and Pa Raised This One
The two actors who play his parents are so incredibly talented. Pruitt Taylor Vince plays Jonathan, Pa Kent. He’s been in a lot. He was the priest in Constantine who helped Constantine with the mirror demon thing. Neva Howell I’ve never seen before, and she plays Martha, Ma Kent. They’re such a middle-of-America family, and this is the nurturing, caring, loving relationship.
One of my biggest issues with the Zack Snyder stuff has always been the portrayal of Ma and Pa. I don’t mind Ma helping him talk through his powers. I never liked the overabundance of “you got to hide who you are, Clark,” because it was a fearful hide who you are. I’m not going to argue the merits. It works within the context of that story, and it’s not written badly just because I don’t like it. Your mileage may vary. But Superman to me has always been a product of how he was raised, and he was raised to help the downtrodden, to be fearless, to trust in God. Smallville and other shows made assertions toward the hiding, but he wasn’t raised to be afraid. They always said when the time comes to reveal yourself, you’ll be ready, you’ll know.
I believe these parents raised this Superman. I have a hard time believing the Henry Cavill version’s parents raised a hero of any kind. There was a cynicism ingrained in him that I don’t appreciate, a bitterness in the way he talked to Lois.
The best example of the movie giving us enough is the time he spends at his parents’ house. It showed us a glimpse into who he is, and that’s important.
The Origin Change Is My One Real Problem
This is a huge source of contention online, and it was my big “really, that’s what we’re doing?” I don’t think they changed his origin all the way. His world still exploded. He was still sent away to save their last child. Bradley Cooper cameos as Jor-El, and there’s a message Superman’s been listening to over and over, his parents saying we loved you, we sent you to Earth, lead them through your strength. A positive message. The rest of it got garbled and lost in the crash.
Then Lex shows up at the Fortress, which they couldn’t find before because the thing buries itself in the ground. He’s got Ultraman, who we find out is a clone of Superman, and I think they kind of telegraphed that. And he’s got the Engineer, all cyber, like the female one from Terminator 3 or whichever one it is. There are so many Terminators I lost track. She cracks the code, defrags the message, and you find out Superman was sent here potentially to conquer the planet.
I think it’s a bad translation. They don’t resolve that in this movie. Mrs. Know-It-All thinks they will. I’m hoping.
She said it made Superman out to be the bad guy, or at the very least the people who sent him weren’t that benevolent. My problem is it turns them into the Saiyans from Dragon Ball, or the Viltrumites from Invincible. The Viltrumites are pseudo Kryptonians. Invincible is supposed to be the deconstruction of the Superman mythos, same as Homelander. So for Superman to change his origin to look like the things that were built as deconstructions of him felt off to me.
For her, it just says nature versus nurture. At the beginning, when he’s all beat up, they play the voices of his parents because he finds it soothing. At the end they ask if he wants to hear from his parents, he says yeah, and it’s pictures and videos of him growing up.
This Lex, and the Pocket Dimension
Mrs. Know-It-All liked this Lex. If there was a Lex Luthor, she said, this is who he’d be. He’s just that slimy. Nicholas Hoult is amazing.
Originally, and I’m talking Golden Age, long time ago, Lex Luthor hated Superman because Superman did a thing that made Lex go bald. That’s long since not been his reasoning. This movie makes it very clear. By any other metric, Lex would be the most powerful man on Earth, the smartest man on Earth. Instead this guy who did nothing but show up, with real power, captures the minds and hearts of the world, and he’s nice about it, and Lex is relegated to the back of the theater. It comes down to jealousy, and they even say so in the monologue at the very end. Mrs. Know-It-All added that metahumans in general being more popular than he is just adds fuel to the fire.
Huge consistency thing, too. Lex has a pocket dimension, and you care because we saw one in Peacemaker, in his dad’s closet. Speaking of Peacemaker, that cameo was great. He was talking so much trash.
A Lived-In DC Universe
When a monster attacks, there’s an alarm and the buildings are evacuated. Compare the fighting in Metropolis here to Zack Snyder’s, where Superman and Zod leveled the city with no hope people were safe. This felt like Metropolis from the comic books. They’re used to it. “Oh, everybody’s got to evacuate, Superman’s fighting somebody.” Mrs. Know-It-All put it better than I’d thought of it: metahumans are a thing, that’s all there is to it, and the world adapted.
Then there’s the most domestic scene in the whole movie. Lois has a key to his place, there’s cocoa, and outside his window is this huge eyeball, the Justice Gang fighting a dimensional thing. She keeps looking outside like, should we worry about this? And he’s nonchalant. No, they’ve got it. Welcome to a lived-in DC universe.
Nobody felt like too many characters to me, and none of it weighed anything down. Mrs. Know-It-All took that all the way to the Department of Defense people, especially the one who really did like Superman and didn’t know how to bail him out once Lex was calling him a weapon. Krypto turns out to be Kara’s dog, which she didn’t see coming. He’s the comic relief because he does dog things. He chases toys and doesn’t listen to authority. He doesn’t so much beat Kara up as play the way a dog plays with its owner.
People had critiques that our first introduction to Kara Zor-El, to Supergirl, is her getting drunk. Have you read Woman of Tomorrow, the book her story’s based on? Kara steals away to planets with red suns to get drunk, because she can’t here with that metabolism. She’s a tortured teenager who witnessed the deaths of her family and her city. I have a feeling the main story is her coming around to being a super person proper.
Mrs. Know-It-All wasn’t used to a Green Lantern like Nathan Fillion’s, and she thought he was so funny. That’s Guy Gardner. He became a Green Lantern, I’d say by mistake, with a strong will and a rebel streak, and he’s always been that hothead. I thought Mr. Terrific was amazing, a better version than the one we had on the CW. And Isabela Merced, who plays Hawkgirl, knows the character from the animated Justice League, and she says she wishes they’d do a John Stewart and Hawkgirl will-they-won’t-they romance like that series had. I bet you are down. I see the hunky stud playing John Stewart, with the pretty eyes and everything.
Zack Snyder’s movies have several moments where people reach out for Superman with this worshipful awe. He isn’t a god. He’s a dude who was raised in Kansas who suddenly can fly, making the best choices he can. Look at the kid with the flag. You think Superman’s going to show up through the light and the clouds, and he doesn’t, because he’s busy fighting. He sends his buddies. He still cared enough to say, I can’t be everywhere, can you guys go take care of this, please? That’s huge.
Lois Gets the Bust
They never lost the investigative journalism angle. Even when it became a subplot, Perry and Jimmy and Lois and several other people are all in Mr. Terrific’s ship (Mrs. Know-It-All called him Mr. Fantastic, wrong movie), and Lois starts dictating the story right there. They publish it, and the next thing you know the TV’s saying the Daily Planet is reporting on Lex Luthor.
Lex got busted by Lois, by a published story. Chef’s kiss.
Also, when did Jimmy become a player, bro?
The One Thing That Took Her Out of It
I asked what she didn’t like, and she had exactly one. She doesn’t like it when the hero’s pointed out to be the villain. She finds it a waste of time and energy, because we all know how it’s going to turn out. They’re going to be found innocent. She thought, if most of this movie is about clearing Superman’s name, this isn’t going to be a good movie for me. It wasn’t that. It got cleaned up and cleared up real quick, and she appreciated it.
I can see it. It can feel lazy. A lot of people thought Marvel had the same issue, every villain the same guy repackaged. Iron Man fights another guy in an iron suit. The Hulk fights another giant rage monster. Superman III has him exposed to a different kind of kryptonite and he becomes evil Superman, and Smallville did it too, which is actually when she stopped watching Smallville. He’s already good, why do you got to make him bad? Be more creative with your writing. Her other favorite is the movie where somebody insists monsters don’t exist while there’s a huge monster right there in the background.
Maybe it’s such a common comic book trope that it didn’t affect me as much. It was original the first dozen times we saw it.
For the record, she thought the runtime was perfect. I could’ve stood about 20 more minutes. Not three hours like some people want. It’s 2 hours and 10 minutes, not counting the wait for Nicole Kidman, and everything happens so quickly that you catch your breath and it’s over.
The Political Throughline
We’d be remiss not to talk about it. James Gunn came out and said it’s an immigrant story, and I do think it is. It’s a total immigrant story. Then his brother doubled down and said if the Fox News style people don’t like it, oh well.
I watched the movie. It’s as not woke as any Superman story I’ve ever read in my life. Mrs. Know-It-All didn’t think it was woke at all, and we’ve recently seen movies and series where she’s like, really, this is what we’re going to talk about? This was just a wonderful Superman story. I’m sure there’s nuance there. Even the people who normally naysay that kind of thing are saying it wasn’t woke. Some of them say it wasn’t good, and rage baiters are going to rage bait.
What It Sets Up
This movie has several things riding on it: the future of the DCU, the future of Superman, and it’s the benchmark for what else we get down the road. I have a feeling we’re about to hear about things being kicked into high gear. Matt Reeves just turned in his first draft of the second Batman movie. James Gunn has said there’s a secret project, and a lot of people think it’s the Terrifics now that members of that team are in this. We’ve got Mr. Terrific, we’ve got Metamorpho, and they have to add Plastic Man. People don’t understand the power of Plastic Man. Give me the shades. Give me all of it. I want the Flash. And I’m ready for Lanterns, with Hal Jordan and John Stewart.
Peacemaker is next, and they’ve already revealed Hawkgirl and the Justice Gang show up in it with Maxwell Lord. According to James Gunn there’s also a major, major cameo. I have a feeling it might be David Corenswet as Superman, even if it’s just a brief moment.
My question is how you do Batman in this universe. You can’t go deep, dark and gritty. Even in the comics where he’s dark and gritty, he’s still wearing the Batman Underoos on the outside. Is he taking a cue from Superman? Mrs. Know-It-All says the only Batmans she really liked were the Tim Burton ones. That’s because you have taste.
The first end credit scene is cute, by the way. Superman and Krypto sitting on the moon, watching the Earth.
The Verdict
Superman lands at an 8.5 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index for me, down from the 9 out of 10 I gave it in my non-spoiler review, and Mrs. Know-It-All has it at a 9.
I’m a fan of these things, but I’m a critic and I have to be honest. In my honest estimation there are some shortcomings your average audience member is going to bump into. I’ve got the comic book shorthand, and my audience isn’t all comic book people. The only reason it’s not a 9 or better is those things. I don’t think they ruin the experience, but they could cause a few trip-ups. Because it had so much riding on it, it gets very frenetic at times. It feels disjointed, but I don’t think it’s disjointed at all. And yes, it’s jam-packed. I loved that.
Salty went to see it today, and I pre-warned him: go in knowing you’re being dropped smack in the middle of a story, and you’re expected to hit the ground running. He goes, okay, that’s fair, I know my wife’s going to hate that. I feel you on that, bro.
Mrs. Know-It-All said if somebody had told her there’s a brief moment where everyone turns against Superman, she’d have braced for it, and I probably would’ve gotten a 9.5 or a 10 out of her.
I haven’t heard much from the Snyder Bros. There are some reviews out there that aren’t good, and that’s okay. A negative review is just as valid as a positive one, in that you ultimately need to go see the movie for yourself. I’m ready for more of him. I hope and just pray we get it.
Those are our scores, and we’d love to hear yours. Tell me what you thought of the movie, the origin change, all of it. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
