>>212694838
The film is very muddled. It tries to humanize Superman by showing him more directly engaging with the public, in contrast to the more aloof, distant, inscrutable version in Snyder's films. But the problem is that fundamentally, Donner's Superman which it vaguely imitates is driven primarily by his love for Lois. He isn't particularly concerned by what the public thinks of him. He doesn't scream in anguish because random people died. He screams because Lois is dead and she is his entire world. He loves her more anything else. Here, there is a passably cheesy romance with Lois, and I thought the chemistry was fine, but the strange thing is that we don't really get any genuine sense that people are in danger. They SAY that people are in danger, but nobody dies. (Except that guy Lex shoots.) There is a military invasion and I don't remember a single bullet being fired. There is no sense of peril. There is this empty sense of going through the theatrics of heroism.

I believe this film is going to age terribly in some key ways. It tried so hard to not be like Man of Steel and BvS while copying their central beats that it became confused about its own themes and message. Not just in story content but in how Superman's relationship with society and as a hero is presented. It wants to have the themes of war and genocide while treating Superman like he's just an aww shucks guy saving cats from trees. It's jarring. When Mr. Terrific stopped those soldiers, the people would have fallen to their knees in worship. It's like Gunn doesn't understand this, or doesn't want to understand it. I get the sense Gunn doesn't really understand religion in the way the writers on the previous films did.