James Gunn's "Superman" Isn't Woke. It's Prophetic.
Heads up, because there will be spoilers.
Superman is headline news again, because of course people are talking about James Gunn’s new movie, and everyone seems to have an opinion. Is the movie woke? Is it too political? Is it insulting? Is Superman ruined? Is he not ruined? What would Christopher Reeve say?
Nathan Fillion, who plays Green Lantern in the film, has taken what I think is a very sensible approach to all the controversy: “Just a movie, guys.”
While I couldn’t agree more, there were certain things about the film that were pretty hard to ignore. Superman has its good points. David Corenswet is a great Clark Kent and Superman. Rachel Brosnahan is a feisty Lois Lane. The movie is a wee bit too long at two and a half hours, but to be fair, the 1978 film was pretty long as well.
That said, there was plenty wrong with Superman. The music is basically non-existent. Mr. Terrific, while being a cool character, almost has more screentime than Superman does. The Miss Teschmacher character is annoying, although she’s what we’d call a useful idiot.
Even worse, Superman is too fallible; the first scene shows him all bloodied and bruised even though one of the perks of being Superman is imperviousness to harm of any kind. Unless it’s Kryptonite, it doesn’t faze. Superman is not Superman otherwise; he’s just a guy in a blue suit and a cape who happens to know how to fly.
Another drawback is that Lois knows way too much about Superman. It’s typically the thing for a superhero to keep their identity under wraps for obvious security purposes. While Superman’s temptation to reveal himself to Lois has always been one of the character’s biggest dilemmas, he inevitably thinks better of it because he wants to protect Lois and keep the relationship from becoming needlessly complicated. We all know how Superman II played out. In James Gunn’s movie, Lois knows everything, thereby neutering a major part of Superman lore.
I miss Christopher Reeve something fierce.
Also, and this is kind of a big spoiler, but why does the movie portray Supergirl as a drunk club-hopping party girl? Come on, that’s just tacky.
There was something else about the movie that I couldn’t unsee. I really didn’t want to get political here, and I’ll try to keep things as neutral as possible, but as Superman went on, I noticed something familiar about the plot, which I’m just going to lay out and then leave. Anyone who’s looking to avoid spoilers may want to skip the next few paragraphs or so.
The overarching plot of Superman is this: Evil Dude makes a deal with an Eastern European dictator, supplies him with weapons under shady circumstances, and presents himself as an all-round good guy as he fights to keep the war going. Then Evil Dude goes after Actual Good Guy, who’s very popular with the vast majority of the public, for stopping the war and throwing a wrench in Evil Dude’s plans.
Evil Dude has a history of shutting down anyone who disagrees with him, and he’s got glass cages in a pocket universe for them, where they languish like animals in a zoo.
Actual Good Guy is no different. Too narcisstic to admit defeat, Evil Dude uses the media to turn public opinion against Actual Good Guy, then has him prosecuted and imprisoned under false pretenses. He also goes after Actual Good Guy’s personal assets and tries more than once to have Actual Good Guy killed.
And oh yeah, the funny thing about that war in Eastern Europe? Evil Dude is only pushing war to protect the vested interest he has in it; namely, he’s looking to make a handsome profit and grab some land while he’s at it.
Despite Evil Dude’s efforts, Actual Good Guy not only succeeds but prospers, winning in the court of public opinion while Evil Dude pays heavy dues.
Anything about this ring a bell? I’m not going to point to anything or anyone specific, except to say this: In certain subtle and not-so-subtle ways, Superman reads like a roll call of the 2024 news cycle.
The movie isn’t woke. For some, it’s a self-own. To be fair, Superman was in development way before 2024, so any resemblance between it and our current political climate is purely coincidental, but that means it’s also weirdly prophetic.
Given James and his brother, Sean’s recent flirtation with what could easily be called the Zegler Effect, as in, a celeb hurting a movie’s box office performance by getting too politically divisive and blaming the public if the movie fails, I have to wonder if James Gunn looked at Superman’s final product and realized it hit too close to home. It seems he’s decided to take a “I di’n’t do nuffin,” course in evasive action.
James may or may not be that perceptive, though. Actually, I’m betting he’s not, since he tried a little too hard to pander to the Chinese, who hated Superman. Dude is not the brightest crayon in the box, even if he can make movies.
I’ve heard it said that James Gunn has killed the superhero genre. Who knows if that’s the case, because the superhero genre has been dying for several years now. Depending on how things play out with Superman, Gunn may have just put the genre in hospice while also inadvertantly throwing his personal ideology under the bus.
Superman is currently in theaters. Rated PG-13.
My grade: C-
Principal Cast: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Alan Tudyk, Grace Chan, Bradley Cooper, Angela Sarafyan, Michael Rooker, Pom Klementieff, Maria Gabriela de Faria, Sara Sampaio, Tatiana Piper, Stephen Blackehart, Giovannie Cruz, Bonnie Discepolo, Terence Rosemore, Natasha Halevi, Paul Kim
Directed by James Gunn.
Written by James Gunn, Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster.