Superman, Reboot or Repeat?
James Gunn’s New DC universe, will it go where DC needs it to, or will it crash and be more like the Greatest American Hero than the Man of Steel?
DC attempts to reboot its entire line and is starting with one of its heroic icons. In the past. DC’s movies in the past few of decades have flopped when they invested in their heroes. Most recently, when their movies were more successful, the focus was primarily on the villains, which made for a more compelling story. The action scenes and special effects were there, but audiences did not connect with the heroes.
When DC comes out with the next big summer blockbuster, James Gunn claims that the whole DC universe is getting this reboot. Much like in the sneak peek, they are attempting to revive Superman. They advertise that they want to emphasize the character with personifies the best of humanity. However, that hasn’t worked well in the past. The real question is. How were they going to try to sidestep their past endeavors? In order to catch up with or surpass Marvel and it’s story telling successes.
With the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, the plots were simple, there was one group, or one villain, the special effects were dated (Superman flying look great at first), they used talented actors and emphasized how good-natured he was. The films were popular, but audiences demand more now.
In the more recent movies, he does what is right, mostly, but seems to be brooding much of the time. I know, sometimes dying does that, but that happened before he died too. The dialogue is relatively drab and nothing more than functional.
The new release has numerous additional characters, new villains and heroes, includes the animatrons from his Fortress of Solitude, and some decent looking effects, which is tough to impress people with since there are so many films with groundbreaking effects. Instead of being an origin story, it starts when Superman is in his 20s instead of starting on Krypton and his arrival to earth. This allows the Movie to jump into a part of his life that is intensifying, rather than introducing a character that everyone already knows, particularly if you are interested in watching the movie.
The new characters that have been confirmed are Metamorpho, the Engineer, Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, and Maxwell Lord. While these characters have not previously been on the big screen, they have been in the comics or in animated features. It could be asked if there is chemistry between the characters, or if David Corenswet can pull off the alien being “best of humanity” role. Does the dialogue add to the story so that people are hanging on every word, but most importantly, are audiences going to be able to connect with the heroes? Is it a remake of the Christopher Reeve movies with more characters and better special effects, or is it indeed the first step of the DC reboot.
One thing is for certain, DC and James Gunn have generated plenty of interest for their summer release. Comic fans will be pleased to see some characters that have yet to make it on the big screen, and I am sure many will be critical that the movie doesn’t follow the comics in numerous ways, but the big question is will audiences enjoy the movie and what direction is DC going in? Only time and a ticket to the movie will tell.
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