Speaker #0well hello ladies and gentlemen welcome to the concession stand here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and this is the review of the first film in the dcu or the dc universe over at dc studios and warner brothers written and directed by james gunn superman yes the brand new addition into the superman lore we get david corn sweat starring as car kent aka superman along with rachel brosnahan nicholas holt nathan fillion and uh Let's go. of more stars here this is the non-spoiler review i'm gonna do two reviews of the spoiler review will come out this sunday after everybody has had has had the weekend to check it out so we're gonna do a full spoiler review on sunday so come back to check that out but my initial review here for superman a movie that has been highly anticipated it from movie lovers, from comic book lovers, from comic book movie lovers alike. This was a film that is set to jump off this new DCU over there at DC Studios and, for better or worse, rival Marvel with their MCU. But this film had a lot riding on its shoulders. If this movie crashed and burned, DC was in trouble. you had to come out firing on all cylinders in this film and with all that being said i'm happy to report they did it james gunn pulled it off superman is awesome this was so much fun i i enjoyed this movie from beginning to end is it is it flawless movie no is it the greatest comic book movie i've ever seen no but it had a job to do and it executed its job i believe to a t the best that it could this this movie set up this big universe that we're about to dive into over there uh with dc studios and uh for a first film to not be in origin story and we're picking up in the middle of this i guess world this universe that's already lived in already have metahumans already has superman you're asking a lot of this story to propel you forward and it worked and for the life of me you know i don't understand why people doubted james gunn you can say what you want about james gunn uh he's too active on social media or whatever the case may be. I don't care about all that. I just want him to deliver a good film. And he always has. I've enjoyed all his movies, Slither, Super, The Guardian's films. I love all of those movies. Those are really good movies. And when people doubted him making this movie or doubting how good it would be, I scratched my head because this is the same man that made you feel emotion behind a talking tree and a raccoon. He managed to do that throughout three films and it worked. It was so good. You know, those Guardians of the Galaxy films. And so you put him in a Superman film where it's all about heart and hope. I felt, OK, who better than James Gunn? Man, this movie has so much heart. This movie really depicted Superman how I remember him from the comics. All of the elements are there. Everything about his character is there. That's in the comics. And, you know, you can't go wrong there. The few elements of this movie that I was kind of concerned about going in didn't bother me in the end. You know, I thought Crypto was going to be aggravating. you know because he was getting aggravating in the promotional uh lead up to the movie because that's they show was the dog and don't get me wrong love dogs that's good it's cute cute dog But I didn't want to see him throughout the whole movie. And that was, he was not part of the entire movie. He plays a part. The dog plays a big part in the film, but that wasn't the core of the film, which I thought, you know, leading up to this film. I thought it was going to be oversaturated with the inclusion of Guy Gardner and Hulk Girl and Mr. Terrific. I thought all of that would just... over over packed this movie and it didn't you know they used the right amount of these superheroes they used the right amount of crypto and this is truly a superman movie at the end of the day this was all about him and i was worried about that but my worries were answered after this movie was over this is one of the better adaptations of this comic book character And I'm going over the... long history of adaptations of Superman from film to television or whatever. This was one of the best. And I'm not ready to put it up there with Christopher Reeve's Superman or, you know, stuff like that. I'm not going to fly off the handle just yet. I want to see it maybe two more times before I go crazy with it. But it is truly a really, really good adaptation of Superman. Speaking of Superman, David Cornswet, how was he going to handle? How was he going to fit into those red trunks? I think he did a pretty good job. Once again, I'm not going to try to gauge him by Christopher Reeves or Henry Cavill or anything like that. I'm not going to put him on a scale against those guys because I feel those are different movies. You can't compare those actors. you know to anybody else's those were different superman adaptations it was different uh styles of movie just like this was so i i wouldn't say oh man he's better than christopher reeves i know or oh man he can't hold a candle to uh henry cavill no no no i'm not going that far but as far as this story this version of superman i think david corn sweat did pretty doggone good and there were some parts of his character that i didn't like i don't know if it was his choice or the directing choice but it's like it's something like with batman right you want batman to have two distinct personalities you want him to have the bruce wayne side in the batman side and it's you want that here too you know you want the actor to have the christopher reeve side uh christopher reeves see there i go comparing the clark kent side and the superman side and uh there were moments in the film you couldn't tell the difference between the two and that was kind of kind of i don't know kind of worrisome to me because nobody else can see this you know nobody okay he's wearing glasses big wolf but other than that they talk the same he kind of holds his self the same he still has that superman posture as he's clark kent you know it's it it didn't differentiate you know and it's only for a couple of scenes a couple of moments that this happened when he was interacting with others as clark kent and i was like well he's still he's still giving off superman vibe you know he's not giving clark kent vibes here but You know, aside from that, as far as him holding his own as the man of steel, I think he did exceptional. Um, Rachel Brosnahan, literally born to play Lois Lane in this, in this universe. She is the best Lois Lane I've seen in a long time. She is amazing in this role. And I knew she was going to knock it out the park because I'm a huge fan of her, uh, show. at least when it was on the air, The Marvelous Mrs. Mabel. I thought that was perfect casting, and I was right. She was perfectly cast as Lois Lane. And those two together, David Cornsweat and Rachel Brosnahan, have electric chemistry, perfect chemistry, the way they were bouncing off of one another, especially in the moments where it got kind of heated. between the two and you have lois lane you know talking to uh superman basically as as a normal guy like she was talking to me they can't do her nothing and she is not intimidated by this larger than life figure you know and superman basically kind of cowering to her but not in the sense of he was a henpecked or anything like that it was just the respect factor of it but i just loved their relationship in the film i thought they had perfect chemistry. uh nicholas hope nicholas freaking hope as lex luther i'm once again i'm trying not to compare to other iterations of this character you know the gene hackman's and the uh kevin spacey's of the world even even michael rosenbaum in the worlds you know i'm not trying to throw him in that loop But my God, this was probably perfect casting as well. Just to think, at one point, Nicholas Holt was second runner-up to be Superman. It was between him and David Cornswick. But James Gunn chose David Cornswick because he fit the mold, I guess you could say, better than Nicholas Holt. And I always thought... nicholas hope as batman to be honest with you i would love to have seen him as bruce wayne but that's neither here nor there that was erased when i saw him as lex luther he he he killed it no pun intended he he killed his role he was amazing as lex luther he had everything that i recall from that character in the comic books even in the animated show and uh other tv shows as well he he displayed his intelligence he's super intelligent he's a genius and he is brutal as a serial killer if need be he he he has it all and nicholas hope did it man he did it i i am super super impressed with his performance as well the other part of this film that was kind of kind of weird to think about was the justice game with Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Mr. Terrific. I liked all of them. I liked them all with the exception of Hawkgirl, who was played by Isabella Marcette. And it's not her. It wasn't her. She had nothing to do. Everybody else had something to do. You know, Nathan Fillion had something to do, you know, as Guy Garner. And he was Guy Garner her through and through, even down to the haircut. he was everything about guy garner in the comics brought to life uh the actor who plays mr terrific i can never pronounce his name and i'm not gonna try today and and butcher it unmercifully so i'll just say the actor who played darwin in the x-men first class and was done dirty in that movie he was how can the one x-man who is unkillable be killed Well, they managed to do it in that movie, but he got his redemption here as Mr. Terrific. He was terrific. He was actually amazing in this movie. Almost stole it. He had, I think, the most screen time of those three, you know, in the Justice game in this film. And he held his own, man. He did a phenomenal job as Mr. Terrific. Like I said, Nathan Fillion was awesome. It was just Isabella Morissette as Hawkgirl. She had nothing to do. She came in for just as many scenes. She was in just as many scenes as the other Justice gang members, but it was like she was just there. She was just there. And it wasn't bad, nothing bad. She didn't have anything to do. It just felt like she was just there. Regardless of that, I enjoyed their inclusion. Like I said, to start it off, I thought that they were going to oversaturate this movie with the Justice gang, but they didn't. They didn't. They gave you just the right amount. The story worked. Everything in the story worked, and you felt like there's a bigger world out there, which is what you want to do when you're building a cinematic universe. And that helped. That made it feel like it was lived in, feel like we're in store for so much more. And I can't wait to see what's next. in this universe. My flaws in this movie, like I said, the Hawkgirl character felt a little shortchanged in this film. Some of the visual effects looked a little wonky to me. You know, I went to see it in IMAX, and that's supposed to be the best quality you could see a film, and so I'm watching it, and it was just like a couple of seconds of a scene, the visual effects look like, ooh. It was noticeable. It just popped out. It was like, ah, man, that is some bad green screen there, you know. But for the most part, it looked good. I mean, the flight sequences looked amazing. I loved the flight sequences with the exception of one. It was one. And I'll get into it in my spoiler review in a couple of days. But it was one of them. I was like, huh? This doesn't look all that hot. But anywho, yeah, the visual effects were a little wonky there in the film. And I didn't get a real sense of the passage of time. You know, I don't know how many days this was. It felt like a week or something, you know? The time period this film took place. But I know it wasn't a week. It just... felt like it like it was moment throughout the film while like okay is this the next day or okay they got this information really quick here and you know it just stuff like that it stuff moved at a kind of a hectic pace as we started to enter the third act especially it was kind of uh information was kind of just thrown at you i guess you could say and I get it, you know, I get it because you're expanding this universe, but, you know, you could have rolled that out a little slower. It just felt like they just threw it out there. And then the knock that I, one knock that I have that's not really a knock, but I wish it was something else. And we had an, well, I got to go over it. I got to say it here. It's not spoiled. I'm not going to go into detail, but there's. i guess you could say the la the cameo at the end of the movie that popped up it was fun to see but it came off as random as random can be it just felt so random you know what it just felt random i'll get more in depth in that also in my spoiler review and yes there are two post-credit scenes and quite honestly you can leave when the credits start it is no reason it's no reason to stay for those post credit scenes but it hey they're there you know one of them is real cute though i will say that one of them is super cute it may bring a tear to your eye but other than that it's nothing important but overall really enjoyed this movie i had this was the i think one of the first. time since covid that a theater i went to see a film that wasn't a uh screening or anything like that that was completely packed it was packed in that theater and i was happy for it man i was happy to see it you know it was the fan event so all of the you see guys dressed up as superman literally with the cape and all grown men grown men and in the funny part about it i'm not laughing at them i i'm laughing at myself because i felt so underdressed i just came normal you know t-shirt and pants but they were all dressed out decked out and was all in on this movie and i felt it man i love to see that you know uh people cosplaying as the characters even uh one guy He had a cape and everything and his girlfriend, I'm assuming his girlfriend, she was dressed as Lois Lane. I kid you not. It was the cutest thing ever. I wanted to catch him after the movie was over, but I didn't see him. I wanted to take a picture of him. But yeah, it was cute, man. But everybody enjoyed it. And more importantly, I enjoyed it. Superman. Written and directed by James Gunn gets a letter grade of a B+. yeah awesome movie man awesome movie if you are a fan of the superman the animated series that what came out in the 90s early 2000s whenever this is that this was basically that show in live action if you're a fan of the character from the comics this is the movie for you you know if you If you love Christopher Reeve's version, which I'm pretty sure 99.99999% of people do, and I'm in that 99, we all know that wasn't a carbon copy of the comics. You know, that was just that version of Superman. And God forbid you go into the sequels of those films. But I digress. Superman from 2025 is a B+. Really fun time in the theater, and I'm excited to see what's to come in the DCU. I would like to know, did you check out Superman, and did you enjoy it? Did you think James Gunn pulled off a miracle of sorts and make people love Superman again, and are you looking forward to the DCU? Email the show, kbradiopodcasts at gmail.com. You can also search for the show on all social media platforms. Just search for the KB Radio Network. Also, don't forget about YouTube, ladies and gentlemen. Subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel and like this movie if you don't mind. Don't forget about the five stars, the reviews, and sharing this show if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, wherever you are currently listening. to the concession stand here on the kb radio network everybody thank you for joining me for this review of superman don't forget to come back this sunday when i release the spoiler review where i can get more in depth i'm going deep i'm gonna talk spoilers end of the movie cameos and and whatever else that i couldn't talk about here today But I want you all to know that I love you. Continue to love everyone. And until we speak again, you all be blessed.
