If you asked me to come up with a diplomatic way of describing DC on film lately, I'd say it's been a cluster. It's been

somewhat mismanaged. I want to be rival to the MCU that arrived late to the party and tried to catch up by fast-

tracking half a decade's worth of world-building, plot, and character development into a single movie. And as anyone who's

arrived late to a house party and tried to play catch-up can tell you, that's never a good

idea. Only to spend the next 10 years lurching drunkenly from disastrous failure to inexplicable success and back

again, plagued by a panicking and interfering studio that couldn't seem to make up its mind what it wanted and a

revolving door of executives who each stuck around just long enough to undo the work of their predecessors before

getting fired. But even Warner Brothers can only tolerate so much failure, and by 2022 it was obvious that something had

to change. Someone with an actual creative vision had to be put in charge of DC on film, and they had to be given

the time, money, and power to get the franchise back on track. And well, that man was James Gunn. And his first big test

was *Creature Commandos*. Superman. Now, I'm not kidding when I say that pretty much everything is riding on this movie; not just James

Gunn's career or DC on film. I mean, the entire superhero genre. The past few years have given us an almost endless

stream of embarrassing failures from every major studio. Never give up hope though; Sony's *Deadpool* and *Wolverine* was a big

hit, to be sure. But one successful movie can't change the fact that superhero movies have been on a downturn ever

since *Avengers: Endgame*. Superman needs to succeed, which means that all eyes were on the first teaser trailer when it came

out yesterday so what's it actually like? Does it inspire confidence in a movie that's going to save DC and put the

entire superhero genre back on track, or is it an embarrassing and ridiculous spectacle of pure cringe? Well, it opens

on a somber note with Superman lying injured and bleeding in the snow. And if ever there was a perfect metaphor for

the public perception of the character after being Zack Snyder-ed to within an inch of his life, it's this. But okay, sure, it

establishes a sense of urgency and drama because, really, if someone or something can beat the crap out of Superman, it

must be a pretty major threat. I have to say, though, I'm not exactly loving the suit. It looks cheap and padded, and I

know it's unfair to compare him to Henry Cavill, but David Corenswet does seem like a bit of a downgrade in the

physicality department. You get to see little vignettes of him as Clark Kent at the Daily Planet, and apart from the

awful Gen Z bird's nest hairstyle, it all looks pretty good. We get to see Lois Lane and Jonathan Kent, and it's a neat

whistle-stop tour of all the things and people that are important to him. I'm not sure about the electric guitar rendition

of the John Williams score, though. Like, I know James Gunn really loves his 80s music, but damn, man, turning

an iconic score like that into a sad guitar solo is like drawing a mustache on

the Mona Lisa. Yeah, you can do it in theory, but the question you have to ask yourself is: should you? But just when you

thought things were getting a bit too somber and serious and not James Gunn-y enough, the dog shows

up. Oh yeah, the dog. No, I like dogs as much as the next guy; I have two.

myself, but I'll be honest here; I'm not sure that I want to watch a superpowered

one. Dragon Superman through the snow by his cape. It rather ruins the verisimilitude for me, don't you know, and

yeah, I know this is supposed to be Krypto from the comics, but it was a goofy idea even then, and it looks even

worse on film, which is probably why no other big-screen version of Superman has ever used it. I've got to admit, though,

the anarchist in me would love to see Zack Snyder's take on it. As for the rest of the teaser, Lex

Luther looks decent, even if he's a bit on the young side. Hot Girl Green Lantern, Mr. Terrific, and Metamorpho are all there,

and [__] that's a lot of characters to work in, but I'll come back to that one

shortly. I'm not entirely sure why there's a Kaiju in a Superman film, but okay, fine. And lastly, there's plenty of

focus on the romance between Superman and Lois, which is nice to see in a modern Hollywood movie where functional

heterosexual relationships are rarer than female apologies. So, what's my overall opinion? Was it an embarrassing

disaster or a creative triumph? Well, it's neither of those things, really. What it is, for the most part, is safe; a cautious

kind of trailer that hits all the predictable superhero beats, doesn't try anything particularly crazy or controversial, and seems almost

desperately eager to please from a studio that's clearly nervous about this film. James Gunn's usual confidence and

artistic flair is kind of lacking here, and I can't quite decide if that's a good or a bad thing. In this case, see,

I've always had reservations about Gunn doing a Superman film. My first reservation is that I don't think his quirky

A snarky, subversive sense of humor is only compatible with a character like this. Don't get me wrong, he's good at

what he does, but what he does falls within a very specific niche that includes Guardians of the Galaxy and uh,

his irreverent sense of humor and a clear preference for angsty, morally ambiguous anti-heroes works just fine

for the Guardians movies, but Superman is a very different beast. He's a throwback to a more innocent, idealistic, and

earnestly honest kind of superhero; a man who proudly stands for truth, justice, and the American way, and doesn't do it under

a dozen layers of postmodernist, subversive, deconstructive irony. And I could be wrong, but I feel like such a

straight-up interpretation of the character is the antithesis of everything Gunn stands for as a

creator. My second reservation is that Gunn clearly has a strong preference for team-up movies with big ensemble casts of

likable misfits having to learn to put aside their differences and work together. That basic formula has been at

the core of Suicide Squad, all three Guardians movies, Peacemaker, and Creature Commandos, and that's just swell, but

here's the thing: I don't want that in a Superman movie. I don't want to

watch Superman bickering with a bunch of people, trading quips and insults, and

having to slowly win them over. I want to see him being a hero and standing on his own two feet, because this is supposed to

be his movie, not some launchpad for half a dozen spin-off characters. But now that I've seen the trailer, I think one of

those reservations has been put to bed, while the other's pretty much been confirmed. Crypto aside, the overall tone

Actually, it looks pretty earnest and straight-up, and I get the impression that Gunn's actually taking this thing

seriously.  Say what you want about the guy, but he understands comic books, so I'd imagine he very much understands

what makes Superman work as a character. On the other hand, the glut of supporting characters tells me he's probably going

to run straight back to his team of misfits' comfort zone, which feels like a big misstep here. I don't want every

James Gunn movie to be just another Guardians clone, trying to impose the same formula on characters and worlds

where it's not needed or wanted. Ultimately, though, a lot of this is still guesswork at this point; it's only a

teaser. At the end of the day, a lot of things can change between now and July, and the film itself might still end up

being the best superhero flick in years. As a teaser designed to get us pumped up for it, though, I'm not convinced this one

quite hits the mark. It definitely wasn't a failure, but I suspect that whether you love or hate James Gunn's work, you're

probably going to find something in it to back up your position. As for me, I'm going to try and keep an open mind on

this one and just hope that Gunn can deliver, because really, a lot depends on it. Anyway, that's all I've got for today.

Superman Teaser - My Reaction

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