James Gunn’s “Superman” is the joy of punk rock, full stop
David Corenswett stars as the honorable man of steel in James Gunn’s Superman.
SupermanJames Gunn and the first feature film he released Newly rebranded DC Studio – He runs alongside his producer partner Peter Saffron – reintroducing the Steel Man into the film’s progressive audience. And it will be happy to do, I’m a punk rock way.
David Corenswet, along with Rachel Brosnahan, leads the Charge alongside witty and gorgeous Lois Lane and Nicholas Foult as egomania Lex Luther.
Almost half SupermanLois Lane speaks a small, somewhat abandoned line in bitch’s Cryptonian. It informs the dynamics of their relationship. More importantly, anyway, it’s key to the theme of what’s actually happening throughout the film.
Spoiler alert: There’s no way around that. There are a few Spoilers for Superman below. I will do my best to minimize them. However, if you want to avoid this kind of information, go back now.
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Corenswet was at Twisters last year and has appeared in politicians and television shows such as House of Cards.
Instead of retreating the subject of the story, the audience is bored (there is no baby Cal El in the spaceship that crashes into Earth here), and the views on the story of the Cancer character drop the audience into an already built world.
Superman and Lois are already dating. Corporate-oriented gangs of justice – Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Hawk Girl (Isabella Mercedo), Myster Refinitive (Eddie Gategi) – plays the second fiddle crime fighter as the Iron Man. It is an accepted reality that monsters can destroy the streets anytime, and a crude dog with a superpower can save the day.
Nathan Fillion is Gar Gardner, Isabella Merced is Hawkgirl, and Eddie Gateggi is Mr. Great, aka Justice gangster.
In this overly coloured reality, growing citizens are growing uncertainty between two neighbouring countries, the untiring efforts of social media trolls (ER, monkeys) to cancel Superman and the evil billionaire driven by hellish jealousy to be the most powerful person on the planet.
These are big items on Superman’s plates, building stakes and keeping the pace moving with a steady clip. It all works.
However, the film explores another line of story that may not be so obvious. This comes back to that disposable moment between Lois and Superman I referenced above. It turns out that Lois Lane from Brosnahan has Punk Rock Backstory. Her skeptical personality, which she discovers she is questioning everything, is the polar opposite of Superman’s relentless drive of doing good and trusting humanity.
I thought I needed to go further here with this punk rock detail. That’s when my wheels started to spin. I’m talking about my journey as a filmmaker for cancer, from his early cult film days to his disruptive genre work with Troma, slither, super, and Brightburnbringing humor and weirdness to the Guardians of the Galaxy film to his stint in Marvel, a 2019 film that reversed the story of Superman’s origins into a satisfying horror flick.
Don’t forget his short-lived YouTube series, PG porn (This was interestingly produced by Safran).
That’s when you click. If there are filmmakers who shape the entertainment industry I consider punk rock today, it’s cancer.
Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Skyler Gison as Jimmy Olsen, and David Corensweat as Clark Kent.
In the film, Superman is the target of a social media cancellation campaign, and quickly traumatizes his public image. If that feels extra personal, then that should. After making it bigger with Marvel in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, a collection of old and bad taste social media posts has returned online. It led to his dismissal by Disney (and ultimately rehiring).
Superman believes that because of his anti-establishment past and lack of better terminology, for Warner Bros., he considers his current success as a corporate sill.
The Cancer Journey reminds me of Matthew Lillard’s Stevo in 1999 in the Cult Flick. SLC Punk. In that film, Stevo goes from a loud, thrilled Mohawk punk rocker striving to defeat the system in the conservative realm of Salt Lake City in the 1980s to a button-up young man pursuing a more conventional life.
By the end of that story, Stevo will explain why: “I didn’t sell out. I bought it.”
Nicholas Holt is Lex Luther.
I think that’s where cancer is currently. He has reached a creative zenith.
His calculations of his past and present can be heard in these characters, from Mr. Treifick’s self-esteem and dry delivery to Jimmy Olsen’s (Schuyler Gizondo)’s confident nerd bravery and Lex Luther (Nicolas Luther) to greed, lust, anger, anger (so sinful, that man).
When Superman publicly declared his love for Lois, was this really cancer giving him his younger, more unstable self, a long and long grace? And when Lois finally says that, is the inner punk of the gun returning the favor? For me, the answer is loud.
Superman and Lois are already dating when the film begins.
James Gunn teeth Punk Rock.
And yes, his superman is punk rock.
The film is extremely fun, uplifting and full of joy. In all of his various comic book repetitions, his respect for the man of steel is woven into the film. You can feel his deep love for Richard Donner’s original films. This starred Christopher Reeve in his career-defining role and its absurd and fun sequel.
This Superman is healthy and optimistic, and pays homage to the past without repeating it. Gunn really shocked me with this and offered ambitious superhero movies unlike what I’ve seen on the big screen for years. He disrupts the MCU-controlled facility (again) and defies the dark, anti-hero expectations that have wiped away the slate for too long.
Honestly, if it’s not punk rock, I don’t know what.