Before I went to the movies to see the new Supergirl movie I had to rewatch James Gunn’s Superman for the first time since I’d seen it in theaters last Summer.

I didn’t plan on rewatching it after the first time but I figured it was only fair as I’ve traditionally given Superman media the chance to digest and a fair rewatch if I feel like it deserved one.

I’ll save you the details…I was way too harsh on the movie.

I won’t say it’s the perfect Superman film but it’s better than I remembered it being in theatres. I attribute this to the chatter around the movie having set my expectations to the movie’s flaws…some of which still stand regardless of my change of heart around the movie.

Some of the critiques I had the first go around remain the same, but upon a second watch some of my gripes faded—or at very least were neutralized because I’d adjusted my expectations about what exactly this movie was, without considering what it had to be for the many parties invested in it’s success (or failure).

Tensions between Gunn and DC Studios were felt

Hindsight is twenty-twenty, but the Snyderverse situation was a mess as a somewhat casual fan just wanting DC to claim it’s rightful place in the cinematic space and give us some good movies. From where I stood, it didn’t seem like it would have been that difficult for DC to dominate the theatres the same way they did the animated space…but I’m not a filmmaker.

It isn’t far-fetched to say that DC already had the blueprint with their animated media, though. To copy what they’d already done in animated form seemed like an obvious alley-oop.

However, Snyder took the heroes of DC and gave them his own spin…for better or for worse…and the controversial #restorethesnydercut movement and the success of it in making the studios back Snyder’s funding for the completion of the project is a whole article in itself.

Things I like about James Gunn’s Superman

The main casting for Superman is borderline perfect. I was rooting for David Corenswet to do good as Superman and I still am. I thought Nicholas Holt played a good Lex Luthor the first time I watched it and can double down on those sentiments now. Rachel Brosnahan plays a flawless Lois Lane and I like all the other portrayals of the members of Justice Gang (other than Hawkgirl).

I especially like how Metropolis is designed in this movie. I really wanted to see more of Clark doing Superman things in regular clothes throughout the city and especially in the daily planet. After watching Man of Steel, I remember that being one of the things I felt was really missing from the film and that I expected the next film to have. That’s what made the Reeves films so dope. There was just a bit more playfulness with the creative ways Clark would use his powers to coast through things regular people would struggle with.

Still, Corenswet’s Clark was…okay. It was cool. He wasn’t, by design, “cool” per se but he was “Clark” for all intents and purposes. I just thought his Clark voice was too detectable when listening to Superman speak. Don’t get me wrong, not all iterations have changed their voice to distinguish secret identity from Superman but I prefer when they do so with a bit of style. I won’t mention the Superman I grew up on from that one show but unfortunately I have to add here that his Clark was damn near perfect, especially contrasting with what Reeve did making him a bumbling nervous wreck (which I appreciate don’t get me wrong).

What the movie got wrong —a seeming lack of attention to detail *SPOILERS*

I feel like there was a lack of attention to detail that we as the general public assume about Superman. Specifically that at the beginning of the film Lex is already in LexCorp having considerably loud conversations about Superman’s demise in his glass fucking skybox. Soundproof? Ehh…sure. I’m nitpicking here—I’ll give it a pass. He does say in the movie that he’s been planning for a long time to get at Superman so it wouldn’t be far fetched to say it’s a soundproof command center. I just found it interesting that Gunn would opt to begin the movie there. Superman’s already flying toward battle. He can’t hear them? Is all I was thinking.

The background actors were also almost always slaw. NPC type interactions seemed detatched from the actual drama of the moment and overdone. Pedestrian reactions or Daily Planet employees just made what was happening seem…funny? Like there’s no way I’m taking this shit serious with the way you guys are reacting lol. Are you really as scared as you’re acting? That’s how it came off to me at least.

My Issue With Hawkgirl

Hawkgirl in this movie is straight mid. Not just the actress who I’m not trying to bash here. She wasn’t absolutely terrible she just wasn’t embodying the Hawkgirl I grew up on in Justice League the same way Corenswet was stepping up as a modified interpretation of Superman or even Nicholas Holt doing the same as Lex Luthor.

They made Hawkgirl feel like she coulda been any random 19-year-old with powers and that clashed with what I expect Hawkgirl to be. Hawkgirl is trained and calculated per the DCAU (at least when she was a founding member of the League before…well…you know (no spoilers if you haven’t watched the Justice League tv show). Basically Hawkgirl demanded attention with what she says and how she moves. I’ll never forget her legendary lines of the first episode of the Justice League series, “There’s a time for words and a time for action”.

What I looked for in a second viewing of James Gunn’s Superman

This time around I was letting the movie stand on its own, focusing on the portrayal of our favorite heros, villians and side characters and how they stood on their own in this universe without being compared to past iterations. I can say I wasn’t as quick to do this the first watch because I didn’t really like what I’d seen up to that point enough to seperate things. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Snyder movies either. Hated a lot of what came out at that time. But this wasn’t the huge improvement I expected to follow the dissolving of Snyder’s cinematic universe. Initially I wasn’t messing with the costume and except for the Kingdom Come style crest I’m still not the biggest fan of the rest of the costume. It’s very bulky and Gunn-like (going off of what he did with Guardians of the Galaxy).

With all that in mind when watching the movie this time I really enjoyed it. It’s a good Superman movie, just not exactly what I’d expected. Corenswet IS Superman. He doesn’t waste a second of screen time and it’s done so well I almost don’t even catch it. His approach to the character and all of its sides gives this sense of naturalness.

What’s most impressive isn’t that he separates Clark and Superman as distinctly as he does. His in-office Clark actually feels the most forced and it’s astounding to me that he goes the entire day talking like that. The true essence of the character is seen most during his interactions with Lois Lane and his parents. The real guy is actually Kal-EL, a medium somewhere in between the glasses and the cape.

The Justice Gang (yes even you, Metamorpho)

Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardener was really well done. Ironically this is the only Green Lantern that has gotten his just due to date on screen. From the way the character communicates to the constructs Guy creates with his ring…shit was just perfection.

Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific was another good portrayal as far as I’m concerned though to be fair I’ve only really been exposed to Mr. Terrific in the DCAU Justice League Unlimited show though I could have sworn he’s been in more animated films than that but I can’t remember at the time of writing this article which ones and Google isn’t helping me much.

I’ve already touched on Isabela Merced playing Hawkgirl a bit in this article and it just wasn’t for me.

I also wasn’t the biggest fan of how Metamorpho was done either. I haven’t read a ton of comics with him in it to know how well they did the whole “Lex has my big headed baby held hostage” but from the few times I have read his character he always came off a bit more grounded and confident. I don’t like that we were introduced to him as someone who’d been captured and was at the mercy of Lex Luthor. Hopefully this prompts a deeper dive into the history of Metamorpho to see if my sentiments hold true.

All-in-all the second go around wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d convinced myself it was the first time. I’ve seen a lot of the same complaints with creative direction that I had such as those of Hawkgirl and the way “Ultra-Man” was done. As a huge fan of Crisis on Two Earths myself that’s one name I would have liked to see some justice done with, pun partially intended. For all intents and purposes, though–AND THERE WERE A LOT—this movie did what it was supposed to do I think. The first go around the inclusion of so many different heroes was overwhelming but this time I followed it all much better probably because I knew what to expect. Now what that means for a movie that my second impression was much better than my initial theatre reaction….I don’t know. I like that there is a bit more depth to it than I initially gave it credit for––subtleties that I missed the first time because I was too focused on what I’d already made up my mind was bad.

A retrospect of Superman saving a squirrel and his speech at the end of the movie

Okay I will say the squirrel scene is still ridiculous to me watching the movie a second time but I also don’t have a problem with Batman Brave and the Bold and the campiness in that show, so what’s my issue with it?

All in all it’s cool I guess if this movie wasn’t following a DCEU that culminated to the Justice League meeting Darkseid—however messy the journey was getting there. I think it could have been left out to be honest with you. Not a strong point in the scene.

Now we get to the controversial “That’s what it means to be human” speech that Superman gives Lex Luthor and I have a few things to say about it. If this was DCAU Superman, I can completely see him giving a speech similar but with a bit more confidence in his tone. There’s been that clip recirculating lately where David Corenswet and James Gunn are going back and forth about that speech and whether or not Superman would actually give it under the circumstances. I feel like the speech was a bit overdramatic considering everything that we just saw. Lex Luthor just had his goons try to kill you and choke you out with nanites—between that, the Jarhanpur, and Boravia conflict and the interdimensional black hole you just had to help keep from swallowing the city…as Superman…I’m not explaining shit. At least not to that degree.

A stern “You’re going to jail Lex, end of story,” would have sufficed.

Still, I give the movie a solid 6.8/10. A decent start to uncharted territory under the circumstances of reviving a superhero powerhouse in the space of cinema and a decent Superman movie that—while not perfect—cared to return to the essence of what Superman stands for.