kI'm serious.
I grew up with the Richard Donner Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve (the director's cuts are absolute perfection), and I loved the animated Superman series, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited too. I even loved Lois and Clark, if that tells you anything.
To put it simply, Superman has always been my favorite superhero.
The idea that someone with that much power would always, ALWAYS, choose to do the right thing and protect people flies so much in the face of human nature that it makes sense only an alien could pull it off.
And so when movies like Superman Returns depict Superman as having a child out of wedlock, or when Zack Snyder showed Superman fighting the Justice League, it really bothers me.
That's not who Superman is supposed to be.
Yeah, yeah: I know it happens occasionally in the comic books.
One of my favorite storylines is Batman: Hush by Joeph Loeb and Jim Lee. There's a scene in that run where Poison Ivy gains control of Superman's mind for a time — I hated that part — but Batman's solution to a mind-controlled Superman was so spectacular that it made me laugh out loud.
I highly recommend it.
There's even an animated version if reading comics isn't your thing. Here's the scene described above:
The Christopher Reeve movies went south with part three (directed by Richard Lester) when they made Superman become bad due to red kryptonite. In the end, he had to fight himself to become good again.
Thanks to the "everything good must be corrupted" mentality of the past couple of decades, there hasn't been an all-good version of Superman for a long time. He's just been another annoying anti-hero.
Until now.
James Gunn's Superman goes back to the best version of the character.
I know Gunn has made some stupid comments about Superman being an immigrant, and some people are out there saying that the film is critical of Israel, but a lot of these criticisms came out before the theatrical release, and none of them really manifest in the movie.
There's a conflict between two nations, where one is invading another, and Superman stops it. You could interpret those groups as being Israel and Gaza, but nation-invading happens all the time.
It could just as well be Azerbaijan invading Armenia. That conflict doesn't get the press it should, and yet the genocide is ongoing.
In terms of the movie, Superman doesn't really care who's invading whom; his sole mission is to make sure not a single person dies.
Not one.
The goodness of Gunn's Superman doesn't stop with people.
At one point, he saves a squirrel from being squished, and he tries to save a giant kaiju attacking the city.
Yes, Superman struggles.
He nearly dies.
And yet, over and over again, he's willing to lay down his life to save everyone and everything.
This is who Superman is.
On top of that, there's very little "woke" in the movie.
Don't believe me?
Worth it or Woke gave it a "Based" rating.
That's not to say there aren't some issues.
The movie runs like a 2-hour Justice League Unlimited episode. In addition to Superman, it has Green Lantern (Guy Gardener, who is the worst of Earth's Green Lanterns), Hawkgirl, Mr. Terrific, and Metamorpho.
The Hawkgirl in Superman is Kendra Saunders (a Hispanic-origin Hawkgirl).
As opposed to Shayera Hol (a Thanagarian Hawkgirl)
The character change for the sake of "diversity" drove my 11-year-old, Justice-League-fan-girl daughter crazy.
But that isn't going to ruin the movie for you. Other than screeching a couple of times, Hispanic Hawkgirl is barely a bit player in the movie.
As for another negative, there's also a lot more swearing than a Superman movie ought to have.
But these are minor issues.
The major point is that Superman was a real hero, not an anti-hero, but a real hero.
And that alone made it a worthwhile movie.
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Not the Bee or any of its affiliates.
