Some thoughts on the new Superman movie

This post is basically a collection of my Mastodon toots about the new Superman movie.

My wife and I saw the new Superman movie this week and loved it. It's directed by James Gunn, the director of Marvel's 'Guardians of the Galaxy' trilogy, and it definitely shows. He has a signature love of hopefulness and animals, and an impeccable taste in music for needle drops. A lot of younger people are probably discovering some great older music thanks to Gunn's movies.

One of the most important decisions Gunn made in the new Superman movie was to not hire Hollywood actors to play Ma and Pa Kent. He hired average looking, believable country people and it made it so much more realistic. They were simple people who wanted nothing more than to raise a good son. I saw someone say "Kal El got his powers from Krypton, but Ma and Pa Kent made him Superman" and I couldn't agree more.

It's great to see all the people excited about the movie, and picking up on the themes of kindness, empathy, and hope. Intertwined with subtle (or maybe not so subtle) parallels to what's going on in the world today. A lot of people will shit on superhero movies, but this one clearly has a lot of great things to say. In that regard, it is an homage to the history of Superman and superheroes in general and the whole reason they were created in the first place. To inspire people to fight back with hope and kindness.

I give it a 9/10. It's definitely worth the ticket price to see it in the theater if you can.