Kryptonite
I'm not sure how this is going to pan out, it's hard to say with the very divisive fan base. It does seem to be very divisive. Divisive to the point that I could see a civil war happening in the name of DC comics. That is not surprising for DC fans or comic book fans. If not that, then it is very reminiscent of the Salem witch trials. If I could describe my online experience, it is just that. I get the feeling that anyone who disagrees with me would really like to burn me at the stake........figuratively speaking, but I don't know.......maybe literally too. One person mentioned that I would get Superman laser eyed for what I was saying! Haha! I replied how that would be more appropriate! Superman is one of the biggest heros of DC and comic books. Any and every superman iteration is divisive. One thing that I've heard a lot of in every review, good or bad is that this was made for kids, and kids and families will like it. I think a lot of these reviewers mean that the younger generation can relate and because the movie is so fast paced, teens who enjoy Tik Tok will like it. Okay, that makes sense, but many of them are reporting that little kids and families are going to like this. I'm confused by this. Here is a brief summary of the many things that have been said about this movie while they tout it's a movie for families and kids:
"All the men in the film cry, except for Mr. Terrific and Guy Gardner, who are arrogant jerks..........Superman gets beat up 90% of the film...........Superman is the damsel in
distress in his own film.............Superman needs to be saved multiple times.........No one else in the film respects Superman...........Superman's parents, the Kents, are redneck hicks that are portrayed as low IQ.............Jor-EL says Superman was meant to conquer earth and impregnate all of its women...........There is extensive talk about Superman needing to establish a harem............Lois and Superman make out for a while and it looks like Superman is going to put a hole in her head with his tongue..............Corenswet and Brosnahan could teach a class to porn stars..........Lots of women are sexy in this film.........lots of cleavage, but Lois dresses like a man half the time..........Jimmie is a womanizer of sorts and goes to a bad part of town with possible prostitutes present........lots of harsh violence..............some pretty disgusting and disturbing scenes throughout.......audible bone cracking and bodily fluids flying...............quite a few swear words...........the women are allowed to be women, but all the men are emasculated...........Supergirl shows up at the end totally drunk asking about the dog and then calling Superman a B*tch...........characters are underdeveloped..........Lois and Superman barely have any scenes together..............Superman and Lois seem to be on the verge of breaking up the whole time........Love story is not believable............A close up shot of Superman getting kicked in the crotch by Ultraman.......Lex Luther is a whiny baby who is pure evil sometimes, but not other times........Lex shoots Superman's friend in the head playing Russian Roulette- all on camera.........
Lots of gross humor that is always misplaced..........Any and every serious or emotional scene is undercut by dumb comedy.......You may need to take Dramamine before seeing this movie...........cinematography gives you whip lash.........people love Superman but turn on him in seconds for very weak reasons.......This is punk rock Superman........music is bad in this movie........It's not politically woke or woke at all............Oh, and we've never had a Superman that has used swearing, well, it is record-breaking in that respect. We do hear Superman swear as well as lose his cool and throw tantrums........Lois and Mr. Terrific have to save Superman...........Lois seems more impressed by Mr. Terrific than Superman.............Superman never saves Lois in this film............Lois seems to learn to love Superman because she feels sorry for him............Lois' journalistic talent is wasted because she doesn't actually figure anything out..........Story and characters are all very shallow and hollow.............the dog saves more than Superman does..........the dog is annoying.....The acting is good....... The actors did the best they could with what they were given........Everything in this movie is told to us, rarely shown"
Who ordered the emasculated Superman? I suppose this is to make us believe that Superman is just the kindest guy around. I guess no one told the writers that emasculation does not equate to kindness. Okay, so, the only reason I can see that kids would love this movie is the bright colors and the dog. The dog by the way is bad most of the time. He's smart sometimes, but dumb other times. Most of the time people just call him "dog", or "the dog", even by Superman. That's kind of sad. Does anyone remember this movie has a PG-13 rating? There have been reports of parents being surprised by what's in this movie after they have taken their young kids to it. This is the same thing that happened with the Barbie movie. This has been heavily marketed to kids and families, so they forget it's PG-13. I'm just going to tell you right now James Gunn is not someone you want to trust with your children. I'm not so sure that young kids and families are going to like it.........some will, but all? Probably not. Don't fall for the marketing ploys!
Call me old fashioned, but I don't think these kinds of themes should be in a movie for kids. Just remember it has a PG-13 rating for a reason. Maybe parents should see it first and then decide about taking young kids. Just because there is a cute dog in it doesn't mean it's appropriate for kids, but you decide, if you're the parent. The dog was absolutely a ploy to sell toys and market to kids. I think it was a desperate one at that. Gunn and WB wants it both ways. They want to attract all the comic fans, Superman fans, they want it to be a Saturday morning cartoon (which it is), they want to appeal to families and kids all while being PG-13. It's either made for the adult fans, who maybe didn't grow up, or it's made for kids. You can't exactly do both. When you try to be everything for everyone you become more divisive and too often end up unable to please anyone.
I'm a little baffled by this: James Gunn admittedly said this movie is about an immigrant.......and yes, it's political. It's political? This is not surprising at all! It's no surprise that James Gunn is out there telling people he doesn't care what they think and that his movie doesn't need to make money! Okay, then what does it need to make? I'm wondering why James Gunn would say this especially now that those who have seen it are reporting that it's not really political or woke. There has to be a reason he said this, and I'm thinking he said this to drum up more publicity, or he said this because this is how he truly views Superman and the movie that he made. Superman is not an immigrant; he did not come to earth to live a better life. He was sent here as an infant by his parents in order to save his life. His home planet was destroyed along with every other Kryptonian except Zod and his henchmen. He is correctly referenced as a refugee in Zack Snyder's version which I did not realize until I rewatched it recently. The DNA of all Kryptonian life from the Codex was transferred to Kal-EL and infused within his own cells.....the cells of a single refugee.
Rachel Brosnahan has been out there trying to convince everyone that Lois Lane was never a damsel in distress......okay I don't know about that, I think she has been many times........ I would describe her as always being the cat in the tree! "Curiosity killed the cat", that's Lois! Her curiosity constantly getting her in trouble and yes, needing saving! Rachel has also said that if you make a bad superhero movie, then you need to own it and not blame other people for it! So, was that her "owning up" to making a bad film? I have to wonder. Why would she say this? It's not exactly a good look for your marketing. My initial thought after some leaks that came out months ago was that this movie might have feminist undertones. Well, I was not entirely wrong. However, a little wrong, but not in the way that I expected to be wrong. Yes, I still think she is a girl boss because she and Mr. Terrific have to save Superman in this film. Superman does not save Lois even once in the film and she seems more wowed by Mr. Terrific than Superman. Lois becomes unlikable almost immediately in this film. Many say she acts like a girl boss (or another word, I won't use). Out of nowhere she just is able to fly Mr. Terrific's saucer. Why, how, might you ask? Well, Mr. Terrific basically says it's user friendly and easy to figure out! OKAY! That makes sense! So, although they did not girl boss the crap out of Lois, it's actually worse! Superman needs to be saved many times throughout this film. He IS the damsel in distress the whole time. It's reported that he doesn't actually win very many battles. He is seen saving some people and animals. I like that! He has lost his stoicism, his commanding authority, and any respect he should have from governments, police, his dog, and even his fellow heroes. Now to me, this is woke. They may have left behind the blatant, brazen, in your face feminist narrative, but they completely emasculated Superman. Emasculating Superman who should be the peak of masculinity in many ways, is just not true to the character in my opinion.
Is it just me, or does James Gunn have Rachel Zegler Syndrome? Or is this just the new Hollywood? The more Gunn has talked about and promoted this movie, the less people want to see it! The more he talks, the more damage control has to be done. I have to wonder, why is he sabotaging this movie? If I had not known he was the director, or even if I had known, but he was never at the forefront of the marketing, I would have gone to see this 100%! If there was only 1 trailer and fewer leaks, if they had been tight-lipped and the content was mostly kept under wraps, I would have gone to this! Many are reporting that this movie has no surprises because most of the movie can be seen in the trailers and TV spot scenes that have been released. They also claim that the best parts of the movie were in those trailers. I'm not sure if that's true because people are raving about Mr. Terrific and we didn't really see too much of him in the trailers. It does seem that studios spend hundreds of millions of dollars on these movies and keep pretending that the audience doesn't matter! Almost every studio has had to learn this in recent years! If they want to survive, they will have to add the audience back into the equation!
Another common complaint about this movie is the telling. The dialogue has to tell us everything. They don't effectively show anything. The audience is not trusted to figure anything out on their own. When I watched Batman vs. Superman it took me 2 watches to figure out that Lex was truly behind every single thing going on in that movie. They effectively showed us everything, but it was up to the audience to put the pieces together, mostly. The pace of this new film is fast, one thing after another, creating plot holes that don't get resolved, no character development, or story development. The tone is goofy, funny and then serious. It doesn't know what it wants to be, say some critics. Every time the tone gets serious, it gets undercut by a joke. How can the audience take this movie seriously? It seems that James Gunn did not intend for you to take it seriously. It's almost as if he is making a mockery of the character in every way he can. Some say that some of it is funny and some of it isn't. Some say they loved all of it, and some say that it did not belong whatsoever in a Superman movie. This is something Man of Steel did really well. It was serious and remained that way, but the plot was not lacking, confusing or convoluted in my opinion. There was definitely a lot going on in Batman vs. Superman. I think everything led to a main focus. Everything that could be described as convoluted in that movie had a purpose in leading the audience to one main plot.People that say Man of Steel was a convoluted mess, but like this new one........I'm not sure if I can understand that. Man of Steel kept a pretty good pace and had a pretty focused story line. One thing that I loved about Man of Steel was the use of flashbacks to tell the backstory. Nolan and Snyder did a great job of show don't tell. It's true that Cavill did not have a lot of lines in the movie, but that movie was very much about the picture and the art. The visuals and acting told a great story! I love how we see Clark going around from job to job to help people and do good. Remember this is before he is really Superman. The other day I heard someone complain about Man Steel Superman and how Superman would never ruin someone's livelihood for being an a$$hole. This describes a part where Clark is working in a diner and a man is harassing a woman, probably sexually, and Clark approaches him and asks him to stop. The bad guy tells him off and throws a drink in Clark's face, mocking him. When the guy tries to shove him, he hits steel! Clark walks away and it's later seen that the guy's semi-truck is mangled in the electrical lines and poles outside the diner. Let's be honest here! Would Clark maybe lose his temper and do something like this before he is actually Superman. Yeah, he's not perfect and it's within the realm of possibility for him to do that. Man of Steel was epic story telling!
If WB says that they only need $500 million in a box office run to be successful, then that would lead us to believe that they had very successful partnerships and merchandise sales previous to release. It does seem that they are constantly changing the numbers and their expectations for this film, which is strange. I think it's futile to compare it to Man of Steel, but when the math is done with ticket prices now vs. 2013, it suggests that there's about 33%-55% less tickets sold for this 2025 version in 79 plus markets than that of Man of Steel in just over 24 markets just over opening weekend. When comparing Superman 2025 to other movies in recent years like it, it could be considered a success. It is doing better than Blue Beetle, Aquaman 2, Wonder Woman 1984, and The Flash. Man of Steel is just such a different movie written in a time when people liked good writing and decent plots.
This movie very well could be Kryptonite unto itself! The overstuffed story, plot, and comedy could be part of the downfall. James Gunn certainly did not do this movie any favors in the days prior to its release. James Gunn's face all over the marketing did not help. Sean Gunn's embarrassing red carpet interview with Variety fanned the flames as the media tried to get anything from anyone to further make this movie divisive. We all know Mark Malkin is just doing his job, but he is notorious for creating division where there might be none. He is the journalist that kind of set up Rachel Zegler to say all sorts of crazy stuff. Sean Gunn was the only one from the Superman cast to take Malkin's bait, so good for them. The media is not your friend!
The studio's constant changing of their mind about what's successful and what their expectations are has been kryptonite. The marketing overkill has created some questions and made the opportunity for constant backlash and criticism. Now the constant praise for this movie and all the talk of record breaking that is dishonest has some eyebrows raised. No one has mentioned that Jurassic World, the 7th installment of a franchise that has sort of worn out its welcome made $318 million on its opening weekend globally. Jurassic World even beat out Superman in its opening weekend in some countries. Articles in the UK suggest that the reason people are not going to the movies is due to heat and I guess the Plague. Hahahaha! The excuses have been made very apparent. People are just not going to the movies. Yeah, that's true, but people did show up for Lilo and Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, and Jurassic World. So, is that really a good excuse? I don't think so.
Let's talk about people not going to the movies. This is true. I don't think you can use the Covid excuse anymore because I think that we are far enough past that to make it a viable excuse. There have been plenty of Billion dollar successes since Covid. In my area I checked theaters almost every day for the past 2 weeks. Almost all showings were empty until the day before or day of the release. On its release there were 30 plus showings available at my local theater. Only 7 were close to or sold out for Superman on a Friday. On Saturday it was much the same story, maybe 10-12 showings out 30 were close to selling out. Sunday was far less. What I did notice was the sales for the following Tuesday were selling out faster. Tuesday is the discount day for movies and you get tickets for half price or less than half price. So, everyone waits for discount Tuesday which means the Studios are only getting a fourth of what normal sales would be. That's not a great sign for movies in general.
People have to choose carefully what movies they want to spend their money on. I chose to go to Jurassic World, but I used my membership ticket to my local theater. I decided to take my kids to the Megaplex to see Jurassic World because my husband had $60 in gift cards. The ticket prices there were much more expensive than Cinemark. Two child tickets and one adult ticket in the evening cost $48. These tickets were for luxury lounge seats, which are limited at Megaplex. Luxury lounge seats are the only thing offered at my Cinemark theater and they are much cheaper than Megaplex. I also had 2 free small popcorns. I bought a large popcorn, 3 candies, 2 lemonades, and 1 water, and I still spent $41 after using the rest of my gift card. So, this trip to the movies was over $100 for 3 people. That is crazy! A trip to the movies for a family of 4 would be well over $100 if you really want to enjoy yourself! Going to the movie is not something families can do with multiple movie releases. People are choosing between the three major hits of the summer; Jurassic World, Superman, and Fantastic 4.
The Super fans and critics are another Kryptonite for this film, in addition to super hero fatigue! Everyone is a pod-caster and movie reviewer. I think anyone who is remotely interested in this movie has released a first reaction and a review, followed by a spoiler review and then followed by further discussion with other pod-casters, or reactions to other reviews, and so on. Hahaha! The fans are so divided that they are in an all out war. Although it makes for interesting entertainment for me, it's been overkill!
I was accused of forcing people to agree with me and forcing them to believe everything I said despite saying the exact opposite various times. I was called a psychic grifter because I posted my blog, hahaha! I was accused of being stupid for commenting on a post I disagreed with because I was increasing engagement which meant more people were seeing it. I mentioned that more people were seeing my blog as well and my views were going up during and throughout this conversation thread. This person kept repeating himself over and over about 10 times. He would never answer my questions and he kept telling me, "my last word eludes me!" Eventually I told him he should write a book about that. He also mentioned that he was a social media farmer and said I was being farmed. I said then someone must be paying him to keep me engaged and I was fine with that. I mentioned that this thread would be at the top of the post along me and my blog! When he continued to tell me about myself and my life he called me condescending after I called him out for having a crystal ball. Much later after this guy left the conversation I recommended him as the psychic grifter they were so determined to find. I mentioned how the post had a new farmer after he failed to say anything interesting. I even politely asked him to Google a new intelligent phrase, but he failed, it was only, 'my last word eludes me." Eventually he declared me as James Gunn's #1 fan. Not sure how we got there. According to everyone else I was the enemy!
The general consensus was that everyone needed to prove me wrong, but about what? That was the question. I never actually said anything about the movie being unsuccessful. I said I thought it looked bad and according to me personally I did not want to see it. They never answered my question about what they were proving me wrong about. I never made any predictions about the box office numbers or the audience satisfaction. What I was proving however, was the witch hunt that was indeed going on. They beautifully displayed the toxic fandom and just how easy it was to create a witch hunt. Someone felt the need to comment on how pathetic it was that I was so angry about a movie to talk about it as he proceeded to tell me I looked like an 80 year old woman trying to be a 14 year old boy from the looks of my profile picture. He spelled picture as pitcher, and he seemed very upset that I was wearing a hoodie, like I wasn't allowed to wear a hoodie. I said that his response wreaked of desperation to insult and that he looked like the angry one for feeling the need to comment on my appearance. He deleted his comments.
I was called a derp, meaning I am foolish and meaningless. I was compared to Mark Zuckerberg.........I'm still confused about that one. I was called a liar. People told me no one cared about me or my blog and that no one would ever read it........as my views were increasing by the minute. I kept telling them how much they were wasting their time talking to well, all of the things above, hahaha! At one point I said how they were making me sound kind of amazing, I mean a psychic grifter, James Gunn's #1 fan, and being compared to Mark Zuckerberg was indeed amazing! I felt special. As I was feeling so good about myself they continued to lose their minds.
The fact that they kept talking to me seemed contradictory. They really did seem to care a lot about what I had said or what I would say. I kept updating the post with everything I had actually said about the movie on the post and everything that I had been called, everything that was assumed and I briefly mentioned how I had not actually called anyone a name, that I had not sworn at anyone, and if I did assume I asked questions or said "I think", or "it sounds like", or "I feel like". If I was wrong I asked them to refute. I was pretty respectful and as always it got crazier and crazier! Oh, someone also said I was mentally ill and that everyone should feel sorry for my kids. It was crazy! I kept telling them that I was taking screen shots and I was going to use this in my next writing project! They did not believe me.......After saying I didn't even have to bait anyone this time, after re-posting my blog, and making mention repeatedly my next writing project, everyone started deleting their comments. So, I guess they did read my blog, or they thought I was still bluffing and they finally decided after 2 days that I wasn't worth their time. Yes, that's right after two days of caring about me, they finally took their own advice and stopped paying attention to me.
When people mentioned how I was taking this all too seriously, I agreed that all of them were taking it too seriously. In the end I said how it was interesting that no one wanted to acknowledge anything I actually said. I also said that no one wanted to admit that I was an absolute riot! I was sarcastic and funny and an actual delight to converse with if any of them did try to have a respectful exchange. I had a few people straighten up when I called them on their rudeness. Suddenly, it was oh they weren't judging me! Hahaha! We were actually able to have a good conversation. I mentioned how I never set out to insult anyone, but they really made it too easy. I admitted to being sarcastic and making fun of the ridiculous nature of the conversation, or rather the burning at the stake.....of me! Hahaha! One guy posted a GIF of a bald guy sitting behind his computer shoving chips in his mouth, looking crazy. I asked if that was what he looked like right now trying to hold back the laughter because I was actually funny? I even said that was me only prettier, with popcorn, waiting for the next witch hunter that wanted to use Superman's laser eyes on me. I said if people didn't think I was funny then they had a stick up their back end! I was always very nice in how I said things, and I was genuinely trying to make them laugh. I even made fun of myself much of the time when I posted a recap. I was demonstrating just how crazy ridiculous this thread had been and just how seriously everyone was taking all of this. Kryptonite to the movie? Yeah, for sure, maybe on a smaller scale, but X and Facebook and all social media have been lit up with the divisive arguments about DC, WB, Comics, Superman, and more the last few weeks. I imagine it will continue for months to come!
In closing, if this movie is considered successful, it was in spite of all of the kryptonite they themselves threw at it! If this movie is just meh, or unsuccessful, I will not be surprised. The studio, James Gunn, some of the actors, the media, the writers, the critics, and every divisive fan got in the way of this movie's success. Just think of the success it could have had if none of that got in the way, even if it is a success. They were their own Kryptonite! I think it's important to remember what Nathan Fillion (plays Guy Gardner in this movie) said on the red carpet when baited by Malkin: "Guys, it's just a movie!" Which is indeed, the whole point of any and all of my interactions on social media regarding Superman!
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