The second I saw the shot of Lois driving some spaceship I knew for sure it was over.
SUPERMAN - July - Andy's Review
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 35851
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
-
Edmund Kattak
- Posts: 1829
- Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2004 9:08 pm
- Location: Northern New Jersey
- Contact:
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 35851
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Re: SUPERMAN - July - Cuts, Reshoots, New Composer, Lame Test Screening
Gunn is trying to backpedal as fast as he can. This movie doesnt need a Rachel Zeigler moment.
-
Monterey Jack
- Posts: 10586
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:14 am
- Location: Walpole, MA
Re: SUPERMAN - July - Cuts, Reshoots, New Composer, Lame Test Screening
Maybe he could just...sell the movie as a fun adventure? 
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 35851
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Re: SUPERMAN - July - Cuts, Reshoots, New Composer, Lame Test Screening
That would have been helpful but he couldnt help himself.
-
Monterey Jack
- Posts: 10586
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:14 am
- Location: Walpole, MA
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 35851
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Re: SUPERMAN - July - Cuts, Reshoots, New Composer, Lame Test Screening
My guess is the politics are really just Gunn talking and the movie itself isn't infused with them. I'm also expecting the movie to be overstuffed and uneven, which is what happens when a) Gunn is given too much creative freedom and b) the film has already been reported to have been cut/recut and has been through a lot of editorial "messaging".
How much you want to bet the amount of Williams that apparently appears in the score is because of test audiences? Because that doesn't seem to have been part of the original plan.
We'll see, I'm going Friday morning as this is Theo's one week at home this summer. XPLUS at 10:15am
How much you want to bet the amount of Williams that apparently appears in the score is because of test audiences? Because that doesn't seem to have been part of the original plan.
We'll see, I'm going Friday morning as this is Theo's one week at home this summer. XPLUS at 10:15am
-
AndyDursin
- Posts: 35851
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:45 pm
- Location: RI
Re: SUPERMAN - July - Cuts, Reshoots, New Composer, Lame Test Screening
8/10
Superman has had a rough time of it since Christopher Reeve hung up the cape. First, director Bryan Singer tried and failed with his weird "emu" Superman (Brandon Routh) in "Superman Returns" (2006), done as a faux sequel to the Alexander Salkind productions, paying a superficial homage to them but without the intrinsic humanity and "verismitilitude" that director Richard Donner instilled in his 1978 classic. Zack Snyder's 2013 "Man of Steel" offered a more serious approach, rebooting the character with a convincing Henry Cavill, yet in the midst of Snyder's gritty, dark take on the DC Comics characters -- a controversial approach which ultimately came apart over creative differences and a "Justice League" project infamously taken away from him (before being handed back as one of the weirdest "moral victories" in cinema history).
Needing a big hit, Warner Bros. has now turned their attention to James Gunn, one of the only directors who took a Marvel property and was able -- thanks to its relative obscurity -- to make a movie on his own terms seemingly with little studio interference. His "Guardians of the Galaxy" adapted strange, offbeat source material and turned it into one of the comic book movie genre's shining success stories, working in humor and a grounded, humanistic approach to its characters despite its wild, fanciful settings.
Gunn's eagerly awaited "Superman" seeks to do the same -- and it largely succeeds -- despite some pacing issues, yet comes away as easily one of the best films of its kind in many, many years.
Certainly it's the closest anyone on the big screen has gotten to reprising the sense of goodness, humor and humanity that Christopher Reeve and his Superman pictures did back in the late '70s and '80s. Gunn understands what makes the Man of Steel tick, and presents Clark Kent on-screen in the form of David Corenswet, who presents an instantly appealing, likeable Superman at the beginning of his heroic journey. Like Reeve, Corenswet exudes decency without seeming rigid and "alien", and the picture works best when it depicts Superman's quest to understand his place in the human world and whether, despite his Kryptonian origins, he's part of it.
The plot has an awful lot going on but, to Gunn's credit, he balances it all with the same kind of grace and good humor that infused his take on "Guardians." This "Superman" opens up in a new DC universe that's already been partially pre-established, with Superman fighting crime and Lex Luthor (Nicolas Hoult) looking to exploit international politics for his own gain. Once Clark -- already established at the Daily Planet and dating Lois (Rachel Brosnanhan) -- gets himself involved in the global conflict, an already irritated Luthor vows to wedge himself between the people's love for their adopted super-hero and remove him entirely from the equation. This he attempts to accomplish with his own genetically enhanced "Ultraman" and a nano-tech infused former soldier, all the better to do battle with Superman and the fledgling "Justice Gang" trio of Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Mr. Terrific.
One of the smartest things about Gunn's "Superman" script is that it throws you into a new "DC Universe" that's already in motion. The supporting "Justice Gang" heroes are about town too, but there's no pause -- or need -- for the movie to stop and provide an origin for all of them. Nor is there for Superman himself, for that matter -- we've seen baby Supes' escape from Krypton so many times it's not necessary to render it on-screen at this stage, and being able for the viewer to jump straight into the action serves the audience and the movie well.
So too does an approach that praises the humanity in all things, not just people, which worked for Gunn before and it does so here: creations like Krypto the Wonder-Dog and a group of robots who populate the Fortress of Solitude all have a built-in heart and pulse, which registers all the more thanks to Corenswet's performance and Gunn's script. Gunn lets Superman be decent, and have a sense of humor, even without knowing all the answers -- that's what was missing from the pretentious, virtually Christ-like portrayals of Superman in the Singer and Snyder pictures. Clark is always looking for the best in people -- even Luthor himself -- and that sense of goodness, hard to project on-screen without coming off as being preachy, is what separates Superman from other comic book heroes, and always has.
Not every element in the movie works: reported pre-release cuts create a ragged-feeling first hour that has a stop/start kind of quality to the pacing, and the ending does, partially, devolve into another succession of CGI fisticuffs we've all seen before. The score also is weak, essentially providing the same beats that permeated the movie's trailer with contemporary riffs running under flourishes of John Williams' original theme -- yet none of these elements damage the picture and its lovely final scene, which strikes the right note in finding the true heart of the character and his enduring appeal. "Super" indeed.
Superman has had a rough time of it since Christopher Reeve hung up the cape. First, director Bryan Singer tried and failed with his weird "emu" Superman (Brandon Routh) in "Superman Returns" (2006), done as a faux sequel to the Alexander Salkind productions, paying a superficial homage to them but without the intrinsic humanity and "verismitilitude" that director Richard Donner instilled in his 1978 classic. Zack Snyder's 2013 "Man of Steel" offered a more serious approach, rebooting the character with a convincing Henry Cavill, yet in the midst of Snyder's gritty, dark take on the DC Comics characters -- a controversial approach which ultimately came apart over creative differences and a "Justice League" project infamously taken away from him (before being handed back as one of the weirdest "moral victories" in cinema history).
Needing a big hit, Warner Bros. has now turned their attention to James Gunn, one of the only directors who took a Marvel property and was able -- thanks to its relative obscurity -- to make a movie on his own terms seemingly with little studio interference. His "Guardians of the Galaxy" adapted strange, offbeat source material and turned it into one of the comic book movie genre's shining success stories, working in humor and a grounded, humanistic approach to its characters despite its wild, fanciful settings.
Gunn's eagerly awaited "Superman" seeks to do the same -- and it largely succeeds -- despite some pacing issues, yet comes away as easily one of the best films of its kind in many, many years.
Certainly it's the closest anyone on the big screen has gotten to reprising the sense of goodness, humor and humanity that Christopher Reeve and his Superman pictures did back in the late '70s and '80s. Gunn understands what makes the Man of Steel tick, and presents Clark Kent on-screen in the form of David Corenswet, who presents an instantly appealing, likeable Superman at the beginning of his heroic journey. Like Reeve, Corenswet exudes decency without seeming rigid and "alien", and the picture works best when it depicts Superman's quest to understand his place in the human world and whether, despite his Kryptonian origins, he's part of it.
The plot has an awful lot going on but, to Gunn's credit, he balances it all with the same kind of grace and good humor that infused his take on "Guardians." This "Superman" opens up in a new DC universe that's already been partially pre-established, with Superman fighting crime and Lex Luthor (Nicolas Hoult) looking to exploit international politics for his own gain. Once Clark -- already established at the Daily Planet and dating Lois (Rachel Brosnanhan) -- gets himself involved in the global conflict, an already irritated Luthor vows to wedge himself between the people's love for their adopted super-hero and remove him entirely from the equation. This he attempts to accomplish with his own genetically enhanced "Ultraman" and a nano-tech infused former soldier, all the better to do battle with Superman and the fledgling "Justice Gang" trio of Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Mr. Terrific.
One of the smartest things about Gunn's "Superman" script is that it throws you into a new "DC Universe" that's already in motion. The supporting "Justice Gang" heroes are about town too, but there's no pause -- or need -- for the movie to stop and provide an origin for all of them. Nor is there for Superman himself, for that matter -- we've seen baby Supes' escape from Krypton so many times it's not necessary to render it on-screen at this stage, and being able for the viewer to jump straight into the action serves the audience and the movie well.
So too does an approach that praises the humanity in all things, not just people, which worked for Gunn before and it does so here: creations like Krypto the Wonder-Dog and a group of robots who populate the Fortress of Solitude all have a built-in heart and pulse, which registers all the more thanks to Corenswet's performance and Gunn's script. Gunn lets Superman be decent, and have a sense of humor, even without knowing all the answers -- that's what was missing from the pretentious, virtually Christ-like portrayals of Superman in the Singer and Snyder pictures. Clark is always looking for the best in people -- even Luthor himself -- and that sense of goodness, hard to project on-screen without coming off as being preachy, is what separates Superman from other comic book heroes, and always has.
Not every element in the movie works: reported pre-release cuts create a ragged-feeling first hour that has a stop/start kind of quality to the pacing, and the ending does, partially, devolve into another succession of CGI fisticuffs we've all seen before. The score also is weak, essentially providing the same beats that permeated the movie's trailer with contemporary riffs running under flourishes of John Williams' original theme -- yet none of these elements damage the picture and its lovely final scene, which strikes the right note in finding the true heart of the character and his enduring appeal. "Super" indeed.