The Smark Avengers - Vol 4, Ep 24: Did James Gunn Save Superman? | 2025 Superman Movie Review & Breakdown

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

🎬 James Gunn's SUPERMAN (2025) is finally here! In this episode of the podcast, Corey, Dylan, and Jon give their full review and breakdown of the most anticipated superhero movie of the year. Does Gunn's vision capture the heart of the Man of Steel? Or does it fall short of truth, justice, and the DCU way? We dive into everything—casting, tone, villains, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Superman’s suit, the action scenes, easter eggs, and where this movie sets the stage for the new DC Universe. Whether you're a longtime DC Comics reader or just love superhero movies, this is the episode for you. 🦸‍♂️ Topics include: How David Corenswet measures up as Superman Rachel Brosnahan's take on Lois Lane James Gunn's storytelling choices and direction Comparisons to past Superman films (Reeves, Cavill, Routh) The future of the DCU post-Superman📢 Let us know in the comments: What did YOU think of Superman (2025)? Are you excited for the rest of the DCU reboot? Click the link for Dylan's radio show!: http://www.bouncedigitalradio.co.uk Click the link for Dylan's Twitch stream: http://Twitch.tv/spookylaroux Click the link for Jon's Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/bigjonbowski/👍 Like | 💬 Comment | 🔔 Subscribe for more deep dives into superhero movies, comic book history, and wild character spotlights! #Superman2025 #JamesGunnSuperman #DCU #SupermanReview #ComicBookPodcast #DavidCorenswet #LoisLane #DCComics #SuperheroMovies #PodcastClip #MovieBreakdown #DCUniverse

But, you know, speaking of different takes on the characters. So, hello, everybody. Welcome to Smart Avengers. The name is Corrieing with me. He's Dylan and John. How's it going, guys? Hi. Hello.

John's here. John is here. John was gone longer than it may seem. John, you survived your festival season. I did. Just about. It was very hot and very sticky and very loud and very drunk. and, you know, I've come out the other end, so...

Yeah, you may. There you go. That's what you can hope for. So, yeah, I'm not complaining. A couple of things have happened since you've been gone. For one of them, Dylan grew that lovely mustache that he has. And then subsequently, it fell off. Yeah.

It turns out I wasn't really. Real mustache. No, it was a butterfly. Landed on his face. Yeah. I fooled everybody. It's true. Great Frank.

It was. So the last couple episodes that we had, barring our last one, we were talking about the Fantastic Four, because there was a new Fantastic Four movie coming out in the theaters, but that was not the only superhero film that came out this summer. Another one came out actually before the Fantastic Four that we really didn't do a lot of hype or talking about, whether because you guys are more Marvel people, or if it was just Let's try to avoid the Snyder cult while we can kind of deal. But James Gunn's first full motion picture in the new DC Cinematic Universe, Superman came out.

I know that I've seen it. I know that John has seen it. I know that Dylan hasn't seen it. So Dylan will be playing the role of me when we traditionally talk about these superhero movies. Hi, I'm Corey. You got to get a hat. I don't like chocolate. That's true. I don't.

I'm glad that's what you remember about me. Always listening. So, I will be honest with you, like I said, I'm more of a DC person than a Marvel. This was a movie that I was kind of nervous about because the DC movies have been trash, barring everything but like Matt Reeves the Batman that came out almost exclusively every DC property has been trash

I will say movie wise because I think the TV shows they were very successful for several years but when it came to Big Picture for the life of them they could not put out a good one like I don't know I'd say this

the suicide squad was pretty good true but that's also James Gunn that's true Yeah. I was going to say, like, Aquaman, I remember liking the first Aquaman movie, but I was like, I don't need to see a second one. And I liked the first Wonder Woman movie that came out. And again, had that same feeling of, I don't need to see a second one. Yeah.

So, going into this movie, I did not watch any trailers. I avoided any sort of plot points or spoilers or anything like that, because I wanted to go in as fresh possible. But at this point I'm very familiar with James Gunn movies. I know what he is about and what his deal is. So before we kind of go in there and get elbow deep into Superman, I wish I'd phrase that differently. John, what were your thoughts going into this? Well, you know, I've kind of made my feelings known about Superman. Like, I'm not the biggest Superman fan in the world. obviously I do like the

original Christopher Reed movie um at like certainly the the Stider stuff the Man of Steel was very good uh and

I mean the Batman v Superman was it okay like the director's cut of it at least where it kind of expanded on things a bit more but yeah I think like

it's been a while since we've had a good you know big screen Superman but from the trailers I saw I was kind of optimistic about this one and with James Guns like you know like history of comic book movies as well

he's obviously got a pretty good grip on how to handle like these characters on the big screen so yeah I went into it like cautiously optimistic. Yeah, I think it turned out all right. So Dylan, I don't want to throw you on the spot a bunch.

So whenever you want to jump in, by all means, feel free to. Did you have anything that you saw about the promotion of this, anything that caught your attention? No, I didn't really see a whole lot of the promotion stuff. Okay. I really didn't. All I saw was after he came out

loads to people were like this is great my own that's all I know is that it seems to have gone over really well with everybody very few people have said that this sucks

so that that is what that's made me interested in seeing it because I've seen some of those other DC films and they have sucked yeah they have been really Batman versus Superman

is terrible it's a terrible film that's put me off a lot of the other films so I intrigued by what I've heard about it so far very few like actual negative things about it genuinely negative things

I mean I've heard a lot of stuff that it's not real criticism about the film but I haven't actually heard anybody go this isn't this isn't a good film so that's that I didn't say on them before that But I'm interested in seeing it now. Okay.

So would you prefer that we try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible for you then? It doesn't matter. Okay. I mean, I say this, I'll probably not watch it. Okay. I would like to watch it. I don't know if I'll get wrong into it. Sure.

You know. So I will start us off by saying this was the most comic book comic book movie I've ever seen. And it made me happy in ways that I wasn't fully anticipating. Oh, that's it. Yeah. I mean, it had a lot of, like, for one thing, it was a complete contrast to what Snyder had done both in tone and just visualization. This was the brightest movie ever. There were so few scenes that were done at night.

Aside from, like, an extended period of time that was spent in a pocket universe, most of the action scenes and the big fight scenes stuff were done in the middle. of the day, which felt very on brand for Superman. Like, you know, Superman doesn't, you know, a lot of stuff doesn't wait until it gets dark to happen in Metropolis. Things just happen. So, yeah, no, I mean, it had giant alien monsters and creatures from other dimensions and pocket dimensions and ridiculous super science robots and portals and just, there was a scene, Dylan, that featured monkeys that had been genetically and cybernetically enhanced to do nothing but post shit on the internet all day.

Yeah. Yeah. And it, I think it takes, there's a special kind of trait when it comes to storytelling if you're going to introduce something dumb. We talked to a little bit about this when we've talked about like Peter David in that book that I had on writing comics. and there was a section on that of like sometimes you're going to come to a part in your story where something stupid needs to happen or something dumb needs to happen

or something unrealistic needs to happen and there's a couple of different ways you can approach it you can either call it out and say, look at this dumb thing and move on and I feel like that's kind of what happened in that scene. So I won't go into details about what it was but essentially Lex Luthor pointed out this, essentially this room full of monkeys with wires sticking in their heads on like Twitter,

essentially, just posting shit repeatedly over and over again, and just said, and we have an army of monkeys that just spread, you know, negativity and hashtags on the internet. And then they moved on. And I'm like, perfect. You don't need to go in depth there. You don't need to explain it. Here it is. Take it and go with it or don't.

But there it was. moved on. Okay. So, so John, was there any, like, rather than just jump around on stuff,

was there certain, like, things you wanted to touch on, like certain actors and certain roles, like, anything like that, or would you prefer that I kind of just drive this? Well,

there's like a few things. Like, I think the fact that it started sort of in media res, like, just like throwing you straight in the, deep end was a great decision. Like, we don't need to see Superman's origin again. Everyone knows he's an orphan from another planet who got sent here by his parents

as his planet was blowing up or whatever. And then, yeah, you know, he grows up in Kansas and gets instilled all the good values, the good old American values that kind of make him into. a good, decent person. We don't need to go over that again. Everyone knows that story. And this didn't bother with that at all, which I appreciated. Gunn had made a statement earlier

around the time when the movie came out and he had said that there's three things that we don't need to see again in movies. We don't need to see you know, Superman, we don't need to see Krypton blowing up. We don't need to see Martha and Thomas Wayne getting shot in the back alley and we don't need to see Peter Parker getting bit by Spider.

Like, we've seen it enough. And I agree with that. They just, I think it took a lot to just trust, trust the fact that the audience was going to come along for the story. Because, I mean, like, it was just like a small, like, couple of words on the screen. And then, like, they set it up. Like, it's been, you know, 300 years ago,

the first met a human appeared on Earth. 30 years ago, you know, Krypton blew up and a baby was sent to small, Bill. Three years ago, that baby grew up and revealed its name to be Superman and he's now a protector. And three hours ago, he just got, he just lost his first fight. Like, yeah, perfect. You don't, you don't need to, you don't need to spoon feed the audience like that. Or, you know, with anything more in depth than that. Because it cut a lot of time out, like you said, we, we don't need to see all of that. And because that we got, yeah, yeah, we had an established metropolis already. we had an established

supporting cast of characters at the Daily Planet, which was something I was really happy to see. Like, you don't get to see Superman's full supporting cast in movies very often or in TV shows very often, like Cat Grant and Steve

and, you know, the other people who work at the Daily Planet, not just Perry, the editor, and Jimmy Olson, and Lois. So I thought that was, it made it feel fuller. Plus, they all got to have a little moments. Yeah, yeah.

I think like in the same sort of vein as well like the like it in like um you didn't have to kind of go in knowing like in depth about all the, uh, deep cut, um, DC characters either. Like, you know, the sort of, um, the heroes that were introduced to like the, this version of the green lantern, Mr. Terrific. girl like these aren't necessary you know a listers and heavy hitters that like casual fans are gonna necessarily know about but like the way they're introduced and like the kind of characterization and the humor between them like it tells us kind of what we need to know yeah and yeah you don't need like big in-depth backstories or whatever for them you can just sort of like fill in the blanks yourself. Yeah, we didn't need,

because I saw Kevin Figi recently do an interview talking about Superman and how the Thunderbolts underperformed in the theater. And like, when we talked about Thunderbolts, it was a very positive conversation, but Thunderbolts didn't make a lot of money. And Figi's response was that basically people didn't watch the Disney Plus shows,

so they didn't go to the theater to see who these new characters were. like we assumed that they would do this and they would carry that knowledge over, but it didn't happen. We didn't need to see a Mr. Terrific TV show. We didn't need to see a Hot Girl movie. They just trusted, again, it was a trust in the audience. Like, we're going to introduce these three characters. We're going to give you enough information about them to know what their deal is, how they interact, and we're going to let you just take that information and go with it.

They're not going to be major characters in this. They're going to have their part. I think that's a one-to-one thing, though, because I think Thunderbolts, I haven't seen any of the TV shows leading into it, but I didn't need to because I thought the show, I thought the film itself is really good. Yeah. But I think the reason why people didn't go to the Sea Thunderbolts is because they don't know who the Thunderbolts are. I don't, yeah.

Whereas with Superman, like, it doesn't matter if they watch the TV show or not. Whereas with Superman, people are going to watch that film because it's Superman. It doesn't matter who they introduced in that film and on how they introduce them. You're there to watch the Superman film. So anybody that gets introduced is like a bonus. They're going to pay attention because they're there to watch the Superman film. I think that if people had watched the Thunder Boss film, they would have picked up on all the characters and loved them.

It's just that they didn't know what the Fox was supposed to be. I was going to ask, do you think that would have been a different movie if instead of Bucky Barnes, Winter Soldier, was the main character that you should have remembered from the other stuff if it had been like a Sam Wilson Captain America or Chris Evans Captain America in that role instead. Do you think it would have made a difference?

Maybe. I don't think so. I think the problem was like the title, it was like Thunderbolts and then they had the asterix and the Asterox was like, New Avengers or whatever. Do you think they were just being too cute? Yeah. If they called the New Avengers, people would be like, all right, sweet. But then it just stuck with Thunderbolts and been more clear about it.

and people would have went to see it. I don't think it was purity of the name that stopped people from going to see it, but I think the excuse that, oh, people didn't watch the TV show is we introduced these characters so they didn't come to see the film. I don't think that's the correct way to frame that. I mean, that was just... Okay, I'm just pointing out what the interview with Figi had stated. That's not my opinion on the matter, because I agree on that.

I don't think necessarily that it failed because people didn't know who the characters were. I also mean that like whenever you were saying, oh, in the Superman film, these characters that people don't know have been introduced really well. I think that was the same was in the Thunderboss film. I thought you got, you knew everything you needed to know about the characters in the film. I didn't know half of them were actually in different. I didn't know that. But the way the film plays itself out, you get all the information you need about the characters really well. So, um, I can't remember.

his name, the actor's name, but a lot of people are saying he was kind of the breakout character. The actor played Mr. Terrific. His first is Edy, is his first name? Yeah. He was in an X-Men first class, he was Darwin. Yeah. Because he's been doing interviews saying that like he had when they were making that movie, he pointed out the fact that they were killing Darwin and saying his powers he literally

can't be killed. and he had said that he was told by the filmmakers that they were going to bring his character back and then he never got a phone call back so he viewed Superman as sort of his redemption getting to play a more active character but um so what were your thoughts John on

is it I can't name pronunciation is going to be a very hard thing for me the actor played Superman David Corn Sweat Corm Sweat There you go. What were your thoughts on him? I thought he was really impressive. Like, I'm sure I've seen him and stuff before, but I have completely blanked it if I have.

So this was sort of my first real introduction to him. I mean, and he nailed like both aspects of the character. Like, the Clark Kent sort of, um, you know kind of anonymous guy basically but then when it comes to being like the big

bold superhero he kind of filled those boots really well as well so I thought he was thing after like initially sort of balking at it when like the cast wasn't out

and thinking like what who the hell is this guy why is he being but in this kind of movie and this kind of role. Yeah, man, he definitely proved he deserved it. I really enjoyed him

in it as well. I think he carried himself very... I think he carried himself very well. His... His Clark was... I mean, his Superman was a Boy Scout, but at the same time, it wasn't a...

100% who he is as a person. I mean, he was a character who definitely had his convictions. and stood beside them. And he really put that across in that sincerity. The scene where he chose to allow himself to be interviewed at Lois, and that was such a good portrayal of the Lois Lane character as well, because even though she is in a relationship with him, she still has that, you know, that attitude and that independence

and that spunk to basically grill him in the interview. Where she's asking him about the, so, so Dylan, basically what happened is Superman is in a little bit of a weird political hot water because an allegory for Israel attempted to invade an allegory of Palestine. And Superman basically went in there and wrecked shop and created a bit of a political nightmare because does he represent the United States or not is the question. So he's getting interviewed by Lois about it because his reputation has taken a hit. You know, there are definitely people out there with negative opinions because they feel that, you know, Superman has dragged the United States into a conflict in the Middle East that we don't need to be a part of. And he allows himself to be interviewed by Lois, who in the movie is established, she already knows that Clark Kent is Superman. So he allows himself to be interviewed in character.

and he ends up getting flustered and frustrated because he has a hard time conveying his points in the face of scrutiny, essentially. So I thought that was a very strong scene for the actress who played Lois Lane. Funny enough, this was the only criticism I heard about this film, which was

Israel, Palestine, Allegory, I don't like it. I'm like, okay, it sounds like the kind of film I need to go see then if this is the only real negative criticism of my humor but the film is it's telling the truth then i'm probably going to have to see this film and it was a very superman it does feel like a it feels like an odd thing to make uh like such an obvious comparison to as well like why bring in uh something that's like so horrific in real life and so like harrowing and like turn it into fodder for like a comic book movie which it's you know supposed to be all big and bright and like a you know big adventure why put something in there which kind of you know reminds the audience of all this horror which is going on in real life i don't understand that well to remind you

point. Oh, go ahead. Yeah. I think why, sorry to cut you off, Corey. I think there's two points to that really is like one is to kind of like to grind you a little bit. You know, it is a Superman film and all is all like comic book and stuff. But like, you know, they are like, well, what if Superman was real? Like it is kind of like a, they did it in comics a lot. Whether like it is all wacky and crazy and stuff, but they still keep a grounded element to it where you're like, okay, this, this is what would happen in real life if this was a real. It was a real. thing. And it just so happens that the weird American politics of today is, that's what would happen. They'd be like, well, it's Superman, but this are against us? And nobody would go, well, Superman did a good thing there. But the other thing

that I think is an important thing to say is I think it's a real shame that the fucking Superman is the only film ever to actually talk about that. That's the real issue. That's the real problem. That's the real

problem is that a Superman film, Meet by James Gunn, is the only film that you can go, that's talking about real important, relevant stuff that is impacting people today. That's, that I think is the issue. You know, why isn't other films really talking about this, you know? So to go on to the point, I was going to make the similar point to you, Dylan. In 1938, I believe, Superman ended World War II before it started. Because, the Siegel and Schuster had been following the news and had seen Hitler's rising in Germany and they had in their comic Superman flying over to Germany grabbing Hitler by the neck flying him back to America and dumping him in the White House and saying deal with it it is what I like it with that sorry Cory but what I like what that is they flew him all the way over to America and then threw him in the White House and at no point in just because Superman could fly no problem he's a an alien. But the idea of picking up Hitler in Germany and a fly fucking flying. Here's the problem as well. If I'm not mistaken at the time, Superman didn't have

the ability to fly either. He could only leap tall buildings in a single bound. So he was just jumping real fucking far multiple times to get there. And like that didn't that didn't kill Hitler. That would alarm me. I'm like, what the fuck do we do to kill this guy? But that's

a great point though that like from the very beginning, Superman was always very very, and that's with a lot of comics, Furnamerica stuff like that as well, obviously, but like a lot of comics were like, point of the comics was to have some kind of political allegory and go, this is the good guy that's fighting against the evil in today's society, you know?

That was really, and that was kind of the, to also show the, kind of get Superman's politics aside, because Frank Miller, um, in Dark Night Returns, didn't, you know, he wrote Superman as a conservative pro

Reagan guy because he was like, well, that's what Superman would be. He'd be pro Reagan guy. But if you look like, Superman was always about helping individual people. He wasn't for one government over another. The truth, justice, and the American way came about

because of World War II and because of the, you know, the evil, the unspeakable evil of what was happening in Nazi Germany. And, you know, the concentration camps and what happens. A lot of the character was very outside of black and white politics in that, yeah, anyway, that does further prove, like, that does play a part in the larger plot line

of Superman versus Lex Luthor, though, who was played by Nicholas Holt, who was great. Just a fantastic Lex Luthor in the sense of, like, he had this whole cult. of personality based around him. I loved his little command center of toadies of these, like, very intelligent people that wanted to be just like Lex and, like, falling over his every word trying to do what he said as he said it. I think he did a really great job on that, and that was a character. I had seen, you know, Nichols Hole had just been in Nosferatu.

I was talking to someone about it who had also seen Nasferatu. I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, that was Edmund from Nospheratu in the, really? Like, yeah. Nichols-Holt has a lot of range. He can play very, very, very different roles very well. And I know that he had originally auditioned for the role of Superman and didn't get it. And putting him in the role of Lex Luthor instead was a very on the nose sort of thing to do because Lex's whole deal of he wants to be the savior of humanity and is aggravated that

this other person is instead. like the fact that Superman is an alien has so little to do with it you know it is definitely a thing he harps on but it's simply the fact of like Lex Luthor is a guy with a culture personality around him and it's not good enough he wants even more he wants even more people to be grateful for him and be thankful for him so and I think it's really just a kind of a you know lighthearted moment where he's in a middle of a rage

and he knocks over a mug full of pencils and tells his little toadies to clean them up and they all get down and start gathering pencils and the second they put it back up on the table he knocks it off again and makes them do it again just little things like that a really good showing for him

John what did you think of the Ultraman reveal I mean it felt like Ultraman himself kind of I don't know if he looks like that in the comics. But the whole thing felt a bit like

the boys and I forgot the character's name now, but there's like a character basically in almost exactly the same all kind of black outfit completely covered up. You're black noir?

Yeah, black noir, that's the one. And it felt like it was just too similar to that for my tastes. um because i think in the boys like well in the original comic of that like i mean spoiler alert but it turns out that it was uh

man i've completely forgot the bad guy's name in that now homelander homelander yeah it was like a clone of homelander so like the whole thing felt like it was uh yeah you know like ripping off another comic book basically, which is a bit weird. So, uh, so, you know, it was what it was like that. So Ultraman was an amalgamation of like three different characters in this. The look, the full body suit with the little goggles.

Uh, that's how Doomsday looked originally in the comics before the costume was ripped to shreds and he was just himself underneath it. So the costume, like the initial costume was very Doomsday. The rest of the character was a combination of Bizarro and Ultraman as well. Because Ultraman is from Earth 3. On Earth 3, all of the heroes and villains alignments are switched. So Ultraman is Earth 3's version of Superman, but he's evil. So the name and the appearance matches there,

and the failed clone of Superman who can't speak and has a lack of intelligence is basically new 52 bizarro. So James Gunn kind of just combined all those characters into Ultraman. But really, he wasn't, he wasn't billed as the main threat, which I liked. At no point did it feel like Ultraman was the character you really have to be paying attention to. He just felt like a henchman, which is appropriate, because that's really what he should have been. I liked the engineer. I thought the engineer was an interesting approach to the character.

she because at the same time she's more of a morally gray character because she was just somebody with very misguided principles who allowed horrible things to happen to her in the pursuit of following what she believed in.

Especially when she was basically treated as if she was completely disposable by Lex towards the end of the film as well. thoughts are metamorpho I was not familiar with the engine

that was pretty interesting like the way he was used in the movie to kind of like obviously he's as much of a prisoner as Superman is but it kind of

you know speak to Superman's heroic nature that he finds a way to kind of get through to him and you know save his kid as well which is that something that happens in the comic like does he have a kid in the comic which yeah

kind of a little bit story line or anything yeah yeah so basically metamorpho is a guy named Rex Mason who is an adventurer he was hired by the he was like a a four work adventurer for this company to go in and explore ancient artifacts and

gather, you know, data and intelligence and stuff. And then he encountered an accident at one of these sites that transformed him into what you saw. A person whose body can shift into the elemental properties of, you know, anything, really.

And he does have a son in the comic that does inherit some of his abilities and looks a little weird because of it. But he was a character that was, I think, major part of there was a series called Batman and the Outsiders in the 70s where basically Batman came to the conclusion that the Justice League wasn't going to

do the things he needed them to do so he left and started his own team with these kind of odd characters like Katana and Geoforce and Metamorpho and had a pretty long-running book called The Outsiders. I think Jimmy Olson was great in this. It was the first time I've seen Jimmy Olson in a movie be treated like Jimmy Olson as a character should be. Somebody who doesn't seem like he should be as important, being the person who gets pulled in all sorts of wacky shit and saves the day in his own bizarre way. Is he as much of a ladies man in the comics as he is in this movie? Absolutely.

Jimmy is currently dating a supervillain, Silver Banshee in the comics. but Jimmy has been almost married by multiple aliens and mutant women and cryptonians and all sorts of stuff. Jimmy is, he's a stud. I was incredibly excited when I saw that. And because of like Jimmy Olson having that like background of weird stuff happening him all the time, when he first revealed he had that source. Do you remember that weird mutant monster man that was like driving the little cart that Clark's cell was in? when he was in the other pocket dimension.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would have sworn that was going to be Jimmy's source that was not leaving him alone and secretly in love with him. I was like, oh, of course, it's the weird meat monster man. It would have been a very Jimmy Olson thing to happen. Nathan Philly and his Guy Gardner, fantastic. Yeah, yeah. Dylan and I just talked a little bit about Guy Gardner last week

in our episode we were talking about Keith Giffin. Guy Gardner, brash, bit of an asshole, good guy underneath it all, but just a bit of a dickhead. I was surprised they didn't do me on that. I'm surprised that they didn't do a one-punch joke on him. But, oh well,

there's always room for next time. I was really happy to see who Sean Gunn was playing in a very toss-away appearance towards the end of the movie. Supermind. Maxwell Lord. He is Maxwell Lord.

Pedro Pascal to Sean Gunn. Yes, but it feels more appropriate with Sean Gunn because Maxwell Lord was created for Justice League International. And Sean Gunn's a very funny person. And the Justice Gang being this group of heroes that are trying to get established with all of this money and resources feels like a JLI thing waiting to happen. and I'm very excited about that prospect. Yeah. I felt like pretty much the only sort of thing hinting at what's to come. Like there wasn't a lot of, certainly not as much as I was expecting in terms of like laying seeds down for the universe to make it feel, to give you a hint of like, we're going to head in this direction or, you know, introduce these characters.

or build to this storyline or whatever. Like, it was just really the, you know, the justice gang, which is obviously going to grow into something bigger and more impressive. Well, they had the Hall of Justice as well. I was really surprised to see the Hall of Justice. I guess they did have Supergirl show up as well. That was honestly, I really enjoyed that. I'm really looking forward to this approach with Supergirl.

as her just walking in somewhat drunk to get her dog and leave because I remember watching that and I was like it seems like

Clark just got crypto because the dog doesn't really listen to him very well and he kind of does his own thing and if this is a dog that Clark has had

most of his life like you think crypto would be more better behaved and then the reveal that no Clark has just been babysitting crypto

while Supergirl was often spaces doing stuff and she was just swinging by to pick them up and leave. That I'm excited for. I'm very excited to see Supergirl as well because Jason Mamoa is Lobo, and that feels like the best casting ever for him. I am looking forward to the 90s resurgence of Lobo via Jason Mamoa.

I've not really encountered much Lobo in the few DCs. comics I've read, so I'm interested to see how it all plays out and how he comes across on the big screen. Yeah, I mean, I just, when I tell you that Jason Mo was perfect for the role, I think that should, that should go a long way to kind of give you an idea of what Lobo is like as a character. Mm-hmm. What else was there that was fun to kind of just mention? I like, I mean, there's just so many of like the, like I said, just great kind of dumb, comic book stuff to talk about the, you know, the fortress of solitude, the super robots that were there taking care of Clark when he, you know, needed to be healed by the sun. I loved the heart to heart he had with Lois while the justice gang were fighting that giant imp in the background.

And she's like, do you need to help them? He's, nah, they can take care of it. So they're having like this kind of intense conversation about like, you know, the truth and trying to do. the right thing. Meanwhile, like, there's this giant alien fight in the background. And I guess we should talk a bit about the big twist that was in the movie that people weren't expecting. John, would you like to key that up or would you like me to? I've completely forgotten.

Was there a big twist? There was a big twist. No, that was Batman v. Superman. Oh. The big twist. His parents. Yes. So in the beginning of the movie, when they introduced to the fortress of solitude and the Superman robots,

they play the message that came with Superman in his spaceship when he was a little baby, of his parents speaking to him, telling him, like, we're sending you to this planet. We think, you know, here you're going to be strong. The people will need your guidance. They'll, you know, the kind of traditional Superman stuff. And later on in the movie, Lex, in the. engineer and Ultraman end up getting into the fortress of solitude and then finding this message and they decode it because they mentioned that the message was damaged when Superman's rocket crash landed in Earth and so they only have a partial message. The engineer was able to fix it and the big reveal Dylan is that Clark's parent, you know, Superman's parents chose Earth to send him to because they expected him to conquer the planet when he got older.

And Lex took this information and made it publicly aware. And basically the public turned on Superman because they were of the belief that he was sent here not to protect the earth, but to enslave the earth. Not just enslave the earth as well, but like have a bunch of concubine so he could crank out like... Crichtonian babies. Yeah. Super babies. Mm-hmm. So that was the big, uh, the big twist in it.

Uh, that ruffled some feathers. online, for sure, amongst people. But what were your thoughts on that? Because that has happened in the comics before. It is not an unheard-of twist. It happened in the... It happened in post-crisis Superman. Right after Crisis Infinite Earths and they relaunched the line,

that was a reveal in John Burns, Superman. Was that originally Jorrell and Lara had sent Clark to Earth to conquer it when he got older. it was definitely unexpected but it added a nice bit of drama to things as well like if you need a good reason for people to turn on superman if the public are going to turn against him and that is a pretty good reason

if they all think he's just here to you know steal their woman and crank out some baby And that's your other allegory of people being anti-immigrant is that they're here to take your women. Mm-hmm. Yep. So there was a couple other great fun little cameos there. Michael Ian Black had a role in the movie. That surprised the living hell out of me to see Michael Ian Black in it.

Yep. And there was a, there was, of course, a John Cena peacemaker cameo, oddly enough on the same scene. of the same scenes of Michaelian Black. Mm-hmm. But yeah, no. Bradley Cooper and Angela Starfayan, I think that's how you pronounce the name, but they were like, Jorrell and. Is Laura?

I don't know what her name was. Laura. There you go. So, yeah, no. Good casting there. Like you said, it didn't have to be a complicated, you know, role. I did enjoy. I thought that was Bradley Cooper.

I didn't stick around to, well, I did stick around post credits to, just to say that I watched all of them, because we are so ingrained to sit through the credits of all these superhero movies now. I know, but I was so annoyed when I sat through it, and then that was what we got at the very end. Like, I was expecting something to kind of, you know, get me intrigued for what's coming next, and it was just, like, a throwaway joke. You didn't care for the throwaway gag. no I have to sit in through 10 minutes of credits credits it's a lot of credits

but anyway kind of going back to the whole Superman family twist thing I liked that a lot because I've always felt that people put way too much way too much emphasis on Jorrell and I think a lot of it has to do with like Marlon Brando being Jorell in the Christopher Reeves movie and then Russell Crow was Jarrell

in Scott Snyder films Jorrell is a character that I have never thought should be as important as people put on him. I mean, he was Superman's dad, he sent him away, he died. That's up until, you know, last few years, that was all the character was really good for. And I always thought it took importance away from the Kent family who raised him. And I just, I loved, I loved the casting of the Kent's. because in the Snyder verse it was Kevin Costner who was the worst Paw Kent

I've ever seen in my entire life I mean I still cannot the two scenes of was I supposed to let that the bus full of kids die and Kevin Costor goes maybe like what? That was like the sign number like five that Scott Snyder didn't really know Superman

and then also willingly letting himself get killed by that tornado. That's all I ever think about with Kevin Costner is Pockhead. But like these were just two people they cast who looked and sounded like people who lived on a farm in the middle America. It just felt right.

It felt really right. And they came across as really sweet and really like genuine. And the end where instead of replaying the message from Jorrell and Lara, they played like little home movies of like the kints raising him, I thought was a

great touch. Yeah. It was quite an accent on Martha as well. Oh, that's, that's home, man. That's how everybody where I'm from sounds like. It is that thick. It is that thick. But yeah.

Like you said, it just felt very, it felt very familiar to me. So I'm going to go ahead. I mean, is there any kind of closing thoughts you wanted to put on the Superman movie before we move ahead. Because I know that up next, of course, there are several couple things. There's a Green Lantern show that's going to be focusing on John Stewart. There is another suicide

well, not suicide squad movie, but Peace Maker show that's going to tie into this because Frank Grillo's Colonel Flag was in Superman as well as creature commandos. And he's, they've already said, it's going to be in peacemaker to

get revenge on John Cena's character for killing his son and suicide squad movie. We've got the Supergirl movie coming up They're still working on the script for Batman and Robin They've announced other projects But anything else you want to say about Superman Or anything about the film I mean, I think we've discussed it pretty well

At this point Like I will say it wasn't a movie I came out of the cinema Absolutely loving and was like Feeling pumped up about but it was a good movie and after like some of the shitty uh scott snyder dc movies that we've had like just having a good movie again was good enough for me and uh yeah like i was kind of slightly disappointed that i wasn't more up for it afterwards but

I think maybe that's to do with just me not being a huge Superman fan in the first place. I don't have that emotional connection to the character. So maybe more of these movies with a good cast like this will kind of fix that problem going forward. Who knows? I will say that as somebody who is a big Superman movie, this thing was everything I really wanted it to be. I cried like four times watching it, to be frank with you. Because it was just like a moment of like, wow, after so long, they finally are getting it right. Like they're finally making the character what it feels like.

And I've been seeing a lot of people who are trying to argue that Snyder's character was a better Superman. And then like watching just scenes of Henry Cavill brooding while stuff is happening around him is just that. not the character. It was just such a contrast that it was just nice, again, to see a good step in the right direction. They also said that they were going to be pushing Wonder Woman ahead as well. So, you know, they're definitely getting stuff ahead out there. I think the one character that's not been getting mentioned is Flash, which I think maybe they're just going to let the kind of the failure of the Flashpoint movie.

just let that cool off further before they even attempt to bring in the flash again. But oh well. So John, if we add this movie into what you've been watching, how many movies have you seen in the year 2025 so far? I have now watched 609 movies. Actually, I think it's been a little bit of time. time since our last episode that we've had you on, you know, like,

time-wise, I think you might be up almost 100 movies from when we last checked. I really, I think we were, I think you were, I think you went 500 and something. Yeah, you're on 500 and something when we last chatted, so you've, you've definitely put some work in. Yeah.

Well, you know, I've got to fill the time outside of the festivals and gigs and stuff. Fair enough. What was the last thing you watched? it was a very weird movie from the 60s a British movie called The Knack and How to Get It About a like in-cell school teacher who begged his friend who's like a lady's man to help him meet women and then it has just the most the real kind of end to the movie as well

I won't spoil it for anyone if they're still inclined to watch it but yeah it's very weird I wonder if it's a situation where it's like the first time I watched Michael Kane in Alfie like then I got to the kitchen sink scene and I went oh okay well that was a shift

is it something similar to that where it's like the harsh reality of what has happened is settled in now um not really but it's not as jarring it's hard to explain that's fair no no i mean it's pretty jarring still but yeah not as daring so uh dylan you get up to some business in the midst of the week what do you get up to when and where and how and why i don't know if legally i'm allowed to talk about that that's fair but i do get up to some

shenanigans for sure um the legal ones i'm allowed to tell you about are that on monday nights. I have a radio show from 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock UK time. You can listen to it on Bync Digital Radio.comcoded UK. There might be a link in the description. If there isn't, then just remember the thing I just said and then type it out on your computer. And you can listen to my show. We'll play a lot of grungy music and whatever I like at the moment, which is all sorts of weird chip. And it's really good. And also, I've been streaming a lot on Twitch. recently of just me drawn pictures and animating

so you can watch the streams on I think my username is Spooky LaRue so I don't really have a set time when I stream is just when I'm not working but it's just me drawing pictures of mice so if you like that you should come and check the show out as well yeah we'll put a link in the description for that one for you as well

John if you want to send me your link to your movie box as well we'll throw that in the bottom as well. Also, as a quick reminder, tell everybody where you're at on movie box. Letterbox, not movie box. Letterbox.

It is at Big John Bowsky, all one word. All right. There'll be a bunch of links down on the bottom. As for me, I have my other show, Large Old Cup, where we talk about stuff. I've mentioned, I have a couple of episodes where I've talked about Superman. That was probably about a month or so ago,

if you're listening to this now. So by all means, I think the titles are pretty obvious. I'm talking about Superman, so it's not a big deal. Anyway, check that out sometime as well. But until next time, we're all going to go do other things. Goodbye. Yeah. See later.

Bye-bye. There is.