[Spoilers will be had, you have been warned!]

James Gunn has done it again.

He has made a comic book movie that I had fun with. I mean, let us face facts here, comic books are silly and it is important to have some suspension of disbelief in order to enjoy such goofy material. We are talking about an alien who just so happens to look like a human being and is powered by the sun, coming to earth to fight super powered bad guys and save people from disasters. And I had been down for a fun DC movie for some time now.

I will admit that the whole DCEU line of movies have been enjoyable in their own right. Maybe not in the way the creators had intended but I was entertained. And after “THE Suicide Squad” movie with James Gunn at the helm, I had been looking forward to the next iteration of the DC cinematic universe. Because . . .

Okay, I love Marvel too. There really is no conflict there for me to choose between Marvel or DC. Frankly, I will pick Valiant just to be snarky (and I do love me some Valiant) but I digress. The comic book movie boom of the last twenty years has been a hell of a ride. And while I do love Marvel, they can’t keep adding to the same cinematic universe forever. Which is why I think a reboot may be a good thing for Marvel down the road, to stay fresh and breathe new life into their heroes and villains.

This soft reboot of the DC movie universe was a welcomed change. At the very beginning there is a text crawl (more like a cheeky fade in and out) that sums up Superman’s origin, the existence of metahumans, and the current events leading up to the movie. We really do not need to see Superman’s origin story again, let us just get to some fun Silver Age adventures!

I knew from the trailers that Krypo the Superdog was going to be fun but I did not expect how much of a role he would play besides the mascot and comic relief. At first, I was concerned that Krypo’s undisciplined goof bad dog schtich was going to get tiresome but for me, I enjoy watching the CGI doggie have some fun and undermine the villains whenever he could. And we later find out that Krypo was actually Supergirl’s dog and Superman was only babysitting while she was off-world partying on another planet. Cool cameo of Supergirl at the end though I will admit, Melissa Benoist will always be the best Supergirl IMO.

Also Bradley Cooper (aka voice of Rocket the Raccoon) is Jor-El which is cool cameo casting. Superman has a hologram message from his parents before they sent him off to earth. And at first, they tell Superman that they love him and to do good with his powers. This message becomes the major plot device of the movie. Because half of the message is broken and Superman thinks his parents had good intentions. But then Lex Luthor and his gang break into Superman’s crib and recover the message in full.

And apparently in this iteration of Superman, the twist is that his biological parents had evil intent sending him to earth. And I like how both the good guys, the bad guys and even Superman himself had to point out that the hologram message his parents sent was legit, saying “Rule over earth and destroy anyone who gets in your way.” It’s as if James Gunn knew people were going to be salty about that take of Superman’s parents and would invent all kinds of theories to prove the movie’s twist wrong. Nope, Superman’s parents were villains, which I’m cool with.

Now I want to know how Krypton really went boom. Was Jor-El responsible? Because I would love that take too. Bradley Cooper playing a villain would be fun.

Speaking of villains, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor was great. He really captured the honest narcissistic and mad genius the character embodies. And I knew I had seen his face before and he played young Beast from X-Men: First Class. So in that movie, he got hairy and in this movie, he shaved. LOLz. Anyway, I just love how overthetop evil Lex is in this iteration. He creates a pocket dimension and imprisons all of his enemies despite the risk of tearing a whole in space time and destroying the entire world. And he has thousands of monkeys typing shit posts about Superman . . . that was random but I appreciated such a corny supervillain gag. That kind of wild BS is like marrying the goofy mentality of the Silver Age with the modern sensibilities of internet culture, I freaking love it.

And then there is the Justice Gang. I would love to see how they came together because honestly, the Gang doesn’t seem to get along in that “we are co-workers and put up with each other’s BS to get through the work day.” Which, I and many people can relate. Hawk Girl, Green Lantern and (of all people) Mister Terrific are superheroes funded by Maxwell Lord to stop disasters and fight monsters. Hawk Girl is played by Isabela Merced who apparently was in the Madame Web movie (which I saw that and forgot it in a week). Edi Gathegi plays Mister Terrific and he’s been in Twilight and X-Men First Class, so he had experience with geeky project in the past.

And the reason I and no doubt many people came to see this Superman movie: Nathan Fillion has Guy Gardner Green Lantern, complete with the goofy hair cut. I’m not listing Mr. Fillion’s geeky project list because that would take up a paragraph. He has been a nerd icon for a while and now he’s in the new DC movie universe. And his take on Guy was spot on. There literally is a battle scene where Guy gives a bunch of tanks the middle finger, literally. Again, Gunn brings the Silver Age silliness to the modern age and I love it.

And one actor worth noting is Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, one of the most obscure characters from the DC comics to bring in. Carrigan had been in DC projects before, mostly TV with the Flash and Gotham but it is awesome to see him in movies. Even though he is covered head to toe in prosthetics and makeup. I saw him in the trailers and wondered what his role in the movie would be. And I completely forgot that Metamorpho could change his body to anything, including kryptonite. That was a clever use of the DC roster and a thumbs up for that twist.

And I know I glossed over Mister Terrific being in the movie but I have to bring him up again because he plays a huge part in this movie. He is basically the counter-mad scientist to Lex, coming to Superman’s aid when a super genius is needed. I honestly would be down to see a movie with just Terrific leading. Terrific actually is the one who saves the day in the movie by hacking into Lex’s computers and stopping a world ending event. Though, needing a computer code to stop a world ending event seems a bit far fetched . . . I know what I just typed but the Silver Age silliness can only go so far 😜

And then there is Lex’s goons. Otis and Miss Eve Teschmacher from the old school Christopher Reeves Movies are back with more modern takes. The villain the Engineer makes her appearance as a nanomachine super human (but Bloodshot will always be my favorite nanomachine superhero). There was some impressive CGI work with her goopy fighting style. And I have heard that James Gunn likes putting tentacles in his movies and the Engineer pretty much provides that.

And then there is Ultraman, the more modern and less goofy take on Bizarro. Ultraman was played by this one actor named David Corenswet. He wore a mask through most of the movie and we didn’t see his face much. He looked a lot like the actor playing Superman, I wondered if they are related? There is nothing online about that though, surprisingly. Must of been an uncredited cameo or something LOLz.

Anyway, I had fun with this movie. And that is all a comic book needs to be for me. Fun, just pure goofy and wild fun. And I appreciated the subtle world building in this movie, using cameos and names from the comics that only fans would get but they're not required to know. It is the first theatrical movie of this new DC movie universe and so far, I’m having a blast. And it made its budget back as of typing this so here is hoping it will be well received and DC makes more fun movies like this.

Supergirl is the next movie to hit theaters next year and I don’t know about that one. Her cameo at the end of Superman made me iffy to see her solo movie. Wait?! Jason Momoa as Lobo? Sign me up, take my money now! It’s always the side characters that get me on board for the next movie 😁

Good Luck and UP-UP-AND-AWAY!

—Buck

PS: I love it that Sean Gunn is Maxwell Lord in this universe. That was a fun cameo. And it makes me wonder if there are James Gunn movies without a Sean cameo 🤔

PSS: Oh, I was about to schedule this blog for Thursday and come to find out, it is my 100th blog! 🎉So much for not having anything special. Honestly, I’m proud that I stuck with the blog for as long as I have. It has been cathartic and productive. And I hope to do another 100 blog in the future. And if by chance anyone is reading these, I hope you enjoy my ramblings. And thank you for reading.