Superman 2025 review - 3 stars

Looking at Henry Caville Superman, and this James Gunn Superman 2025.  Hmmmm...

Great - no 'long dull origin story' that everyone knows.

Started with Superman's first loss.  Liked it.

Krypto was cute (missed Crypto joke opportunity) and Supergirl cameo.

Lex Luthor's calling the attacks like a videogame.

Lex Luthor's pencil dropping pettiness.

Supporting characters - Green Lantern, Mister Terrific.  Lois Lane casting.  Yes!!!  (While Hawk Girl also awesome, she missed opportunities.)

Superclone reveal.

Superman's parents were sweet.

Weak -

Superbots were a missed opportunity.  Their comic relief was a fail.

Luthor's plan made no sense.

Luthor's bragging lacked sense.

Luthor's girlfriend/ Jimmy relationship.  Nope.

Luthor's main score from Superman's lair was the message?!?!  No tech???

Reversible rift sucked.  Zero drama/tension.

Pocket dimension sucked.

Hawk Girl didn't get enough screen-time / exposition.

Superman in cuffs and not snapping them.

Superman's lack of super senses needed exposition.

The painful absence at the Hall of Justice of all core heroes.

Element Man (?) was interesting but had no opportunity to show who he was.

Superclone into Black Hole -- made no sense, redeemable if that is Bizzaro's origin.

Ice Breath to escape Black Hole???

Costume & cape looked nonsensical and stupid.

Superman lost too much & too often.  Just a pun hing bag, not the MIGHTIEST HERO.

Music choices didn't work.

Fortress of Solitude had no solitude.  Meh!

Krypto vs Lex -- too jokey.  Krypto was a punchline not a true sidekick, but he was cute.

So like others have said, the movie missed a lot of opportunities.  It meandered.  The humor didn't work in general.  

The pocket dimension Luthor scheme could've been improved to be more genius and less weird. It was lacking planning.  Luthor's lack of an escape plan seemed like lazy writing.  Luthor's monologuing was painful, and capturing Superman in a glass cage was nonsensical and again lazy writing.

Extra post credit scenes - no payoff for audience.  Blooper reel could've worked better.

Questions

Superman's Kryptonian parents being evil -- weak -- felt so awkward.  Hated the nanite villain pulling the message, fixing the message AND decoding the message all at once???  Why?

Lex getting to Fortress of Solitude and not gleaning all of the tech???  That makes zero sense.  Caville's Lex in the fortress and getting an upgrade makes far more sense.

Mr Terrific and Lois stole the show a few times.  I didn't think Superman starred in his own movie, he was mostly a dumb punching bag.

Luthor's memorization of Superman 's fighting -- a cool idea, may have worked on a pitch or storyboard, but superspeed seems missing.  Superman's powers were nerfed for storytelling.

So I'm glad we saw it, but unfortunately I see this as a downgrade from Caville's Superman due to the lacking character gravitas, the low excitement action, and the unbelievable 2-dimensionality of this Superman.

Suicide Squad - review *SPOILER*

Suicide Squad -- I'd give it a 6/10, ie a B-.
 Yes, I liked it.  It was a B movie made with an oversized CG budget.  It lacked good writing or character development, and made up for it with ... not much.  Sexism?  Too much meaningless CG?  Evil govt corruption?

So why did I like it?  (Just read my own review, doesnt seem like a liked it!)

I just saw Suicide Squad 15 mins ago, so I'm puzzling this thru myself.  It was so painfully flawed in so many ways.

I mostly liked the comic book look & feel, some of the quirks of the characters, and the concept.  I wish the execution could've been more like Guardians of the Galaxy somehow -- more character driven, room for the core team & not just Deadshot & Harlequin, etc.

Deadshot -- actually a crappy villain (from Flash TV show & comics) and completely miscast with Will Smith.  Bullets are not great in the superhero arena, even if you never miss.  He wouldn't wear his mask much bc they want to get every dime from Smith's A-List mug.

Rather than re-doing Deadshot as a black hitman (completely dropping his ex-military backstory from Flash), Will Smith needs an A-rsnk superhero, and in DC the biggies are Superman, Batman, Flash, WW, Green Lantern, Aquaman (sorta) and -- hey, none of them are black (!!!) except one Green Lantern (& Will Smith wouldve been great) -- Red Tornado?  It's a sad day when Will Smith can't get a heavy hitter hero (or villain) role bc DC sucks that badly.
Oh well, Smith did his best with it.
- Punching bags made no sense
- they didn't explain his gear/eyepiece, didn't even have a cool still of his sniper rifle -- and why have a sniper rifle if you never miss???
- hair style.  blech

- Harlequin -- the real star of the movie, she outshined the Joker.  Never got to do any comic book-style shenanigans, but she got to kill bulletproof grunts with a baseball bat and a mallet that went "Bonk".

Diablo, Killer Croc, Captain Boomerang, Commander Flag, Enchantress (& her brother) -- I wasn't impressed with any of that.  In terms of character, their dialogue had their motivation and background & there was nothing left there.

Amanda Waller -- I liked her, even though I thought Arrow had a better Waller.  Also strange to watch a character in a superhero film who you know does in the TV show, which is unfortunate bc she's like a better govt darkside commander, a colder meaner (likely more realistic for a govt pencil pusher) & less capable Nick Fury.  Funny to say Sam Jackson isn't as hard as she was.  Ha

Cameos --
Batfleck sucks.  He looks horrible in the Batman suit, can't pull off the likeable billionaire role, and he comes across too serious.  While I hated Christian Bale far more (mostly for the idiotic voice), they are similar low quality -- except Affleck is a nicer guy, I hear.

Flash -- again, TV Flash is a great cast pick.  Movie Flash is bizarre, can't see any good reason behind it.  It's like DC can't do TV but completely fails for movies.  Weird.

No Green Arrow, no Overwatch (that'd have made sense), no Spartan (wouldve made me laugh -- but he also has the Argus/Waller connection.  And no Robin.

We do get a tscky Marvel-copy bonus scene before main credit roll of a preview of Superfriends coming -- along with a strong suggestion there won't be a Suicide Squad #2.  "Shut it down, my friends will do it for free."

Which brings me to the *HORRIBLE* dialogue:
Deadshot - "Don't forget: we're the bad guys." Later, "Stay evil, doll face."  - imagine good guys saying "Remember to stay good"?!?  This is the subplot being written as dialogue, generally a no-no.  *Proof that bad writing doesn't stop a movie from getting made!*

Harlequin, "We're bad guys, it's what we do."

"No Daddy, don't shoot!" somehow Deadshot's daughter can leap into a fight between Batman and Deadshot, AND leap into the line of fire between a hitman that never misses???  I'm lost on that.

I can't remember Harlequin's final line as she saves the day, but acts like she's switching teams.

I was so disappointed that NO UNEXPECTED ACTIONS happened in the film:
- Why did the team stay loyal?  (Except Slipknot, which was funny -- could've at least given him a backstory before icing him.)
- Why does having a Suicide smartphone App keep them in line when Enchantress is destroying all the communications grid?  And why can't any of them smash the phone or shoot the phone or boomerang the phone, etc?
- Why does Diablo transform & doesn't that zap his neck bomb?  (That scene made me feel like I was watching Power Rangers, wanted them all to morph!!)
- Why does Enchantress say shes gonna make a machine, but then have a lightning beacon where everyone can find her, but no machine?  Why does she need all that lightning?  Why couldn't she be naked?
- What's Enchantress' bro's name?  Enchanter?  Or Tentacle Arms?
- Despite not explaining anyone's gear, we do get a background on Katanga's sword -- just enough info to know it'll probably kill the baddie.
- All the dialogue in the bar was painful.  Made a good preview clip, but just hurt during the movie.  Couldve been a chance to toast backstory characters, or even have them actually get drunk, etc...?
- I would've liked to have seen Killer Croc do something distinctly animal-likke, for instance go to the bathroom.  (How'd Harlequin do that in her cell, btw?)