What’s up my know-it-alls!? I just got out of the AMC early screening of Superman, and I’m tickled, man. I’m tickled beyond words. Mrs. Know-It-All and I went to the 7:00 showing, and it was good. It was so good.
This is my non-spoiler review. There’ll be a spoiler review where me and Mrs. Know-It-All sit down and have the kind of conversation we’ve been having, so I’m not going to spoil anything here.
I told every single one of you: have hope. Now, you may have personal opinions, and you’ll be the first ones to say it’s not this, it’s not that, and Zack Snyder, whatever. Fine. Whatever. I know one thing.
My wife said it best, and I’ll have her repeat it when we sit down together. She said flat out, this is her Superman, because she’s never really had a Superman before. It’s the same way David Tennant and Matt Smith are sort of our Doctors, respectively, for Doctor Who. Same thing. I’d argue Christopher Reeve was my Superman, because he’s the first one I met. But I’m down for owning the David Corenswet version. I’m totally down.
A Living Comic Book
This movie is amazing. It’s a living comic book. It unabashedly and unashamedly loves that it’s a comic book, based on comic book material, and it leans into it heavy. There’s nothing in the fight scenes that doesn’t feel like I’m looking at a panel.
I loved the fight scenes. You can come at me about the choreography, and there will be people out there who do, but this was superhero fighting, and superhero fighting is a lot different than regular choreography. You’re not going to see John Wick fighting superheroes. This was grabbing dudes, going up in the air and swinging them around, the whole nine yards.
I know a lot of people out there are going to pass judgment like they could do better. I’m telling you right now, the CGI for me was fairly flawless. I have no complaints. At no point was I taken out of it. The flying looked good. The monsters looked good. The people looked good. Everything felt authentic and genuine to the moment and to what we’re watching.
Two Sentences and Then You’re In
The storytelling is a little all over the road. But they had enough confidence to just jump right into the story, to jump into the comic the way it is. You’ve got to understand, I’m firmly of the mindset that there’s a shorthand this movie uses, and it benefits from it completely.
We walk into a lived-in world, like James Gunn promised we would. But literally, there’s not even a crawl. They put up two sentences, and then a third sentence to punctuate what’s going on. That’s not counting the run of how many years ago this happened and that happened, but that’s part of it. It establishes a story, that story is enough, and then you jump in.
And we’re right where we started. The scene we saw in the trailers and teasers, the whole thing with him crashing, that’s the beginning of the movie. That’s how it starts. From there it logically progresses, and if you’re a comic book fan, you’re blown away by it. I was. I just watched a comic book, and I’m okay with that. It’s unashamedly a comic book movie, and that’s such a refreshing thing.
I’ve read some things online where people are complaining that it felt overstuffed, like they shoved so many things in. It does, if you’re used to slow, paced out storytelling. It wasn’t overstuffed. It hits the ground running in a way we don’t normally get. As a culture we have a shorthand to this character now, and I was sitting there like, oh my god, yeah, we’re here, let’s go. And we did, and we spent time there.
Clark Is the Real Guy
I love David Corenswet’s Superman. It’s fantastic. It really is wonderful.
The one thing that was crystal clear for me, and you’ll see it yourselves: Clark is the guy who has to put on the name Superman. Superman is Clark. I’ve never understood that before. I always felt like it was a switch. Take the glasses off, do the thing. This is so different. There are moments when Superman is like, “Oh gosh, that’s terrible,” or “Man, I’m the worst,” and it’s all these Southern affectations. He’s so aw-shucks, and it works very well.
Rachel Brosnahan and David Corenswet are both amazing. They’re doing such good work. Their chemistry together as Lois Lane and Clark Kent is wonderful, and they’re clearly a thing in this. He’s been Superman about three years. I don’t think that’s too much to say, just to give you context.
And Ma and Pa Kent. I love them so much. That’s all I’m going to say about them. I love them so much.
Jimmy, Luthor and the Justice Gang
Jimmy Olsen’s a dog, man. I love Jimmy. Jimmy’s amazing. Jimmy’s that homeboy. You know the one. That’s who Jimmy Olsen is, and he leverages that in a wonderful way.
Luthor is wonderfully horrible in all these great ways. Wendell Pierce is doing amazing as the chief, Perry White, who I thought was wonderful. All the characters are really great. Lombard, the sports guy, the jerk. The characters are vibrant, and the world feels lived in.
The Justice Gang are great. Super fun. “Quit messing around.” “I’m not messing around. I’m doing important stuff.” And everybody’s there long enough.
There’s a lot of cohesive stuff, and there are cameos beyond just the people we know. There may have been leaks about who’s going to be in what. Whatever. Stick around, because there are two post-credit scenes. The first is one I think everybody knows, and it’s really kind of short. Then there’s another one that’s an actual thing.
This feels like it’s got a lot of the same notes as the animation, and that’s all I’m going to say.
The Beginning of the DCU Proper
I feel like this was a fantastic opening. No pun intended. This was a spectacular opening to the beginning of the DCU proper. I say proper because technically Creature Commandos was the first thing, and everyone’s like, no, no, no, there’s no way that’s the first one. Whatever. It was the first one.
I’m so proud of them. Everybody’s doing wonderful work. I want to go see it again. Legitimately. I can’t see it again till the 11th, but I want to go see it again.
The Verdict
Superman is a 9 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index for me, for right this moment.
I’m positive I’m going to give it a different rating very soon, but I have to sit and talk about it first. It’s a nine just because I’m a little nitpicky. It’s a little scattered, but that’s okay. I had no trouble keeping up and following along. None whatsoever.
I’d say leak culture has sort of killed some of the surprises. I would’ve loved to discover who certain characters are on my own, but we’d kind of heard a lot of these things already, like who some of the villains are.
If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you doing here? You need to go see it, for sure. I’m waiting to go see it a second time, and probably a third and a fourth. I need to see this several times.
And I got my popcorn bucket. I’m so excited. It’s a newsstand box, and I can swap the picture out, so now I’ve got Krypto the Wonder Dog on the front, which I love. I think it’s amazing. I’ve got a cup too. I’ll make sure I have it for the spoiler review.
Have you seen it yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the whole thing. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
