Knee-jerk review: "Superman"

1. You've never seen a Superman movie like this.  Take that as either a compliment or an insult.  This is a world of flying cars, sentient robots, alien dragons, and black hole portals.  Plus a Kryptonian dog.  It, like, totally goes there.
2. As expected, with James Gunn writing and directing, it's a got a weirdo Guardians of the Galaxy vibe to it.  Even with all the comic book strangeness, the movie's packed with real emotion and humor.
3. The most evil and awful Lex Luthor ever.  We're way past the avuncular charm of a Gene Hackman.
4. There's definitely a lot going on.  Lots of characters and plot, but it mostly all comes together.
5. Whether intentional or not, this is a movie with a lot of political layers, like the manipulative propaganda power of social media, the raging mistrust and fear of people who aren't like you, and the very real-world problem of countries invading other countries for secret, nefarious reasons.
6. But we remind you that it takes years to go from script to screen.  Media can maybe comment on hot topic current events with something like "Law and Order" or a pop song, things with quick production turnarounds. Movies, on the other hand, are too slow and creaky.  Especially giant movies like this.
7. The more we think about it, the more we like it. 
8. That's definitely an interesting choice for Jimmy Olson's character.
9. Wendell Pierce sighting.
10. An "interdimensional imp" is a thing apparently.
11. Superman is tricky thing for us because the first two Richard Donner movies (especially 1980's Superman II, which we know, we know was technically credited to director Richard Lester) are a big pop culture part of our youth.  We remember those movies with rose-colored glasses, willfully overlooking their flaws and occasional accidental cheesiness.  As an 11-year-old we even tried hard to really like 1983's Superman III, but surely we can all agree that is an awful movie in spite of (or because of?) the countless times we watched it on HBO.
12. We sort of appreciated what Superman Returns (2006) was trying to do as a Donner homage, but it was a pretty limp, forgettable movie.
13. The "Snyderverse" thing continues to baffle us.  Man of Steel (2013) was at least a real movie with strong actors and a distinctive sensibility, albeit a humorless and dour sensibility.  We really liked Henry Cavill as Superman.  But no one can honestly and objectively look at Batman v. Superman (2016) or Justice League (2017) as anything other complete disasters of filmmaking, bleakly self-indulgent, narratively confusing, and completely off-putting and unsatisfying.  And yet those movies have a sizable - well, loud anyway - legion of fans who act like they're the pinnacle of Hollywood storytelling.  As a result, these Snyder fans are out there attacking this new movie.  Right now there's a lot of online chatter about which film made more in the opening weekend box office, as if that's the only arbiter of a successful movie (plus keep in mind that the mass media entertainment environment of 2013 is way different than 2025, so it's apples and oranges anyway).  
14. Christopher Reeve was perfect casting, no doubt, but David Corenswet has that same sort of square-jawed earnestness to him.  He's pretty good, people.
15. "I'm not Superman" indeed.
16. That's quite a twist with Jor-El.  Marlon Brando wouldn't have liked that.
17. Nice to actually get Lois Lane into the action to help save the day.
18. What you may have heard is true: Mr. Terrific steals the movie.
19. It's a solid B+, which isn't bad.

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