Superman - My Take (Spoilers)

 

I found out I can watch movies in FauxMAX! I call the movie chain theater IMAX that because it's not real IMAX. I have a friend who's a movie snob cinephile and they go to one of the thirty-one actual IMAX theaters when they can for certain movies. But I digress.

I went to the movie to be entertained. I have no opinion about the director, which seems to put me in a distinct minority. Nor do I have an opinion about the previous director, which puts me in a Venn diagram distinct minority. Don't expect any of that nonsense in this post.

First and foremost. I have on very big beef with something that was obviously filmed for the 3D version of the movie. During a fight scene Superman punches a bad guy, teeth go flying towards the camera, and they actually make a "ping" noise and bounce away. Seriously? They're flying and teeth bounce off clear air and make a noise? Gratuitous makes me angry.

I liked this take on Superman. He's not invincible. Lex Luthor is completely, totally, and unrepentedly evil. There was a moment in the theater when there was a collective gasp at what he was doing. That's impressive. He wasn't unhinged evil either. He was focused on his goal/goals. Obsessed might be a better word. They didn't try to give him redeeming qualities or excuse away the fact the guy was just bad.

Having Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, and Green Lantern in the mix is something that helped. It helped a lot. It gave Superman some balance in that there were other people who had powers and he wasn't this solo entity. Each one of them had enough screen time to flesh them out as distinct characters and they were true to the comics. Well. As true as they could reasonably be because let's face it - sometimes the comics go off the rails.

The movie opening setting up the state of the world was just right. It was a series of bullet points with a timeline of what led up to the moment the movie itself started. No long intro scenes, no origin story. It was "These things happened and here we are now". Those come up while the camera moves into find the beaten Superman in the snow that's in all the trailers. The bullet points are helpful in knowing how that happened.

There's an excellent secondary story going on and I think it's the base for the next movie. I said there's spoilers so I'll talk about it. The main story is, of course, Superman and Lex Luthor. But a pivotal event is when Superman intervenes in an international event, causing problems with a US ally. Of course that US ally was invading a neighboring country but that's beside the point. The problem the government has is that Superman decided to deal with it by himself without any input from them. They're not wrong.

Another part of this comes out when Lois Lane is interviewing Clark and is asking real questions. It turns out Clark Kent has been doing all the Superman interviews and Lois rightly calls him out on how hollow, if not misleading, that is. He finally agrees to do a real interview with her and things get very tense when she asks real and difficult questions to the point where he storms out of her apartment.

Yes, they have Superman being the Kansas farm boy here. He's very much that farm boy. His core value is that people shouldn't get hurt or killed. While that's not a bad thing, it's going to happen. It worked out fine until he went for international policy.

In the Fortress of Solitude he's got helper bots which I have to assume are canon. How he got them is not explained. Nor is how he got a Fortress of Solitude. When he's there he watches a message from his Krypton parents that was sent with him but got corrupted so he watches what he can. It's a loving message on how they picked the best world for him then it glitches. But he gets to see and hear his birth parents.

The Fortress of Solitude is only around when he is. When he approaches, it unearths itself. It opens for him. When he leaves, it goes back underground. So imagine everyone's surprise when Lex Luthor approaches the spot with a couple of his people and it unearths and unlocks. They find the recording (seems to be on autoplay when the door opens), trash the place, and leave.

I know. This is getting long. So what? And I'm going out of order because I've only seen it once and didn't write this directly after.

Lex Luthor took a copy of the recording and was able to have the rest of it reconstructed. He did so in a way to make it incontrovertible. The second half of the message that Superman hear for the first time when everyone else did on international TV is that he was sent there to rule over the planet and to (this one bugs me too) gather a harem to have as many Kryptonian children as he could. This is a turning point in the movie, of course.

Public opinion immediately turns on him. Lex refers to him as "the alien" and "the Krytonian", reminding everyone he can that Superman isn't human or American or even from Earth. Of course Superman is rocked by finding out what his parents were really like and what they really intended. He goes where he needs to go. He goes home.

Ma and Pa Clark are very much alive in this version and they're very much Kansas farmers. They also are loving parents. They believe in him and what he's like, because they're the ones who raised him with those values. Pa gives a very good speech which comes across as real, not corny. Pretty much they help Superman reconcile who he is with who people think he is now.

Lex had been lobbying the government to use his special enforcement teams for things like, oh I don't know, handling threats like aliens from another planet. The government has not been keen on this, until their pet alien has been "proven" to be something other than he seemed. Lex gets the go-ahead and Superman gets imprisoned in a pocket dimension that Lex has created. Lex ain't stupid here.

While he's gone it's up to the reporters at The Daily Planet and the Justice Gang (as they're called here) to figure out the truth and to get him back. Mister Terrific finds and rescues Superman and is aghast that Lex has made a pocket dimension, since getting it even the slightest bit wrong can cause the destruction of Earth. Of course, Lex knows the possibilities as we find out later.

While in the pocket dimension prison he's caged with a similarly, but worse, imprisoned Metamorpho since he can create Krytonite. Lex covers all his bases. Metamorpho is shackled by having his child held hostage, right across from him. So he's not particularly sympathetic to helping Superman since it endangers his child. The two of them come to an agreement, Metamorpho recharges Superman (no yellow sun in the pocket dimension), Superman grabs the child, there's a kind of chase scene, they all escape through the almost closed gateway Mister Terrific opened and was holding open. It's the car chase scene, really. It also sets up that there's black holes in the pocket dimension and Mister Terrific gets to explain why pocket dimensions are A Bad Idea.

OK. Superman is back and he's pissed. The US ally starts another invasion. Lex looses the pocket dimension's instability to keep Superman from interfering this time. Jimmy Clark uses a source's information to figure out what Lex's part is in the invasion. Lois and her gang write up and publish the story. (Lex is subsidizing the war in exchange for half the territory.)

The bad guy who's been kicking Superman's ass, directed by Lex who gives him fight moves as they go at it, turns out to be a Superman clone. Hence why he could get to the Fortress of Solitude that's keyed to Superman's DNA. (Is DNA universal?) Lex had obsessively visited every known scene where Superman had fought, looking for anything he could use and finally found a hair which was used to make the clone. This really was a twist.

Superman is dealing with Metropolis being endangered by the rift in the pocket dimension, leaving him unable to interfere with the invasion. There's a confrontation in Lex's headquarters. One of his employees has some morals and wants to enter the code to stop/close the rift but Lex won't allow it. This is where Lex gets to go on his bad guy spiel and reverse what it all seemed to be. He wasn't distracting Superman to conquer the country. He was conquering the country to end Superman. He really doesn't like that he's an alien who shows that he's better than everyone else on the planet.

Mister Terrific shows up to enter the code and close the rift. Lois gets her story out and Lex is exposed. He's shown being taken away.

The invasion? Superman took care of that by "calling in friends". Hawkgirl takes care of the leader of the invading country, who thought he was safe because Superman doesn't kill. Spoiler - Hawkgirl does. Green Lantern takes care of the invasion force and sends them back on their way. Metamorpho shows up and helps out too. Green Lantern brings him into the Justice Gang, mostly because he likes the name and no one else does.

Having Superman not have to be the guy who fixes everything is important, in my opinion. Having him ask others for help, and having them give help, is important. It's a setup for the Justice League, I know. But it's good to see the comic source material as well as showing Superman knows how to work with others.

The dog. I know I haven't talked about the dog. That's because he's kind of a dux de machina at times. Yes, he's funny and yes, he advances the plot. He's also the reason for the audience gasp when it seems like Lex kills him (he doesn't but we all know it was possible because there's no way to make an evil character more evil than to have them kill the dog). But overall he's not much more than obvious comic relief. In the mid-credit scene we find out that it's not Superman's dog. It's Supergirl's dog and she collects him when she shows up in the fortress. She's a party girl rather than a superhero here.

The post credit scene is Superman and Krypto sitting on the moon, looking at Earth.

All in all I liked it. I liked Nathan Fillian's Green Lantern best. I know he's been doing the character voice for a while but he really did portray this Green Lantern well. Hawkgirl is the least developed of the characters but I'm not sure how much there is to develop with her. Mister Terrific is defined well enough to carry him forward and make all his parts in the movie believable.

The setup for the next movie, I think, revolves around the government and how superheroes seem to be making decisions without consideration for what the government might want. That's the secondary story I mentioned way earlier. It's also a good continuation of what's been done here and draws all of the characters into the mix, since this is the second time it's happened and it's a different group of superheroes. Not to mention they killed the leader of what was probably a US friendly country.

There's a cheese factor in this movie. Superman is very boy scout but loses some of that by the end. He's still who he is, he accepts that Ma and Pa Clark are more his parents than the ones from Krypton, and he's once again beloved by most of the world. As long as they keep the ensemble around him in future movies they should be good.

Captain America: Brave New World - My Take (Spoilers)

 

I know this blog has been light on hobby content for a while. I'm planning on changing that. But until then I'll report on some geek-related stuff.

I'll be honest here. I wasn't all that excited about this movie from the start. The trailer didn't grab me and it seemed like another yawn-fest of CGI. As much as I try to avoid spoilers I did end up absorbing a lot about how this movie was forced. I'll get to that.

One thing I will say outright - I don't like that they cast Harrison Ford as Red Hulk. Why? Because the man is ancient. They already recast the Thaddius Ross role when William Hurt passed away and giving a major, probably recurring role like this to another actor who's getting up there in years doesn't make a lot of sense. There's more about the character that doesn't make sense but I'll get to that later.

I didn't like the movie because I didn't like the story. It felt weak and cobbled together. Test audiences seemed to feel the same way, hence Sidewinder getting a bigger role. Adding another bad guy to the mix seems counterintuitive because that brought the number of them up to three so none of them got proper treatment.

There's a lot of preaching going on in this script. Lots of rah-rah, be the best you can be, try to do better, etc. While it's a lovely sentiment I'm not going to a comic book movie to be preached at. Yes, yes I know that the comic books cover a lot of societal issues too. But this is a discrete block of very expensive time to tell a story and you gotta figure out what story you're going to tell.

They didn't tell a story. At least they didn't tell one that held together or held audiences. There's so many disconnects and leaps of logic that it just didn't cohere into a singular line. There was no grand coming together at the end even though they put all the characters into their own moments.

One thing that has come out during the discussions has been the push to make a Black man Captain America. I will say that it wasn't overtly pushed here. There wasn't much if any race contention. It's established that Sam Wilson is Cap. As said in the movie "he's no Steve Rogers" but that was going to happen with anyone trying to take on the story role and indeed did happen during the TV series too. I honestly don't think the producers were trying to force acceptance of a Black Captain America as much as a Sam Wilson Captain America.

I will say that this movie did address two things that were kind of skipped/glossed over until now.

• The celestial in the Indian Ocean is part of the plotline and is now Elemental Island. I'm not sure but I don't think any of the movies since that one even noted it existed.
• Who's supplying and maintaining all the tech now that Tony Stark is gone. It's Wakanda. I did wonder about that one since Endgame.

There's adamantium in them thar celestials. Yes, adamantium is now officially in the MCU. But it's not nearly as rare as it seems to be in the comics, considering one of the plotlines is the attempt to build a treaty between India, Japan, France, and the United States for all the resources. I have no idea why France would be in there. India and Japan make sense. It's in their backyard. The US is because we're greedy bastages. But France? Why the heck would France make a claim?

India and France get the short end of the stick in the movie. They get one Zoom meeting scene where they defer to Japan for guidance on the treaty. That's because one of the (many) plot points is 'the package' that was being delivered/sold/whatever that turned out to be Japan's refined adamantium, which was stolen by ~gasp~ the United States!

There's a naval battle scene between the US and Japan. Japan is rightly upset that the US tried to screw them over and decided to go out and stake their claim on Celestial Island. I don't blame them. It was nice to see a country not roll over for the US for once in these movies. The battle is another issue because it has the President directly controlling the war maneuvers. Yes, I know he was a general. But he's not a general and he's not the captain of the ship. He's not in that chain of command. Mostly. What he's trying to do is stop the mind controlled pilots from starting a war with Japan but it's still jarring to see him making tactical decisions better left to, oh I don't know, the ship's tactical officer?

Whoops. Gave away one of the sloppy plot points. But the underlying plot under these was the return of Samuel Sterns from the original Incredible Hulk movie. Since I still haven't watched that one I needed to read online why he mattered. Considering the character has been MIA since 2008 I think I'm not going to be the only person questioning who this guy is and why he's in the plot. He's doing mind control stuff. Big surprise.

While we're on the mind control thing either someone paid a lot of money to have their cell phones placed in the movie or someone on the production staff really liked a brand because every freaking cell phone looks the same. I know people are addicted to their phones but there was a LOT of obvious cell phone usage here. Spoiler - it's how Sterns mind controls a lot of people. But c'mon. Everyone carrying large black cell phones with four cameras on the back? I don't see that happening without someone making the decision that's how it's going to be.

Mind control is big in the comics. It's a lovely dux de machina that helps shuffle the plot along. Poor Wolverine has a revolving door in his brain for all the times he's been mind controlled. But this one stretches things to the breaking point with how easily Sterns is able to use what should be highly encrypted communications and pinpoint accuracy to mind control people. I know. It's a comic book movie.

Here's another thing that bugged me. When Ross transformed into Red Hulk (like that's a spoiler) he immediately knew how to use his new form. No learning curve on the size, strength, etc. Just right out there tearing stuff up and doing physics-defying leaps, tearing up buildings, exploding and throwing vehicles, having perfect hand-eye coordination, etc. I'd think if you suddenly became a Hulk you'd have to take a bit of time just not to fall over much less walk.

They are going to form another Avengers team. It's not subtle. President Ross told Sam to do it. We've got him as Captain America. He's already got his buddy in as Falcon. The head of the President's security just happens to be a Red Room trained Soviet, just like Black Widow (no security issues there, right?), and I don't know who else will get in on this since the only other major character was Isaiah Bradley as the Forgotten Supersoldier. I guess they could put him in for his super strength but they might need to be careful about dropping him into the Wise Old Black Man trope. He's already the Wounded Veteran and the Resentful Veteran.

Bucky makes a brief cameo so that he and Sam can have a dialog about what it means to be Captain America. Of course this takes place while the guy who's now Falcon is in surgery and they're watching that. Bucky seems to have won an election to Congress too. I have no idea how that's going to figure into Thunderbolts*, or if it even is.

They put the trope of Alienated Parent in there too with the President being estranged from his daughter since the Incredible Hulk thing and he's trying to show her he can do better. That's brought up several times. Sure. The President of the United States is going to make decisions based on making his kid not hate him. There is a redemption arc at the end but it's forced narrative with a 'blink and you'll miss it' cameo from Liv Tyler, who gets billing in the movie for some reason. Granted she's reprising her role from the first movie but billing? Her agent should get an extra percentage point for that.

Nothing comes together at the end. It kind of trails off with each of the bad guys having a moment with Sam. Ross and Sterns are in the special prison and Sidewinder giving up a lot of narrative to get himself into a regular prison, which he promises he'll break out of. There's what's supposed to be a touching moment with Falcon (I don't even bother to try to remember the character's name) that is supposed to have a tension breaking end but overall feels forced.

Forced is a good way for me to describe this entire movie. They wanted to do .. something. I guess it's a transition movie to build The New Avengers? There's only one mention of X-Men and that's the adamantium. There's no Fantastic Four references. This movie doesn't seem to have much of a purpose other than to keep the characters on screen.

There is one after credit scene that tries to build tension by stating that they'll have to face the Others. What Others? It's more confusing than tantalizing. It's said by Sterns who can calculate probabilities and stuff like that but why would he know anything specific outside of his general area? Maybe something they discovered in the celestial? I have no idea and honestly I won't think of it much past writing this. 

So there you go. I'm not nearly alone in my evaluation of this movie as cobbled together and not interesting. Someone brought up the point that with the exception of Ross none of the characters developed. Even Ross is a redemption arc trope but at least he's trying. Every other character is exactly the same as when the movie started so what's the point?

Will I see the next Captain America movie? Of course. I've got the subscription that lets me see movies every week so it's no skin off my nose to use one of my weekly slots to see the new Marvel movie. Will there be a next Captain America movie? Even though this one is getting panned there will be another one. The character IP is too valuable not to keep making movies. I have a feeling it will have different writers and a different director tho.