James Gunn Superman Trailer Does Little To Assuage Fears Of It Being Another Lifeless Hollywood Skinsuit Reboot
After a teaser trailer two days prior, and a teaser for the teaser the day before that, The trailer for James Gunn’s highly anticipated, or, depending on who you are, dreaded, Superman movie landed.
James Gunn, previously the director of the Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad sequels, was brought on board at Warner Bros. to reinvent and revitalize their DC cinematic universe after years of stewardship under Zach Snyder. Snyder’s tenure was marred by studio interference, mixed reception to his movies, and disjointed storytelling–something studio executives hoped would be cured by bringing on Gunn as the DC version of Kevin Feige.
The cinematic square one for this restart of the DCU would be to jettison any baggage from Snyder’s tenure–including one of the few bright spots: Henry Cavill’s Superman. A decision that upset a lot of fans, most notably fans of the Snyderverse. Gunn’s reasoning was a fresh start with a younger, fresh face with David Corenswet (31).
The trailer opens with Superman crashing out (literally) into the snow, seemingly bleeding and beaten. On social media, this drew derision and comparisons to the infamous Yamcha meme. He whistles and calls a new addition to the Superman cinematic universe in Krypto the Super Dog and then utters the trailer’s only line of dialogue, “Take me home.”
Gunn has been vocal in the past about wanting to restore hope to the Superman mythos. As the trailer progresses, the message of the trailer becomes readily apparent: a tonal shift for the Man of Steel back to the colorful and hopeful roots of the hero in the comics. Snyder’s Superman and DC movies were notable for having washed-out and desaturated colors that gave everything a dark and gloomy look. Gunn takes the opposite route. The trailer is rife with vibrant colors much more reminiscent of a comic book. This was not met with universal praise, with some fans on social media comparing the look of the trailer to a CW production at times.
While the trailer is big on vibes and a refreshed tone, many of the scenes are a scattershot collection of new characters, familiar characters with new actors, and Superman action shots in this new cinematic world. There is no hint of the actual story, something likely to be unveiled when the full trailer is eventually released. The teaser is punctuated with the familiar strains of John Williams's iconic Superman theme played slowly on an electric guitar, imitating the Top Gun theme. Not a surprise, as Gunn previously stated in an interview, that the flying scenes were inspired by and shot in a similar fashion to Top Gun Maverick.
We are given our first look at several new actors in familiar roles. Rachel Brosnahan takes on the role of Lois Lane, a role that hasn’t been played by an actress with distinctive beauty since Teri Hatcher in Lois & Clark.
Nicholas Hoult steps into the role of Lex Luthor and returns the iconic villain to his bald and menacing roots. A notable criticism of Snyder’s Batman vs Superman was Jesse Esienberg’s erratic and unconvincing role as Lex, who also had a full head of hair until the end credits scene.
Edi Gathegi steps into the role of Mr. Terrific, whom Gunn claims will “have a big role in the film.” The character’s last time on screen was in CW’s Arrowverse, where the character became a victim of the CW’s habit of turning every other character gay for the sake of wokeism.
We are given very quick glimpses of Hawkgirl, Metamorpho, and Nathon Fillion’s Guy Gardner Green Lantern, who is easily the most criticized part of the trailer with an out-of-date bowl cut that, it must be said, looks terrible and looks terrible on him.
Gunn has stated in the past that this movie is not a Superman origin film but starts Superman in the middle of his tenure. The relationships between him and the rest of the cast are already established: he and Lois are already a couple, Lex has established his hatred, and Superman is not the first superhero to be active in the world. While the trailer focuses heavily on Superman, it must be said that Hollywood is in a place where the culture war is wise to its tricks. These days, the filmmakers will intentionally hide subversive and woke elements until fans are already invested and paid their ticket.
Reception online was decidedly mixed. Many praise the return to a graded color scheme and the more hopeful tone. Ryan Kinel of RKOutpost in his reaction, stated “I think its a good trailer overall and I think its good that some people are gonna be pissing their pants over it. I’m not…but its a good trailer.”
Tyrone Magnus in his reaction, was receptive to the film’s new tone, but outright stated: “The suit still looks like trash.”
YouTuber Yellowflash stated, “It looks alright. I’m going to check it out regardless. Superman is one of my favorites.”
YouTuber and culture commentator La Renia Creole, however, did not find the trailer did what it was supposed to do and help invest her in this new iteration of the character.
If the trailer was meant to ease doubts that Gunn can effectively deliver an American Christian Superman, it did little to make headway. Gunn himself is a divisive individual with a notable past of degenerate Twitter posts. While competent when it came to making an entertaining trilogy of Guardians of the Galaxy, his movies outside of that franchise often develop into raunchier and even more degenerate archetypes of the same formula. Gunn has stated that this movie “Will have humor, but Gunn will ignore comic lore when it suits him, as demonstrated when he instructed John Cena during the filming of Suicide Squad “Don’t read the comics.”
His version of Perry White remains race-swapped, whereas the character in the comics has always been white. Zach Snyder was the one who initially made the swap in Man of Steel.
Most notably, Gary Bechler of Nerdrotic shared doubts about Gunn’s ability to accurately get the American core of Superman right in a recent episode of Nerdrotic Nooner, asking rhetorically, “Do you think James Gunn celebrates the 4th of July?”
Whether Gunn can deliver a true American Christian version of Superman remains to be seen. For many, the trailer is a step in the right direction, but after years of Hollywood attacking fans and costing themselves money, trust is a currency that Hollywood has in a severe deficit. The people in Hollywood have proven themselves to be worthy of such distrust, and their ability to make truly heroic heroes has been compromised for years. Even when they get things right, they cannot help but inject their degenerate and subversive ideas.
What do you think of the James Gunn Superman trailer? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Sounds like the trailer is teasing positive signals. But I seriously doubt we can trust Homowood to correct course with any of the characters they prefer to ruin.