Review: James Gunn's SUPERMAN is the Awesome Punk Rock Rebirth The Genre Needs — GeekTyrant
Gunn infused this film with that weird, wild, rebellious spirit he's known for. This isn't a movie trying to copy what came before. This is Gunn throwing the rulebook into the sun and building something new with the superhero genre. He thought outside of the box while on this one, and it totally worked for me.
This thing screams punk rock! Not in the leather-jacket-and-Mohawk kind of way, but in the way it challenges the polished, formulaic superhero structure we've seen a million times. It's confident, vibrant, and unafraid to get weird and be unique.
Gunn's world-building is alive and packed with personality, full of playful energy, and yet it still leaves room for real emotional depth. The tone feels like a balancing act between earnest hope and chaotic irreverence, and it totally sticks the landing.
David Corenswet crushed it as Clark Kent/Superman. I'll admit, I was skeptical when he was first announced. He had the look, sure, but did he have the thing? Turns out, he does.
He brings this quiet nobility to the role, not just because he's powerful, but because he cares. That's what hit me. His Superman isn't a god looking down on us, he's someone trying to be the best of both worlds: Kryptonian and human. That's the core of the film.
His scenes with Lois (played brilliantly by Rachel Brosnahan) have this breezy, flirty rhythm that feels genuinely fun. They just click. And Krypto is an MVP. Every moment with him is gold. That scrappy dog rules!
As much as this is Superman's movie, Gunn makes sure the supporting cast pops. Yeah, there are a lot of characters, but it never feels overcrowded. Mr. Terrific brings this dry, deadpan humor that cracked me up every time.
Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) make solid impressions, and I seriously wish we got more of Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), he's got that weird, tragic energy I really dig. He's also got some rad powers Hopefully he gets more time in the sequels.
The Justice Gang is ragtag crew of colorful heroes, who chose to fight for something, and their relatrionship with Superman makes for some amsuing moments.
Now let's talk Lex Luthor. Nicholas Hoult is perfect. His take on Lex is chilling and dark. There's this simmering resentment under everything he does, and his dynamic with Superman is very personal. He's not just a villain because he hates aliens, he sees Superman as a threat to the world he wants to build.
The way he tries to dismantle Superman's image is really clever. It's not all brute force, it's also calculated, manipulative. I loved watching their back-and-forth, because it felt like two worldviews clashing more than just two guys punching each other.
The action is aweosme and massive moments that are pure comic book chaos. It's fast, stylish, and Gunn leans into the pulp of it all. You feel the punches, but I was grinning from ear to ear because of how bonkers and imaginative it all is.
The thing that really stuck with me, though, was the heart. There's this brief moment that stuck with me between Clark and his dad, Jonathan Kent that just... hit me. No irony, no wink—just a real, vulnerable conversation that was filled with emotion. That emotional throughline gives the movie weight.
People are gonna have opinions on this one. Some will say it's too weird, too goofy, not 'serious' enough, and that's fine. But for me? This is exactly what I wanted. A Superman movie that embraces hope, that dares to be crazy, that makes room for action, comedy, heart, and, most of all, joy.
It reminded me why I love superhero stories in the first place. Not because they're perfect, but because they show us how we can be better. Gunn didn't just relaunch the DCU with Superman, he reignited the genre.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a few seconds ago
- Yahoo
Bill Belichick roasted during Hall of Fame dinner speech over Jordon Hudson
Longtime Cleveland Browns reporter Mary Kay Cabot absolutely roasted former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick while accepting an award from the Pro Football Writers of America. Cabot earned the prestigious 2025 Bill Nunn Memorial Award at the annual Enshrinees' Gold Jacket Dinner in Canton, Ohio, on Friday night, and she used part of her acceptance speech to rip into Belichick's alleged past treatment of her reporting. Cabot reflected on the times Belichick allegedly called to yell at her for her Browns reporting back when he coached in Cleveland. "If Bill didn't like something I wrote, he'd call and yell at me," Cabot shared in her speech. "If you asked a dumb question, he'd call you out. Eventually, I had to learn to stand up to him." She recalled how, during one alleged yelling match, Cabot challenged Belichick to treat her with the same respect of her male colleagues. She then delivered a devastating zinger about his relationship with the much, much younger Jordon Hudson. "Now, I totally understand why Bill gave me such a hard time," Cabot joked. "I was 28 at the time, and he just couldn't relate to a woman that old." The roars of laughter from the crowd said it all. That is a truly devastating one-liner, and Cabot deserves another award for how thoroughly she trolled Belichick for allegedly giving her such a hard time in Cleveland . This article originally appeared on For The Win: Bill Belichick roasted during Hall of Fame dinner speech over Jordon Hudson
Forbes
3 minutes ago
- Forbes
You Want To Speak Memorably? Try These Smart Tips
In today's high-stakes professional world, the ability to communicate isn't just a competency—it's currency. Are you leading a team? Strong communication skill is one of your most important tools. Pitching a product? Ditto. Navigating a job interview? Ditto. In most every workplace situation, your presentation style can be the defining factor between influence and invisibility. Bill McGowan understands this better than most. This Emmy Award-winning TV journalist and bestselling author is a top communications advisor to leading names in business, tech, entertainment, sports, and finance. He's coached the founders of Amazon, Meta, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Spotify, Snapchat, and Airbnb … as well as Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy winners and World Series, Super Bowl, and Olympic champions. McGowan's latest book is Speak, Memorably: The Art of Captivating an Audience. His experience in TV journalism underscored many of the lessons he now provides as a coach. For example, when McGowan worked on ABC's popular '20/20' show, the executive producer would share the minute-to-minute ratings of a segment. Any time an on-camera personality told a story, viewers' interest spiked. Stories, McGowan learned, are much more compelling than statistics. You want to break out of the conformity zone? McGowan recommends avoiding 'corporate speak' and communicating concisely with clarity and simplicity. And at every opportunity, use pertinent stories. While it's important that every part of a presentation be interesting and relevant, McGowan highlights what psychologists call the primary-recency effect: people tend to remember the first and last items in a sequence better than those in the middle. That's a clue on where compelling stories, challenges, or facts should be in a presentation. To underscore the importance and power of simplicity, McGowan tells of a CEO who was in a media interview about a struggle his company was experiencing. The interviewer asked the CEO, 'Why do you think your IPO underperformed vis-à-vis the other companies in your competitive space?' McGowan says that instead of blaming the market or a poor valuation or even suggesting that they didn't have the right financial institution leading the offering, the CEO simply said, 'We underperformed because we failed to come up with a narrative that could fit on the back of a cocktail napkin.' McGowan used that story to kick off a speech he made to a group of communication clients. Using a 'through line,' the connective tissue that helps explain the relevance of a story, he spoke on the subject of simplicity. Citing research studies, McGowan says factual information embedded within storytelling becomes 22 times more memorable 'than if you just fire hose talking points and data points.' McGowan coaches his clients to communicate the visual, the specific, and the anecdotal. When you speak abstractly and theoretically, it's pictureless, he says. 'We human beings have this movie reel spinning in our heads at all times. If a speaker doesn't give us imagery to work with, that movie reel keeps spinning in our head—only now it's spinning with the images we've created. That's what daydreaming is.' In what ways has the rise of remote work and virtual meetings affected the way people communicate? In addition to what many people now call 'Zoom fatigue,' McGowan talks about 'Zoomnesia.' That occurs when people attend a seemingly endless string of remote meetings in which they're sitting in the same room with the same potted plant on their desk and the same view out the window and with no contextual clues. That circumstance makes it even harder for people to retain information, and it underscores the value of well thought-out communication practices that engage people's thinking. McGowan frequently uses metaphors in his coaching. For example, he talks about what he calls the 'pasta sauce principle.' You put a pot of tomato sauce on the stove and cook it down for about three hours. You then have something with about half the volume but a lot more flavor. 'But it takes time and effort to get that reduction going,' McGowan says. 'The same is true for speaking.' It wouldn't be accurate to say McGowan has written a cookbook. But Speak, Memorably certainly provides the ingredients for welcome servings of appetizing communication. Whether you're giving a TED talk, speaking at the local Rotary Club, or just trying not to lose people in your Monday morning staff meeting, McGowan offers insight that will boost your communication mojo.
Indianapolis Star
32 minutes ago
- Indianapolis Star
Happy Gilmore appeals to both MAGA and woke fans — and that's his genius
There's a danger in trying to pull too much hidden meaning from an Adam Sandler movie. For years, the comedian-turned-actor has starred in films that provide a few belly laughs ‒ at least for those of us with a certain sense of humor ‒ but not a lot of in-depth social commentary on the human condition. With Sandler, dating to his time as a "Saturday Night Live" cast member during the early 1990s, what you see is mostly what you get. With his style of comedy, you either love it or you don't. Except for the original "Happy Gilmore" and "The Wedding Singer," I find most of his movies unwatchable. Yet there was something about the original "Happy" movie, featuring a failed hockey player who turns into an irreverent golfing sensation, that inspired a cult following and compelled Hollywood to greenlight a sequel almost 30 years after the first movie's debut. After much more thought than a healthy person probably should give to such matters, I believe I've discovered why Happy Gilmore makes his fans happy: He's a character who appeals to both the woke- and the MAGA-oriented in our tribal society. If you remember any tidbits of the first movie, the MAGA side of Happy Gilmore's personality was easy to see, two decades before Donald Trump's first successful run for the presidency. As a hockey fan, Happy was a man's man. He had a short temper and a tendency for settling problems with his fists. He hated effeminate intellectual types, like the tax collector who was preparing to sell his grandmother's home at auction. If Trump says what a lot of people are thinking, Happy did what a lot of people would like to do ‒ either by taking a whack at those who annoyed him or tossing them through glass doors. Opinion: Jon Stewart warned comedians get 'sent away first.' Now it's happening. In the first movie, after discovering his talent for hitting long drives, Happy joined a professional golfing circuit, modeled after the real-life PGA Tour, then made a mockery of the sport's stuffy traditions and mannerisms. Parts of the story are very familiar. "Caddyshack" was another golfing movie that poked fun at the snobbery of the country club set and the decadent lives its members led. Happy and his followers in the first movie seem to identify strongly with the Make America Great Again crowd of modern-day politics, too. Happy's supporters at golf tournaments were bikers and other free-spirited individuals who delighted in following their Everyman hero's lead and defying rules and conventions aimed at ruining the common person's fun. Happy was Trump before Trump burst onto the political scene. That's not all, though: The Happy of the original movie was a pretty woke guy, too. Consider the people in his inner circle: There's his mentor, a Black former golfer. His caddy is a homeless person he meets at his first pro event. His main love interest is the smart and capable tour communications director, who is dismissed by chauvinistic men in her life. His role model is his elderly grandmother. Opinion: Ozzy didn't corrupt America's youth. He exposed the hypocrisy of their elders. Happy seems to see the value in people regardless of their gender, social status, color or age. While he is short-tempered and prone to violence, he also is quick to show forgiveness and compassion toward the less fortunate. That was the hidden genius of the first movie. Happy had traits that were relatable to people at both ends of our society's fragmented political spectrum. Die-hard conservatives and raging liberals alike could cherry-pick some of Happy's traits and claim him as their own. So how did this character development translate in "Happy Gilmore 2"? The new Happy, 30 years older and maybe somewhat wiser, hasn't mellowed all that much. He's still quick to use his fists to settle problems, or even toss those who bother him into a nearby lobster tank. He also has four sons who have grown into regular working Joes, all doing manual labor jobs and sharing their dad's pugilistic tendencies. "Money is for snobs," one of them declares early in the movie. Happy has a new live-in house guest − former pro golfer John Daly, an unabashed Trump supporter in real life, who plays himself in the movie. (Don't worry; there are plenty of other cameos from athletes, sportscasters and other celebrities to keep the surprises coming throughout the movie.) Opinion: I'm a PBS Kid at heart. Trump's cuts threaten what made me who I am today. Happy 2.0 still has qualities that should also endear him to liberals. His new caddy is played by Bad Bunny, a Hispanic singer who endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. His allies in the movie include the son of his Black golfing mentor from the first movie and a transgender woman. Happy spends a large portion of the movie trying to get his daughter into ballet school − in Paris, of all places − and he ends up defending some of the stodgy traditions he mocked in the first movie. In short, whether you're a liberal or a conservative, it's not hard to find parts of Happy's personality that fit your worldview. Whether that was by accident or design, it may explain why Hollywood thought movie fans would be willing to walk the course with Happy Gilmore again after all these years.
