DC Universe

[Ben]

Good grief!


This nails it, too:



They’ve disabled playback on other sites but it’s worth the click…so apt and well done.

[droosan]

I enjoyed the new movie very much! Lots of great stuff, throughout .. but -- far and away -- my favorite character was

Missss Tesssssmaaaacher! .. and yes, it's actually her, again .. and she's amazing.

[Randall]

All the positive reactions have me very pumped. It sounds like just the Superman film I wanted to see. We are going to see it on Saturday night.

[gaastra]

https://www.reddit.com/r/boxoffice/comm ... _best_ytd/

Best preview opening this year.

[Randall]

Naturally, I loved Superman. It may not be as great as the hype, but it was very satisfying for me. This was a recognizable Superman, right from the comics and cartoons. As others have said, it was like picking up a comic off the rack, and being tossed into the action. That worked fine for me. There are vocal naysayers out there, yes, but I feel sorry for them. It is like how you feel sorry for Lex, in that he is too petty and envious to accept Superman. There is so much to enjoy in this film, and so much positivity in it, that I don't understand treating it negatively. No, the film is not perfect (what is?), but it's fun and heartfelt. My wife, who normally much prefers Jane Austen to superheroes or sci-fi, was thrilled with the film, too (and of course my teenage son really liked it), and I love that this will be many kids' introduction to Superman. It has been a while since we have had a Superman film for families to enjoy.

I thought the other superheroes fit in well, the dog was fun, and the plot was easy to follow. (Complaints of the film being overstuffed don't ring true to me.) And the cast was pretty perfect. I look forward to my next viewing.

[Ben]

Sounds good, though the Randy quality bar has been set accordingly!

I'm seeing it Tuesday evening - yes, a rare big(ger) screen outing! Supes and Jurassic are the only things this summer that might have tempted me out, although I'd have gone for Mission, too, if I didn't already know I was going to buy it.

And I would still be tempted by Jurassic...BUT...I was floored two nights ago to see that - just a WEEK after theatrical release - it's being offered on our PPV service for £20 already! WTF!? That means digital copies will already be floating around, which is nuts. Didn't anyone learn anything from WB's catastrophic day-and-date releasing? Yeah, the movie has made a bundle, but even for 30-45-day loving Universal that's fast for even them.

So that's an option now, too, though again I'll probably just end up getting the disc. There's nothing else this summer that might get me out; F4 will be a watch on D+ come September, so only a couple of months to wait. Then it's Pap, which obviously will be a group outing...!

[Randall]

Just keep your expectations in check. I'm not saying it's perfect in every way. It's not necessarily a "great" film, and I'm sure you will find fault with it (I can criticize it, too, to be honest, but I'm not about that - I was just glad to see "my" Superman on screen), but it's a fun watch. It's basically a good episode of Justice League Unlimited, brought to life. Just enjoy the ride.

Superman The Movie will always be the most dear to me, but with the 2025 film we have really seen the first film starring the true comic book version (or darn close, anyway), complete with all the trappings.

[Farerb]

I didn't enjoy this movie, thought it was too goofy and couldn't take anything seriously. You can also feel that James Gunn spends too much time online. I'm glad for others who enjoyed it but it's not for me so I'm pretty much done with Gunn's DCU. I still plan to watch Matt Reeves' Batman 2 if he ever manages to make it.

[Ben]

This is why I (and I'm not the only one) have taken to calling it Superman 1984...

Funny enough, I want to say more, but I can't say where I've been or what I've been doing the last two weeks...

[Randall]

Well, that seemed unnecessarily(?) cryptic....

I spoke to someone today who had issues with the film due to all the scientific inaccuracy; to which I pointed out it's a fantasy film, not sci-fi. But it obviously wasn't the film for her if she was getting too caught up on the science. Similarly, if goofiness in your Superman film wasn't your thing, then I can see it wasn't for you, either. Too bad. I had fun, taking it for what it was intended to be.

[Ben]

Okay, well, I’ve been in the DCverse, but signed something to say nothing. So I can’t!

[Randall]

MMMMmmmmmmm......!

[Randall]

I think this is a very fair assessment, seen on Facebook. It certainly reflects my own reaction to Superman. While I quite enjoyed it, I didn't find myself loving it as much as a lot of people. It's not great art; just a fun comic book-y ride. But above all, there was relief that it wasn't a Snyder-type film.

There is clearly a new herd mentality forming around James Gunn’s Superman. The enthusiasm, or in some cases, blind praise, feels less like an objective assessment of the film itself and more like a reactionary movement, driven by lingering resentment toward the previous DC Comics universe that began with Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder and written by David Goyer and Christopher Nolan. This polarization mirrors the patterns we constantly see in politics and online discourse today: people are no longer just evaluating a work of art or entertainment on its own terms, but are instead staking ideological ground, using films as cultural battlegrounds. The Superman fandom, once united by a shared affection for the character, now feels like a microcosm of wider social divisions.

What makes this situation almost absurd is that neither Man of Steel nor the new Superman is a cinematic masterpiece. Snyder’s Man of Steel was an ambitious but heavy-handed deconstruction of Superman’s mythology, stripping away the optimism of the character and replacing it with somber tones, moral ambiguity, and visual gravitas. On the other hand, Gunn’s Superman swings in the opposite direction: a playful, almost childlike reinterpretation that borrows heavily from the bright aesthetics and naive storytelling of Silver Age comics, while presenting itself with the glossy surface of a theme park attraction. These two creative choices stand at opposite ends of the tonal spectrum, but both, in different ways, fall short of elevating Superman into true cinematic art.

When compared to Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie (1978), the shortcomings of both become more apparent. Donner’s film, crafted with the narrative weight of Mario Puzo, the author of The Godfather, and polished by the wit and structure of Tom Mankiewicz, remains the only true attempt to merge Superman with serious cinematic language. It balanced spectacle with myth, humor with sincerity, and hope with genuine gravitas. In contrast, both Snyder’s grim experiment and Gunn’s colorful escapism feel like misguided attempts, one too heavy for its own good, the other too light to carry any real meaning. In the end, the current “herd mentality” around Gunn’s version is less about the film itself and more about fandom politics, leaving behind the real question: when will Superman finally get another film that aspires to timeless cinema?

[Ben]

All true.

They forgot Superman & Lois, though. Okay, not a film, but that last season is the best Supes onscreen since the Reeve films, and the last half of the last episode is among the best Superman period. So different. So perfect. So…true.

[Farerb]

I agree with this assessment. The positive thing I'll say about Gunn's Superman is that I could at least finish watching the movie, which I couldn't with Man of Steel, and then the only DCEU films I watched are the two Wonder Woman films and that's it.