James Gunn’s iteration of “Superman” has become controversial leading up to the film’s release, but the bops office has seemingly spoken. Opening to a solid $125 Million premiere weekend with an additional $95M in international tickets, which has the future looking bright for the new DCU.
Superman was undoubtedly the most high profile character Gunn has ever worked with, which concerned the die-hards, but his more relatable and powered down version has won the hearts of fans all across the country. The worldwide Box Office draw was expectedly low due to Superman’s strong roots in America, but overall this is still in the W column for DC as a whole. Warning, beyond this point there will be light spoilers for “Superman” and the DCU in general.
Superman was undoubtedly the most high profile character Gunn has ever worked with, which concerned the
die-hards, but his more relatable and powered down version has won the hearts of fans all across the country.
The movie itself boasts some of the highest RT scores of any ‘Superman’ movie, currently standing at 83%, only beaten by “Superman: The Move” at 87% and “Superman II” at 88%. This also includes the Justice League movies (both versions) and the critical flop ‘Batman v Superman’. The hype in this case does seem justified as this fresh take on a de-powered and emotionally conflicted man of steel is apparently what fans need in this moment.
David Corenswet did a masterful job of breathing new life into a character that’s been seen on screens in one form or another for about seven decades. The Peacemaker and Supergirl cameos were fleetingly fast, but didn’t detract from the plot and did get us excited to see exactly how “Peacemaker” season 2 is going to unfold while pulling the fan favorite character into a new universe.
Krypto the Superdog ended up stealing most scenes he was in, although we wish Superman Roobt #4 played by Alan Tudyk was a little more involved in the plot. Nicholas Hoult (who we loved as X-Men’s young Beast) really flexed his acting skills throughout the film while combining Ultraman and Bizarro was an unexpected twist which we loved. As fans of Bizarro, we do hope to see him again if he ever makes it out of that black hole, however deformed he may end up looking.
Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) was portrayed much differently than the Ryan Reynolds version, which is undoubtedly a good thing and his haircut alone got us excited for the upcoming “Lanterns” series. Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) had a surprisingly vital role on the film, but we do wish we got a little more of his back story while Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) didn’t have many moments aside from comic relief. We were surprised at Bradley Cooper’s Jor-El cameo, which also shocked us to see Gunn’s twist on the parents of Superman, which is different from almost every other live action incantation of the Kryptonian big wig.
The real question after such a solid win is, can Gunn recreate this success with less iconic characters? Right now ‘Supergirl’ and a ‘Clayface’ horror movies are next on the film plan for the franchise and we are undecided how these movies may be received by fickle fans who seem to have Superhero and franchise fatigue all rolled up into one.
It’s possible the superhero genre is on the verge of being dead even though the studios might take another 10 years for they realize it. Gunn’s experiment will tell us how much of a future crusaders in capes really have on the big screen. If the DCU’s next few moves aren’t perceived well, then we anticipate the MCU quietly coming to an end and superhero movies once again becoming standalone pieces of work based on their not the most popular properties.
Either way, Corenswets “Superman” will most likely have a sequel (or two) based off of their box office reception, but we’re just not so sure how a ‘Clayface’ rated R movie will fare with the general public. What do you think? Is Gunn going to reinvigorate the superhero franchise? Only time will tell. Did you see “Superman”? What did you think of the Justice Gang?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
