I’m gonna say it again as I do for many of my reviews lately but… “Where the HELL do I start with this ‘Pile of Dung’!” And I’m sorry but in my personal opinion this film really was a 'Pile of Dung!'  And that’s putting it mildly!

 

To go from Henry Caveill’s stoic Superman to THIS, is a monstrous travesty and I have to say I really do feel so sorry for David Corenswet!  

David already had a massive uphill struggle to fill the huge boots of Henry Cavill as Kal-El but to be given this terrible script and that ridiculous looking costume was just ‘nail after nail in his coffin’ as the next Superman.

 

What I will say though is, taking away the horribly bad script and overstuffed story, stupid excess characters like an idiotic an 'old and decrepit’ looking Green Lantern, the ridiculously stupid screeching Hawkgirl and awful, just awful Element Man, I actually think with a better story and script and a decent Director who employed a well respected costume designer who knew what they were doing, David Corenswet would have made a really decent Superman.

 

I liked how he looked as Clark, which I really would have liked to have seen more of. I think when he was Superman he kind of did the Christopher Reeve thing and stood tall and made a good distinction between Clark and Kal and I liked his occasional humour! All in all I actually think he was a good replacement for Henry… and would have made a worthy successor to Henry Cavill. Unfortunately it was the awful film, story and that ridiculous suit that let him down. Which is ultimately all down to James Gunn and his ridiculous ego!

 

I sat there in the cinema and after 20 or 30 minutes if it hadn’t been for the fact I was with two other people, I literally wanted to walk out as I thought it was THAT bad… and as it happened I found out later that the other two felt the exact same!

 

From the first few opening scenes with Krypto, the 'stupid dog', the horrible tacky Fortress of Solitude and the stupid robots I just knew what we were in for…. A recreation of the early Superman comics.

Yeh, I get it Gunn wanted to completely differentiate his universe from what went before… but to flip it on its head and make it look and sound like a literal joke was just way too much in my opinion.

 

Not to mention to give the audience their first look of the new Superman, the ‘grand daddy’ of all superheroes as a beaten up and bloody mess. Why couldn’t Mr. Gunn have put this somewhere later on in the film and give us opening scenes that portrayed a powerful ‘Man of Steel’? A hero that was introducing everyone to the new DCU!

 

Zack Snyders idea was to make the Superman lore mainly a serious event and to make the audience question what it would actually be like to wake up one day and to hear of a super strong man who could fly and then to find out ‘we were not alone’ and the ‘Superman’ was a legitimate Alien who was living amongst us…. But this time, James Gunn wanted to go the complete opposite and just recreate the comics and put that on screen!

 

A reason why Superhero films in the 80’s and early 90’s failed miserably especially with the general audience was because they looked and felt to much like the pages of a comic.  Superhero film Directors of today need to walk a fine line between being comics accurate and looking stupid, of which James Gunn has done the latter and in my opinion it’s because he thinks he’s ‘So cool' and everyone loves him…. Well I’m sorry but you ain’t ’cool’ and we don’t all love what you do! Not every thing you touch turns to gold!

 

In every respect and as I always say it’s completely in my own opinion but he’s wrong in every aspect…. Superman is NOT, I repeat NOT like any other two bit comic hero that came afterwards. He’s the original and first Superhero and should be treated with respect like most have done before.

 

Christopher Reeve took the character seriously and made everyone realise that this character from a 1938 comic book could be taken seriously. Keeping the everyday surroundings normal but dropping the character of Superman in to a modern day story.

 

Oh no, NOT idiotic James Gunn… he has to treat everything he touches like Guadian of the Galaxy!  

When is James Gunn going to realise that just because he had a hit with taking a relatively obscure group of Comic characters and making them stupid and nothing like who they were originally (just look at Drax!) and throwing in a cuddly furry character (although I have to admit I do love ‘Rocket Raccoon!) you can’t do that for every film you’re gonna direct or character you’re going to bring to the big screen!  He seems to be a ‘one trick pony’ Director who has very quickly run out of ideas.

 

The two other people I went with who I would say are ‘normies’ when it comes to Superhero films both said, before I even had chance to ask questions, both said “what a pile of SHIT!” Bring back Henry Cavill, he’s the real Superman!

 

This new Superman is supposed to be launching the new DCU and giving us a taste of what the ‘Gunn Verse’ has in store for all of us… comic nerds and normies alike and I haven’t found one person yet who said they loved it and above all we’re looking forward to to what’s to come. What a terrible state for DC to be in.

 

Warner Bros has literally destroyed everything that was before and now they’ve destroyed anything that maybe coming in the future with this awful Superman film… if you can even call it that as there were so many other characters shoehorned into the film.

 

I don’t particularly want to go it to every aspect of the film as I really can’t be bothered as I just hated how Superman was portrayed on screen. The other characters were just as bad if not worse… I suppose Lois was OK and I mean just OK! I didn’t get much vibe in the fact that they were together. For me, there was just no chemistry between them… it felt forced!  If anything I thought Lois came off as bossy! Which yes, that can be true in the comics but in the modern day comics there is always that underlying love between them both which I just didn’t see from Lois, it was more a case of…. Get out of my way… I have a story to write!

 

The interweaving Jimmy Olsen story was just pathetic and the scene where they all got in to Mr Terrific's ship with Jimmy holding the clip board was just stupid and looked like a ‘Comedy Film’ scene! Not to mention that somehow Lois knew how to fly it!

 

Not forgetting the stupid Kaiju in the city that no one seemed surprised about which leads me to the stupid ‘rescue’s’ including the squirrel. It all reminded me of a ‘check list’ that James Gunn was ’ticking off’  in his head ie well, let’s see... Snyders film was criticised because of this so I’ll make sure we make everyone aware that our Superman does it better… for ‘gods sake’ Mr Gunn… just write a good story and script and stop trying to score points on what went before!

The one travesty I have to mention which enraged me the most was the depiction of Clark Kent’s parents… my god, this is where I was really ’pissed off’… why oh why where they made out to be stupid dumb hillbillies! I mean no disrespect to the two actors as the casting choices are once again down to the idiotic Director James Gunn... but these two are definitely NOT right for Ma and Pa Kent!

 

Never in any comic or any other medium have I ever seen Jonathan and Martha Kent made out to be so stupid. They have always been characterised as hard working well educated farm owners with the intelligence to bring up a well mannered and well educated boy that goes on to use those manners and intelligence to become the Superhero we all know and love and to make the hard decisions and choices he needs to as Superman!

 

Instead we’re presented with ‘dumb’ and ‘dumber’…. What bad writing and a sheer waste of storytelling!

I thought Zack Snyders choice of actor for Lex Luthor was, well how shall I put it…. Interesting to say the least! But for all Jessie Eisenberg’s irrational shakes and ADHD type qualities at least when he wasn’t within the general public he came over as a vile and monstrous self deprecating individual which is what Lex Luthor is.

 

I’ve always liked Nicholas Hoult as an actor and absolutely love him as ‘Beast’ but I’m sorry, Lex Luthor he’s not! I just didn’t see any cleverness or menace on screen, all I saw was a petulant child…. even when he shot the bloke! I dunno, maybe it’s because all I see is ‘Beast’ which to be honest now every actor is swapping back and forth from one universe to another maybe I’ll be saying the same for others we see on screen down the line.

 

Never thought I’d say this, as I wasn’t entirely sold on Jessie Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor at the time but… "please come back Jessie as ALL is forgiven!”

So, to finalise my review of this mess of a film I would say if anyone has never seen a Superman film or cartoon, or even read a Superman comic please, please, please do not watch this film and think this is what Superman is!

 

But, hey… this is just my own personal opinion!