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.

The Arrow, "Spectre of the Gun" S05 E13 - superhero fantasy tackles reality

The Arrow has been a longtime fav of mine -- its cheesier than the Flash, has excellent archetype characters (supersoldiers, nerds, alcoholic cops, vile despicable villains, and kung fu), a unique present/past flashback format, and the ongoing moral quandry about killing bad guys.  (And I love Vigilante, looking forward to him joining team!)

I also forgot to mention there are a lot of minorities -- even though the main stars are white.

*SPOILER FOR EPISODE*

Recently Oliver Queen became Mayor, which makes the entire show far less plausible (if thats possible), but it runs parallel to the Batman mythos pretty closely.

Last episode, something different happened.  Something I had never seen in Superhero TV shows, and I've been watching a lot of them.  The moral dilemma of the show was gun control, multiple sides of the argument were presented, actual FACTS were included (Curtis, "I'm black and three times more likely to get shot."), and the issue was resolved in a (vague) legal compromise.

Curtis and Felicity had the most awkward, but excellent discussion, about debate and argument between friends, how rudeness is destroying political discourse.

Rene's story was perfect for the episode -- who knew he was married with child ??? - where he shoots an intruder with his gun (locked and loaded in a safe), but the intruder's stray shot kills Rene's wife.  Wow.

The villain, a man who's family was killed by gun violence so he was lashing out at the city that had failed him (by not controlling guns?), that was a bit more awkward.

The show was awkward, a big departure from the norm, and it stuck to it's guns (intended metaphor).  And somehow, it sure felt like they were taking a shot at President Rump, even if they never said Trump, Orangutan abortions, mysogynist racist douchebags, or Hitler's protege.

Keep up the good stuff, Team Arrow!!

‘Supergirl’ - ‘Flash’ -‘Arrow’ - ‘Legends’ Crossover Review *Spoiler*

*Spoiler Alert*

I just saw the finale Legends episode, not the strongest ending.  Disappointing is an understatement, however the overall crossover was great fun.

I didn't see the Supergirl episode, but I liked her character in the other shows.  I particularly liked her interaction with the Green Arrow.

The Flash episode was very solid, but while keeping the latest "Kid Flash" storyline, lacked all of the new "Team Arrow" heroes except Dig (aka Spartan), and Felicity Smoak (aka Overwatch) were absent.  Kid Flash also was absent for the other crossovers.  That made me sad, but at least Team Arrow did show up in the Arrow episode, and they were great: Wild Dog, Ragman, Artemis, and Mr Terrific (Curtis, who I erroneously thought was named FairPlay).

The Arrow episode was my fav, bc it features the Arrow cast locked in a mind control device where they got to live their lives in an idealistic way, meaning all their loved ones were alive.  This hit me hard -- it was far more emotional than I expected.

The Legends episode, which I just watched, was by far the weakest, but had some good parts: it resolves the pathetic Cisco / Barry friend breakup, allows Prof Stein to embrace his child, let's Cisco & Felicity time-travel AND save the day (Yay!), and resolves the strange dynamic between Arrow and SuperGirl.

I definitely noticed the Hall of Justice showing up repeatedly, which was very exciting BUT seemed so strange without the DC "heavyweight" heroes Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman.  Makes me wonder just how bad will DC botch their arrival back into TV?  I hope they'll reboot the Wonder Twins and remember Martian Man hunter, but the funny part about DC is its such a mixed bag -- awkward writing, lack of commitment to the comic material, and (deliberate?) two dimensional characters -- I'm always happy when an episode doesn't implode on itself.

Which is where my gripe with Legends finale is strongest: the final scene features Flash and Arrow having a drink at a bar.  It's horribly awkward, essentially out of character for both heroes, and makes no sense.  I felt that someone writing the team up was eager to get to a bar and celebrate that they hadn't f-d up all the shows when the crossover ended.

Extra gripes:

-- general party scene at end with "Agent Smith" resolve was awkward, weak, and felt so strained.  No one cared about Smith, that was a thread no one needed resolved.  Would've rather seen Digger's wife Leila there to congratulate the heroes.

-- the awkward Dominators "let's all flee bc the metabomb was stopped" resolution.

-- not enough Legends hero time on the Legends episode.  One guy got a new outfit (and powers?) but didn't even get their name mentioned, while the animal-channeling heroine barely got a line.

-- "the new President is hot, right?" WTF?  The muscle head really gets too many lines, while so many other heroes got neglected.

Lastly, I have to compliment the crossover bc it tried it's best to honor all the heroes, and they respected the vastly varied hero power levels when fighting the Dominators (SuperGirl really shined in that finale battle). 

Now that it's over, I'm relieved.  Whew!  I want to say "let's not do THAT again", but you know they will.  Let's hope the quality remains at this level or better!

Kick Ass 2 - review

First, I saw the graphic novel at a comic store for Kick Ass 2.  I stood and read the whole thing, cover to cover.  It was *awesome*.  I was stunned that they took the story so far.

As someone that loathes unnecessary violence and ultraviolence, it might be surprising that I enjoyed this comic.  But Kick Ass 2 answers the question, "What if people were really superheroes or supervillains?"  And the answer is -- lots and lots of bloody mess.

Didn't buy the book that time, though.  Then I saw the movie was coming out.  Very exciting.

Now I wanted to buy the graphic novel, but guess what?  Sold out!  I asked a comic store owner & they said, "Yeah, it was selling slow until the movie was announced and then it flew off the shelves."

Just before I saw the movie, I was in a comic store & off-handedly asked if they had the graphic novel.  They had 1 copy left.  I grabbed it on an impulse buy.

Then I heard it was in the theaters.  I heard a few positive reviews, and decided to see it that night.

The movie was entertaining, funny, immature, and had a lot of references to that comic (and a lot of lines & references from the comic), but it didn't have the grit of the comic.  It didn't have the heart of the story.  I wasn't sure why, so I re-read the comic.  And there it was ...

---

SPOILER

The comic book was ~ 200x more violent than the movie, including the villain shooting innocent children for no reason, rape, animal mutilation, and beheadings.
The comic book did not have the silly 'happy ending' sequence of the movie.  The comic book was hardcore, the movie was a 'feel good' movie with no core.

There were scenes in the movie that didn't make any sense to me:

Kick Ass dressing like a pimp & getting beaten was not in comic.  Didn't make any sense.  Hit Girl beating them to a pulp wasn't in the comic either.

In the  movie, Motherfucker's uncle kills Chris' last remaining gangster friend, his 'Alfred', while in jail.  (What was the point of that?)

The pseudo-rape / comedy scene with 'Night Bitch'.  This was adapted from the comic's harsh gang rape of Kick Ass' dream-girl.  I found it impossible to chuckle at a rape scene, depite the deliberate attempt for a laugh.

The movie has a lot of reminiscences of Big Daddy, which weren't in the comic.  And Mindy/Hit Girl had an awkward line of dialogue about her promise to Big Daddy to defend the city...?

In the movie, Markus was an authoritarian & Mindy / Hit Girl always obeys.  Pretty hard to swallow.  But in the comic, Mindy's mother is barely sane & Markus uses the guilt of her mother's fragility to keep Mindy in-line -- and Mindy explains how her Dad taught her to be obedient.  Comic made slightly more sense here.

The movie made up the "last defense" adrenaline needles -- not in the comic.  Not necessary.

Movie had Kick Ass dating Night Bitch -- not in comic.  The comic has Kick Ass unable to score with anyone -- makes more sense, no?

Comic has Hit Girl as a 14 year old.  In the movie she seems like a high-school senior (~ 17?) but she looks like a 19-20 year old, and she's supposed to be a freshman (15?).  All of the 'annoying cheerleader' scenes were not in comic, nor was the 'shit & puke' stick.  (I admit I LOL'd at that scene and also wondered if that's a real weapon.  Hard to know what's real & what's comic book fantasy nowadays!)

Comic has a no-name baddie knocked into the shark tank, then Hit Girl tortures him to spill the beans.  Movie has Motherfucker go into the shark tank, which actually made more sense to me & was 'normal cinematic forshadowing' -- but it was preposterous.

 Movie shows Motherfucker in an unnecessary 'legless & helpless in hospital bed' end scene.

Here were the 'toned down' violent scenes I can recall from the top:
Kick Ass' Dad was beaten to death in the movie, but in the comic he was beaten & hanged from a noose.  (Different feel.)

Hit Girl is beaten brutally by Mother Russia, her face disfigured by a brass knuckle beat-down. 
In the movie, Mother Russia finds Hit Girl's 'last option' adrenalin needle & assumes it's poison, so she injects Hit Girl, resulting in an upbeat/contrived 'adrenaline battle' where Mother Russia is stabbed to death with glass (same as the comic).
In the comic, Hit Girl then decapitates Mother Russia in the comic, "just to be sure".
In the comic, the General (Colonel?) is beheaded and his dog's head is left on his corpse.  In the movie, he's shot & beaten to death.

The final battle with Red Mist/Motherfucker was pretty different in the comic, but the ultimate point was the same: Kick Ass wins & proves himself to be a good guy, while Motherfucker is weak to the core & loathable. 
Comic -- Kick Ass continually attacks, Motherfucker constantly retreats & uses every dirty trick in the book; hitting Kick Ass from behind a door, begging for his life, whining about getting a painful nut-shot, throwing nails into Kick Ass' eyes, etc.

In the comic, Kick Ass knocked Motherfucker off the top of a building and he lays in an alley with broken body & broken neck, and Kick Ass (the hero) calls an ambulance for him.

And lastly & most significantly to me, the comic's final scenes feature Hit Girl and Markus both going to jail.  Hit Girl pays a rough price for being a heroine, and Markus for 'aiding & abetting'.

In summary, I was disappointed that the movie didn't 'hold true' to the comic