>>213578781
>Gunn’s point is to replace myth and destroy all faith. This Superman movie is the most cynical imaginable. It doesn’t just go against the original Joe Shuster–Jerry Siegel comic book ubermensch that Snyder understood; it reworks a figure for the dystopian millennium and Hollywood resistance.
>There’s no denying that Guardians of the Galaxy director Gunn knows the market he panders to when he emasculates Corenswet’s average all-American masculinity — the essence of the Superman concept — then extracts any romance from Superman’s relationship with reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan is grating throughout their meant-to-be-flirty spats). Lacking Snyder’s erotic pairing of Henry Cavill and Amy Adams, Gunn degrades the humanity of these characters. He victimizes Superman (horribly so in a poorly judged “Pocket Universe” prison sequence featuring nightmarish degradation) and then triggers audience revulsion through evil genius Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), whose key-punch video game tropes remotely attack a man of virtual invulnerability rather than a man of steel. Luthor combats Superman through a combination of science and technology — injecting nanobot GPS trackers into Superman’s bloodstream — using methods that recall the hideous Covid manipulation.
>Gunn’s objective is to banalize the very concept that Snyder sought to elevate. He demeans Superman’s virtue, making him a figure of public distrust vilified in the press, yet gives him goofy boyishness through a mischievous terrier-schnauzer mutt named Krypto. Snyder eliminated the pet, but Gunn uses the dog for dragging Superman’s rumpled body to the icy Fortress of Solitude. The sequence lacks surprise as well as delight. Inane dialogue and jokey asides constitute Gunn’s half-Nolan and half-Marvel hackery.