I loathe restacking quotes twice so let me drop one in the comments: "People long for a time in the past — an unspecified time, which may never have existed — in which Hollywood films spoke directly to the masses, and unified them in a sense of shared humanity."
You know, after years and years of dull, uninteresting superhero slop, it's really nice to see a totally earnest and hopeful movie in that genre, one that jettisons all that origin story crap and bothers to have an interesting aesthetic.
...is what I said after a showing of "Fantastic Four: First Steps," which was actually good -- unlike James Gunn's Jamesgunnified take on Superman, which is OK but firmly up its own ass in the lore department. I am very much not a Marvel fangirl but it seems very clear to me that critics are really, really desperate for this "new" DCU to represent a paradigm shift in the genre that'll force Hollywood out of its Marvelous status, regardless of whether it actually is one. (I'm not sure what Sam thinks of "Into the Spider-Verse," but that is a genuinely fucking great movie -- quite possibly better than even the Raimi Spider-Men!? -- that really did force Disney out of stasis.)
Isn’t that a 1948 Ford coupé? My dad had one of those, so I suppose I’m a boomer. I grew up on 10 cent DC comics that I bought every Sunday at the combination smoke shop and barber shop when my dad bought the NY Times. Superman may be the first comic book superhero and to me seemed to echo Greek and Roman mythology as a human writ large but with a flaw that could be a problem. Batman was a favorite maybe because he also led a double life but mainly because he was a hero without superpowers. Is there a parallel between those two and Mandalorians and Jedi knights or the Sith.
Loved reading this (especially the camera/shot commentary), though I regret to say that I found the review more enjoyable than the film…the earnest sentimentality and geopolitical fantasy world actually aggravated me quite a bit, and I really felt COERCED into feeling sad at Superman's struggles and happy at his victories. The moral message seems to be: America is fatuously helpless and unable to change course; all we can do is hope for a hero to absolve us of our failure to act…
But it's a cute movie! So maybe I'm just a snob? It's funny how the film is so optimistic about love and family and friendship (these very private, individual relationships) and totally resigned when it comes to the pliability of the public and the morality of the government. Which maybe IS how people feel about the world now? You have to feel good about your private life because public life is a disaster.
In 1976, I finished a yet-to-be-published-seriously novel (there is an audiobook) in which one character was from Boravia as in Superman Serbia; one from the Island of Mine (making him a Minion); and a man named Harley Quinn who had a large ink stain and so covered himself in motley makeup. I renamed Minions to Lackies from Isle of Lack (for Lackies) and Harley Quinn to Magnus Pye, and now Substacker Lev Grossman used that name in Bright Sword. But the use of Boravia is staying. Uggh. I think a scene from Empire Strikes Back got in there. How could I have been so derivative?
I loathe restacking quotes twice so let me drop one in the comments: "People long for a time in the past — an unspecified time, which may never have existed — in which Hollywood films spoke directly to the masses, and unified them in a sense of shared humanity."
You know, after years and years of dull, uninteresting superhero slop, it's really nice to see a totally earnest and hopeful movie in that genre, one that jettisons all that origin story crap and bothers to have an interesting aesthetic.
...is what I said after a showing of "Fantastic Four: First Steps," which was actually good -- unlike James Gunn's Jamesgunnified take on Superman, which is OK but firmly up its own ass in the lore department. I am very much not a Marvel fangirl but it seems very clear to me that critics are really, really desperate for this "new" DCU to represent a paradigm shift in the genre that'll force Hollywood out of its Marvelous status, regardless of whether it actually is one. (I'm not sure what Sam thinks of "Into the Spider-Verse," but that is a genuinely fucking great movie -- quite possibly better than even the Raimi Spider-Men!? -- that really did force Disney out of stasis.)
Isn’t that a 1948 Ford coupé? My dad had one of those, so I suppose I’m a boomer. I grew up on 10 cent DC comics that I bought every Sunday at the combination smoke shop and barber shop when my dad bought the NY Times. Superman may be the first comic book superhero and to me seemed to echo Greek and Roman mythology as a human writ large but with a flaw that could be a problem. Batman was a favorite maybe because he also led a double life but mainly because he was a hero without superpowers. Is there a parallel between those two and Mandalorians and Jedi knights or the Sith.
Maybe the easiest explanation of the need for a superhero is this “Throughline” podcast of the history of Captain America. https://www.npr.org/2025/07/03/1255164467/does-america-need-a-hero.
Movies as comic books in disguise? It wasn’t a blockbuster like the first Batman movie, but take another look at “Dick Tracy..”
Compare the Star Wars universe with that of Marvel sometime on these electronic pages. Please.
Cheers for now
Loved reading this (especially the camera/shot commentary), though I regret to say that I found the review more enjoyable than the film…the earnest sentimentality and geopolitical fantasy world actually aggravated me quite a bit, and I really felt COERCED into feeling sad at Superman's struggles and happy at his victories. The moral message seems to be: America is fatuously helpless and unable to change course; all we can do is hope for a hero to absolve us of our failure to act…
But it's a cute movie! So maybe I'm just a snob? It's funny how the film is so optimistic about love and family and friendship (these very private, individual relationships) and totally resigned when it comes to the pliability of the public and the morality of the government. Which maybe IS how people feel about the world now? You have to feel good about your private life because public life is a disaster.
Not a snob obv. I think you're pretty much write in the second paragraph there, it's a very interesting addendum.
In 1976, I finished a yet-to-be-published-seriously novel (there is an audiobook) in which one character was from Boravia as in Superman Serbia; one from the Island of Mine (making him a Minion); and a man named Harley Quinn who had a large ink stain and so covered himself in motley makeup. I renamed Minions to Lackies from Isle of Lack (for Lackies) and Harley Quinn to Magnus Pye, and now Substacker Lev Grossman used that name in Bright Sword. But the use of Boravia is staying. Uggh. I think a scene from Empire Strikes Back got in there. How could I have been so derivative?