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Go to http://greenchef.com/50thetake use code 50THETAKE to get fifty percent off your first month, then twenty percent off for two months with free shipping! 🦸💥 James Gunn’s new Superman...
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00:00James Gunn's new take on Superman was up against the odds from the beginning,
00:04and initial reviews were very kind to it.
00:08But now that it's been released to the public, it's become a smash hit.
00:12While the film has already sparked a lot of discourse,
00:15the reasons that it's connected with audiences actually make a lot of sense.
00:20I think that Superman is somebody who we wish existed so that the world didn't suck so bad.
00:26So how does this take on Superman measure up?
00:29And why has it really been so controversial?
00:33Let's take a closer look.
00:34While Superman has been a beloved hero since he hit the comic pages way back in 1938,
00:39it hasn't always been easy pulling him into the live-action world of our screens in a way that felt
00:45right.
00:46There have been high points that feel like they've brought out the best of the character,
00:49like Richard Donner's 1978 film starring Christopher Reeve.
00:53But because many of his inherent qualities make him feel so distant from our human selves,
00:58his superpowers, his belief in good, the fact that he's an alien, etc.
01:03Many of the more recent adaptations have decided to showcase a much darker spin on the character,
01:08in line with superhero movies taking a darker tone overall over the years.
01:12So when the trailer dropped, making it clear that Gunn wasn't going in that direction.
01:16I wanted a Superman who was a little bit more down-to-earth.
01:20But instead back to the character's brighter origins?
01:23Many were intrigued, but in equal measure, unsure.
01:27Part of this hesitance came from the fact that audiences, after a peak of great films,
01:32have been served a slew of less-than-great superhero movies back-to-back-to-back.
01:38As box office numbers for these films began to wane, some in the industry began to worry about
01:43superhero fatigue — that people were just tired of watching superpowered people save the day.
01:48But Gunn didn't see it that way.
01:50I don't believe in superhero fatigue.
01:52I think there's, you know, mediocre movie fatigue.
01:56Gunn is no stranger to making crowd-pleasers.
01:58From writing the iconic 2002 live-action Scooby-Doo,
02:02I know how to handle this guy.
02:04Hey you!
02:05What are you doing?
02:07Yes.
02:08That is masterful.
02:09For writing and directing the Guardians of the Galaxy series and beyond.
02:14How?
02:14You said it yourself.
02:17We're the Guardians of the Galaxy.
02:19For his Superman, Gunn wanted to turn back the clock a bit and get back to what truly makes Superman,
02:25well, Superman.
02:27He wanted to bring vibrancy back to Clark Kent's story, for one.
02:30The film is much brighter than recent versions of the superhero's story,
02:34in tone, color, and the fact that you can actually see what's happening on screen.
02:38More than anything else, I think that it was trying to take from the comic book artists
02:43and creators who created Superman for the page.
02:47He also wanted to bring back the key characteristics that make Superman such a hero in the first place,
02:53which had slowly been eroded over the darker retellings.
02:56I obviously was inspired by the color and the beauty of Richard Donner's original film,
03:03the sort of good-natured playfulness of Christopher Reeve's version of Superman.
03:08Gunn's Superman has not been met with universal praise, just the opposite, in fact.
03:13It was hit with a wave of middling to negative reviews to straight-up hate.
03:17But the things many of those viewers seem to dislike so much about the film are…
03:23the very things that make Superman who he is.
03:26So what's causing the dissonance?
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05:02Superman jumps past a lot of the lore building that we often get hit with,
05:06and have seen many times at this point.
05:08To drop us straight into Clark's story in a world where Superman is already out in the world,
05:12and he's already dating Lois.
05:13He's not worrying over if he should or can use his powers for good.
05:17He's already made that decision.
05:20And in fact has made that his central driving force.
05:23He wants, above all, to do good and help people.
05:26He's willing to stand up for what he believes in in cases big and small.
05:30From defending his music tastes,
05:32to defending his choice to stop an invasion that would take thousands of lives.
05:36The movie leans into the degree that his earnestness
05:38can come across a bit goofy in our modern world for humor,
05:42but it doesn't make fun of his actual dedication to doing good.
05:45In fact, it's unashamed to highlight that as a very positive quality.
05:50Indeed, one of the main things that makes him super.
05:53In his review of the film for NPR,
05:55Glenn Weldon, author of Superman the Unauthorized Biography, writes,
05:59Recent attempts to tell live-action Superman stories have shied away from his bright,
06:03hopeful, altruistic nature in favor of making him more cool and relatable.
06:08Read Dark and Brooding.
06:10That's not who he is.
06:12It never has been.
06:13Superman is an ideal.
06:16He represents the best we can aspire to be.
06:19What I think it's about is goodness and the core values of kindness and compassion
06:24towards other human beings and how it's important no matter what.
06:27While being an invincible alien who always does the right thing
06:31might make Clark seem highly unrelatable,
06:33there are actually so many elements of his story that connect him to all of us.
06:38His struggles with being an immigrant in a world that fights against him no
06:41matter how hard he tries to do good and help out,
06:44being disappointed by his parents,
06:45even the fact that his being an outsider makes him incredibly lonely.
06:50I think he's a counter-intuitively interesting and relatable character.
06:55While Superman refuses to be turned off his path of good no matter how much
06:59the world tries to knock him down,
07:01Lois's trajectory of rekindling that spirit she once had but lost
07:06more readily mirrors many of our own experiences.
07:09She's lost any sense of idealism whatsoever.
07:12She's lost, and with that comes a loss of belief in magic or love.
07:18Lois is pragmatic and strong in many ways,
07:21but the darkness of the world has caused her to begin losing hope that good can win out in the end.
07:26She has a more clear-eyed view of why things are the way they are than Clark,
07:30and he has a more optimistic view of how things should or could be.
07:35It's by combining the best parts of both of their natures that they're able to begin making real
07:40progress.
07:41She can rely on her own smarts and instinct,
07:43but sometimes you need someone to help you,
07:46whether it's a Superman or someone else,
07:48and that doesn't make you any less strong or any less capable.
07:51This version of Lex Luthor of course has many analogues to our real-world oligarchs,
07:56but he also represents a pervasive, destructive thought pattern
08:00that's taken a hold of all rungs of society.
08:03Lex essentially wants to remake the world into the way he thinks it should be,
08:07and then have everyone thank and applaud him for it.
08:09Lex is envious of Superman's powers, but more than anything,
08:13his goodness and ability to be liked by other people.
08:16Lex creates problems then frames himself as the only solution in an effort to enrich himself further,
08:22and to try to force people to appreciate him in the way that he feels that he deserves.
08:28Actually being a good person, someone that people could genuinely like,
08:32never really crosses his mind as a real option.
08:35In an effort to both erase Superman and prove that his kind of destructive strength is more powerful,
08:41Lex even creates Ultraman, a dark mirror of Superman, who he uses to wreak havoc.
08:47Lex sees Superman's caring about other people as a weakness, not a source of his strength,
08:52but something that should be antithetical to it.
08:55Some of the loudest backlash to the film itself seems to stem from the same belief — that caring
09:01is cringe, and that kindness can never truly be a pillar of strength.
09:07And the fact that Superman is able to combine these two elements enrages them,
09:11because it shines a light onto their own failures.
09:14As Kenneth Shepard noted in his review of the film for Kotaku,
09:17when the world has reached comic book levels of evil, comic book stories about heroes doing genuine
09:22good start to feel a little too pointed and relevant for people who think the dystopian
09:27hellscape we live in is the world functioning as intended.
09:31The film ends with Superman back in the Fortress of Solitude recuperating after defeating Lex,
09:36and he again asks to watch videos of his parents — though this time it's memories from growing up
09:41with Jonathan and Martha.
09:42Then, finally, a shot of Superman and Crypto taking in the Earth from out in the cosmos,
09:47recalling Carl Sagan's famous quote from his book Pale Blue Dot.
09:51Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us.
09:57On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you've ever heard of,
10:01every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.
10:05Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
10:08the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of
10:13pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
10:18In our obscurity and all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere
10:24to save us from ourselves. Superman is, in his most intrinsic form, that hope from elsewhere,
10:31though come not to save us from ourselves, but to help us save ourselves.
10:37People want to see that. They want to believe that you can create your own narrative
10:40in a way that is benevolent. Even if you have all the power in the world,
10:44it's wrong of you to turn away from people who need your help.
10:47No matter how much the world and the evil within it throws at him,
10:50Superman never gives up. His resolve to make Earth a better, safer place for humans never wanes.
10:56But it's also a lot easier to always believe in a better tomorrow,
10:59when you're an alien with superpowers. Things can feel a lot more bleak for us regular humans.
11:04That's why Lois' story of coming to rekindle her belief in our ability to create a better world
11:10is so important and inspiring. Despite the negativity from some,
11:15the film has overall been very well received and already become a huge hit at the box office.
11:19No one has to like any film. And just because someone doesn't like this one doesn't automatically
11:24mean that they're against kindness or anything. But the fact that so much of the hate
11:29is people being angry about Superman displaying basic positive traits like kindness and care
11:34is telling. At the end of the day, many people are desperate to see stories of others doing the
11:40right thing even when it's hard. And that actually being rewarded and upheld is a good thing.
11:45Many of the biggest blockbusters of recent years have become hits precisely because they focus on
11:50this intrinsic element. Keeping your humanity in the face of seemingly impossible odds. And working
11:56together to create a better world for all of us. Bad actors want us to think that we can't change
12:01anything. That we can't do good in the world and help each other. But that isn't true. Even though
12:06it's difficult, it's worth it for us to all work together to save each other and the planet.
12:13The everyday heroes in our lives are heroes because they come in and save the day. That's
12:17what makes people heroes is when they show up to bad circumstances.
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