The following comments may be biased due to this reviewer’s view of comic book movies. I’ve seen every Marvel and DC movie, some in the theater, and I think of them at best as fun little diversions. With one exception, The Suicide Squad (2021, James Gunn). And the reason none of the other superhero movies really do anything for me is because if I’m going to get excited about a movie it’s because it either moves me to tears or at the very least warm fuzzy goosebumps; or gets me to think about cinematic form in a way I never had before (plot, character, dialogue, genre, setting).
The Suicide Squad makes me cry when Ratcatcher II flashes back that memory of her father and Harly dives with the javelin and the music underscoring it. But I also cry at, and what sticks with me more than anything else in that movie is, Starro the Conqueror’s dying words: “I was happy floating staring at the stars.” The bad guys are the heroes because they kill a bad guy who’s worse; but when they do, James Gunn gives it dignity, and the pathos wherein I empathize with that kaiju feeling bad for it being kidnapped from outerspace by Nazi scientists makes that movie better than I think any other comic book movie for me ever could be. Okay I could go on so much longer about The Suicide Squad but this is about a different James Gunn movie.
In Superman (2025, James Gunn) the JIMMY OLSEN-EVE TESCHMACHER story arc frustrated me because I was trying to figure out why a chick that hot who’s dating a super rich powerful asshole is so desperate for some kid who works at a paper and he doesn’t want her. He actually finds her somewhere between repulsive or obnoxious. He has her contact saved as Mutant Toes because he once told her her bare feet look like someone spilled a shrimp cocktail on the ground—great line. I do love that Portuguese Victoria’s Secret supermodel Sara Sampaio is cast as Eve Teschmacher because she’s actually hot though. I know beauty standards are subjective but a movie works a little better for me when there’s a character who’s supposed to be sexy desirable and actually is. Or is to me anyway.
But then I realized I made the mistake of thinking of Eve Teschmacher as a person. This is a comic book movie. And James Gunn gives it the quality of resembling comic book form. Eve Teschmacher is a two-dimensional comic book bimbo who’s got a crush on Jimmy like she stepped straight out of Archie comics. (But her chronic selfietaking and how well she dresses and lives for travel all captured on her social media still makes her all the more believable in our real world.) That’s what I like best about Superman.
Superman strikes this balance of comic book world and our real world. LUTHOR has this angry tirade where he’s telling Superman that he’s destroying us, while the tear spreading across Metropolis is literally going to rip the world apart and Luthor created it. He’s a hypocrite. He represents all of the bombastic fearmonger hate dealers who are constantly bemoaning what’s threatening our lives that are seen as the very same threat by the other half of the world.
The only thing I was disappointed about with Superman is that it felt like none of the emotion connected with me. The only part I was really struck with feeling was in the opening scene when the on screen text tells us Superman has just lost his first battle. Okay and the amazing speech at the end where he says his greatest strength is that he’s human. But the ending with his parents did nothing for me. Although in The Suicide Squad in that quick scene with Taika Waititi as Ratcatcher telling his daughter “Rats are the loneliest and most despised of all creatures my love. If they have purpose so can we all” brings me to tears every time. Maybe the difference is the Superman parents scene lacks anything for me to grasp as to what they did for him that made him who he now is. Or maybe it was because the scenes on the farm didn’t mean anything to me. I just thought they were boring.
But anyway, at a lean slightly under 2 hours (minus end credits), the runtime and pacing of Superman are as light and frivolously free of any serious demand on our time or attention as a comic book. I love James Gunn’s universe. I love Grillo as RICK FLAG, SR. I love the PEACEMAKER cameo. I love Superman saving the squirrel. And I love the way Eve Teschmacher is like the perfect dream girl shrill voice how could that guy not be into her character. Maybe that cool detachment is what makes Jimmy so cool. And maybe there's something to say for the way Eve Teschmacher's selfies are actually what save the world.
In Superman (2025, James Gunn) the JIMMY OLSEN-EVE TESCHMACHER story arc frustrated me because I was trying to figure out why a chick that hot who’s dating a super rich powerful asshole is so desperate for some kid who works at a paper and he doesn’t want her. He actually finds her somewhere between repulsive or obnoxious. He has her contact saved as Mutant Toes because he once told her her bare feet look like someone spilled a shrimp cocktail on the ground—great line. I do love that Portuguese Victoria’s Secret supermodel Sara Sampaio is cast as Eve Teschmacher because she’s actually hot though. I know beauty standards are subjective but a movie works a little better for me when there’s a character who’s supposed to be sexy desirable and actually is. Or is to me anyway.
But then I realized I made the mistake of thinking of Eve Teschmacher as a person. This is a comic book movie. And James Gunn gives it the quality of resembling comic book form. Eve Teschmacher is a two-dimensional comic book bimbo who’s got a crush on Jimmy like she stepped straight out of Archie comics. (But her chronic selfietaking and how well she dresses and lives for travel all captured on her social media still makes her all the more believable in our real world.) That’s what I like best about Superman.
Superman strikes this balance of comic book world and our real world. LUTHOR has this angry tirade where he’s telling Superman that he’s destroying us, while the tear spreading across Metropolis is literally going to rip the world apart and Luthor created it. He’s a hypocrite. He represents all of the bombastic fearmonger hate dealers who are constantly bemoaning what’s threatening our lives that are seen as the very same threat by the other half of the world.
The only thing I was disappointed about with Superman is that it felt like none of the emotion connected with me. The only part I was really struck with feeling was in the opening scene when the on screen text tells us Superman has just lost his first battle. Okay and the amazing speech at the end where he says his greatest strength is that he’s human. But the ending with his parents did nothing for me. Although in The Suicide Squad in that quick scene with Taika Waititi as Ratcatcher telling his daughter “Rats are the loneliest and most despised of all creatures my love. If they have purpose so can we all” brings me to tears every time. Maybe the difference is the Superman parents scene lacks anything for me to grasp as to what they did for him that made him who he now is. Or maybe it was because the scenes on the farm didn’t mean anything to me. I just thought they were boring.
But anyway, at a lean slightly under 2 hours (minus end credits), the runtime and pacing of Superman are as light and frivolously free of any serious demand on our time or attention as a comic book. I love James Gunn’s universe. I love Grillo as RICK FLAG, SR. I love the PEACEMAKER cameo. I love Superman saving the squirrel. And I love the way Eve Teschmacher is like the perfect dream girl shrill voice how could that guy not be into her character. Maybe that cool detachment is what makes Jimmy so cool. And maybe there's something to say for the way Eve Teschmacher's selfies are actually what save the world.
7/12/2025 AMC Mad Yards 8
Atlanta, GA
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