Latest news with #DarkKnight
Indian Express
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
James Gunn reacts to viral Batman makeover theory; teases Clayface horror, triple Lantern chaos, and Peacemaker 2
DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn is now gearing up for the DCU's interconnected future, following the successful run of Superman. In a recent conversation with CBS, Gunn let out a sigh of relief, saying David Corenswet's reboot hit all three marks: audiences, critics, and the box office, after he spent three years building it. Now, Gunn's teasing Batman's arrival in The Brave and the Bold, but stayed cagey on whether we might see the Dark Knight even earlier. For now, he's got other heroes to roll out, starting with Peacemaker season 2, which drops next. Also read: Superman star Rachel Brosnahan says a 'witch' helped her lift a 10-year 'travel curse' ahead of movie promotion: 'I made her sign an NDA' Gunn didn't reveal too much about Batman, but he didn't shut the door on fan theories either. In an extended interview with the outlet, when asked if Batman would be donning a new costume, perhaps something different from the traditional black and grey, Gunn dodged, laughing and responding, 'I have no idea what Batman's going to wear.' He instead switched the topic to what he does know for sure is what's immediately ahead in the DCU. 'Peacemaker Season 2, which arrives in a month and is directly tied to events in Superman, with some overlapping characters,' he said. Following that, the timeline includes Supergirl, Lanterns (featuring Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner), and Clayface, which the Superman hitmaker described as a full-blown horror film set within the same universe. Further, Gunn emphasised that gone are the days of the old DCU; his version won't follow a one-size-fits-all formula. 'Each film will reflect the unique vision of its creators. There's not a company style,' he said. 'Just like comics, every story can be tonally different.' While Gunn neither confirmed nor denied the Batman makeover rumours, he definitely added fuel to fan theories that have been making rounds for months. Over the years, around 11 live-action Batmen have worn the Caped Crusader's iconic look. In an earlier interview with CBR, Gunn said, 'You know, there's no decisions made about the costume at all yet. I do [like the blue-and-gray Batsuit]! But I like the other versions, too. I like many different versions. I'm a Batman superfan. And so I like all the different versions of the Batman suit.' Also read: Superman: James Gunn's idea of an India-coded country is regressive and riddled with stereotypes; the Man of Steel wouldn't stand for it But he did hint at the trunks. 'I didn't know the trunks were going to be that important until I took this job,' he said, revealing that the first thing people asked when he got onboard DCU was what he planned to do with them. Fans have been speculating that Gunn and Andy Muschietti might shake things up costume-wise, but that'll only become clear once the film rolls. There's already buzz around patterns, a different colour palette, new materials, and details like longer ears and lenses,' doing the rounds online. As for Batman, beyond the costume chatter and release timeline, Gunn dropped something more telling, how this new take pushes back against the whole 'government puppet' label. He pointed out how Batman has traditionally seen Superman as a tool of the establishment, especially in The Dark Knight Returns. But now that Superman's stepping out of line and making moves on his own, he's starting to align with Batman's values more. 'Usually, Superman and Batman have different ways of doing things, but they're best friends. That's something we think a lot about for the DCU,' Gunn said. So one thing's clear, fans will get a very different dynamic between the two going forward.
New York Post
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
With ‘Superman,' the destruction Christopher Nolan wrought on comic book films is finally over
Did my movie screen just take a Prozac? Watching the new 'Superman' reboot starring David Corenswet, which hit theaters this weekend, I saw the franchise's years-long depression finally vanish. In James Gunn's cheery film, the colors were 'Wizard of Oz' bright instead of ugly grayscale. The performances were upbeat rather than brooding and angry. And the story was — am I dreaming? — actually fun. Advertisement 5 David Corenswet plays 'Superman' in James Gunn's upbeat reboot. AP The shift was stark. Because DC Comics films, and really most movies in the superhero genre for more than a decade, have been as enjoyable as algebra. They warped into interminable Debbie Downers after — oh, the nerds are gonna protest at my apartment for this one — Christopher Nolan's 'Dark Knight' trilogy. Advertisement Sorry, dweebs. The gloom-and-doom comic book reinvention is entirely the fault of the director of 'Inception.' He did it. Remember 'Batman Begins,' 'The Dark Knight' and 'The Dark Knight Rises'? The 2008-2012 series in which Gotham looked like a down-and-out Chicago and the villains were reconceived as a series of evil terrorists? Where Heath Ledger murdered a man in cold blood on a grainy video feed and, on the rare occasions daylight was shown, it was always cloudy outside? The ones in which Christian Bale put his body through hell? Well, I suppose that's every Christian Bale movie. Advertisement 5 'The Dark Knight' trilogy, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, brought a realistic and sinister hue to superhero movies. That trio made so much money and received so much acclaim, everybody had no choice but to rip them off. Nolan's movies, which are very good when taken on their own, undeniably had a rotten effect on what came next. Think back. Superheroes used to be quirky and inspiring. Advertisement We'd watch Adam West hilariously test the limits of a gray shirt and Tim Burton doll up Danny DeVito as a penguin. Tobey Maguire's 'Spider-Man' was about the can-do spirit of New Yorkers. And the aughts 'X-Men' flicks were campy. Alan Cumming played a disappearing frog. Then the post-Nolan era unleashed a medieval murk and cathedral-like bombast. The ensuing movies were deafening and weighty. They punched us in the face with arrogant sludge. 5 'Man of Steel' starred a serious Henry Cavill as Superman. First came Hollywood masochist Zack Snyder's 'Man of Steel' and 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' — dour slogs that had all the charm of a puddle of Manhattan garbage water. Henry Cavill's Clark Kent looked happy as Mr. T. And the frowns weren't limited to Superman. Ben Affleck played Batman. Need I say more? Some flicks were downright upsetting. After Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning performance in 'The Dark Knight,' the Joker evolved into some sort of pretentious King Lear. Advertisement The funereal first standalone film for the character, 'Joker,' starring that piece of work Joaquin Phoenix was modeled after 'Taxi Driver' for Pete's sake! The guy was a disturbed serial killer. 5 'Joker' turned the Batman villain into a disturbed serial killer. Niko Tavernise Even 'Aquaman' with Jason Momoa was bizarrely serious for a tale about a fighting mermaid. Gal Gadot's 'Wonder Woman' was about a World War I German mustard gas. What about Marvel? True, the MCU isn't as sooty and downcast as DC tends to be. Advertisement But ever since Nolan's human Batman, there has been an obsession at Marvel with grounding the stories of Spidey, Iron Man, Doctor Strange and the rest in the familiar real world. There's not much style to them. They never dazzle. They're run-of-the-mill action movies with cute costumes. Cash-checking A-Listers running around Atlanta. 5 Even 'Aquaman' with Jason Momoa was bizarrely serious ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Is Gunn's 'Superman' the start of an optimistic new era of letting comic books be comic books? Its domestic box office is on track to a strong $120 million start, so people are buying what he's selling. And Gunn is now in charge of DC alongside Peter Safran. His vision is king. Advertisement Let's hope the change sticks. Seventeen years of 'The Dark Knight' is plenty. I'm ready for some sunshine.
Newsroom
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsroom
The history of the world's greatest superhero
Nearly a century ago, a man in red and blue lifted a car on the cover of Action Comics #1. It didn't take long for that man of steel to fly off the comic page and into radio … then onto the small and big screens, books, merchandise and anything else you might care to name. If anything is going to bring movie-watchers back to the cinema it's Superman – and the latest iteration is out this weekend, simply called Superman. The latest interpretation comes from Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn. After a long streak of darker, more brutal and gritty interpretations, Gunn has returned to a more traditional, hopeful take. The bearer of that red shield is arguably the most iconic character ever made, but over so much time, and having passed through the hands of so many varied creators, no character is going to remain unchanged. Today on The Detail we look at how Superman changed over his many years, and his surprising origin story, and we speak to Stu Colson, the co-owner of Auckland comic shop Heroes For Sale. He says every time a superhero gets a new lease of life on the big screen, it's like a two-hour advertisement for his shop. Superman might not be his best seller – that honour rests with the Dark Knight, Batman – but Colson says Superman's legacy and the history of his impact on pop culture is unrivalled. Superman wasn't the first comic hero. In 1936 Lee Falk published the daily newspaper strip 'The Phantom' about a purple-suited fighter of justice. But in 1938 Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster made a story about an alien from another planet being raised in the USA and choosing to use his superhuman powers to do good. Colson agrees he's probably the most iconic character ever written. 'His legacy and the history of his impact on pop culture I don't think has been rivalled by anyone else.' In the 1950s he was easily the biggest pop culture phenomenon America had ever seen, with summer camps dedicated to him. 'The radio plays were so popular that the guy who voiced Superman … after a few years said 'I need a break, I need some time off with my family', and that's where kryptonite actually came from. So he went off on his holiday and in the story Superman was taken down by kryptonite so they just had another actor lie on the floor in the studio and groan for three weeks. 'It's a fantastic plot device.' Superman was born just before World War II broke out, but he wasn't a reaction to global uncertainty. The legend goes that Jerry Siegel's father, a tailor in Ohio, was fatally attacked in his haberdashery in 1932, so the character was a son's bullet-proof invention. This protector had working-class origins, and was something of a socialist. Once upon a time Superman represented 'truth, justice and the American way', but in 2021 DC Comics' chief creative officer said Superman now stood for 'truth, justice and a better tomorrow'. 'I think he's the exact opposite of what's going on in America right now,' says Colson. 'He's the symbol of what they were, not what they are now. I mean, he's an immigrant. He's the ultimate immigrant, he's an alien. He's there to help all of those people, he'd be on the front line of those protests against Ice imprisonments. 'He would be trying to stop insider trading somehow … you know he'd be using the Justice League to get on top of that. 'I think he would incredibly disappointed at his adopted homeland were he a real character. 'This is not the America he was there protecting. Lex Luthor is probably more of a symbol of America right now.' Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here. You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.
Time Magazine
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
Superman Is Punk Rock, After All
In the battle for supreme superhero coolness, Batman has been the unofficial champ for nearly 40 years. In 1988, Alan Moore and Brian Bolland rescued him from '60s TV-show camp status with their flinty, inventive graphic novel The Killing Joke, a Joker origin story that stressed the grim psychological similarities between Batman and his most enduring enemy. Tim Burton's two marvelous Batman movies took the character's morose nature seriously, but not more seriously than his savoir faire: the Burton Batman movies also have gothic elegance on their side. But Christopher Nolan's 2008 Dark Knight leaned right into Batman's twilight gloominess. In Nolan's vision, Batman was a vastly complicated superhero, brooding and unknowable. Suddenly, loving Batman—not the Batman-dance goofball Adam West played on TV, or even the grand, pulpy vigilante as originally imagined by Bob Kane and Bill Finger in a 1939 issue of Detective Comics—made you complicated and unknowable, too. Batman, who relied not on superpowers but on his own intellect, was the thinking-man's superhero. By comparison, Superman—who'd made his appearance just one year earlier than Batman, in another Detective Comics publication, Action Comics #1—was kids' stuff. Faster than a speeding bullet! So what? More powerful than a locomotive! Who cares? Superman, despite his status as (arguably) the first superhero, and perhaps the most famous, has long been uncool. Which is exactly what makes him great. There's no existential B.S. with Superman; he belongs to everyone. He's kind, cheerful, and sturdily nonpartisan, caring only for the supremacy of right vs. wrong. Even if you were a Batman diehard, he'd happily save you, kind of the way U.S. presidents used to vow to serve all citizens and not just the ones who'd voted for them. The Superman temperament is one thing James Gunn gets right in his otherwise sub-mediocre reboot Superman, starring David Corenswet, a Juilliard-trained actor who understands how the strapping charm of the caped superhero is directly entwined with the insecurity of his more awkward alter-ego, journalist Clark Kent. The point isn't just that stalwart reporter Lois Lane (played here, appealingly enough, by Rachel Brosnahan) can swoon over Superman and feel only mild affection for Clark Kent, ostensibly because women tend to go for the hot guy over the nice one. (In Gunn's reimagining, she knows about Superman's dual identity from the start, anyway.) The more interesting angle of the Clark Kent/Superman flip-flop is that while being Superman allows the character to fulfill the most unrealistic expectations of masculinity, being Clark Kent frees him from them. To play Superman, you've got to have a little candy-apple sweetness in you, and Corenswet does. He also has the right amount of wheatfield swagger, another essential Superman quality: the superbeing otherwise known as Kal-El may have been born on another planet, but he was raised by kind midwestern farmers. Corenswet has the right look—he's got the glossy black hair, the resolute jaw—which points to another general Superman strength, particularly on film. Because Superman doesn't wear a mask, his emotions are always on display. And we've been lucky: we've had plenty of good-to-great Supermen, even in not-so-great Superman films. Brandon Routh, who starred in Bryan Singer's 2006 Superman Returns, is the almost-forgotten Superman, but he was a terrific one. In shaping the character, Singer and Routh stressed Superman's vulnerability, and not just to Kryptonite: he was a man out of time and place, urged by his father, Jor-El (represented by a ghost version of Marlon Brando, who'd played the same character in Richard Donner's superb 1978 Superman), to use his outsider status to serve the world of the humans. Routh's Superman could never be as mopey as any of the film Batmen, but there was something vulnerable and melancholy about him even so—he came off less as a comic-book hero than a matinee idol, but either way, his sense of dislocation was stark. In one of the picture's most moving scenes, this Superman uses his X-ray vision to gaze through the walls of the house Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane, having forsaken him, now shares with her young son and her fiancé (James Marsden). He sees the coziness of their home life, including their little squabbles. This is the kind of life he'd like for himself, but he'll always be an outsider, looking in. Our next big-screen Superman barely survived the preposterous self-seriousness of the stories Zack Snyder built around him in Man of Steel (2013) and Batman vs. Superman (2016). But Henry Cavill prevailed: his Superman and his nerd-to-die-for Clark Kent were of course gorgeous to look at, but in the first movie especially, both guises carried an erotic charge that's usually forbidden in the world of comic-book movies. When Amy Adams' Lois Lane is wounded in the Arctic while working on a story, the ever-ready hero emerges from nowhere, ready to cauterize her wound with his X-ray eyes. 'This is going to hurt,' he warns her, though his smoldering warmth is like faux anaesthesia—surely, it's got to feel great. In Batman vs. Superman, a movie that attempts only feebly to settle, once and for all, the question of who's the greater superhero, Snyder instead just focused on pumping the doom juice. Ben Affleck makes the most dour Batman imaginable; Cavill is forced to spend much of the movie looking noble and pained. No matter which superhero you prefer, Snyder served both badly. Besides, when it comes to the best film Superman of all, there's no contest: it's got to be Christopher Reeve, who played Superman and Clark Kent in four Superman films, the first two of which—Richard Donner's 1978 Superman and Richard Lester's 1980 Superman II—are gems of the superhero genre. Reeve, like Corenswet, studied at Juilliard, and he took the role of Superman just seriously enough. Reeve had the gleaming, streamlined beauty of Superman as the character's co-creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, first envisioned him in 1938. But he also came armed with a sense of humor about his own handsomeness. He took clear pleasure in Clark Kent's clumsy pratfalls, making the most of even the tiniest gestures, bringing casual, offhanded glamor even to the simple act of pushing his horn-rimmed glasses to the bridge of his nose. As Superman, he was a living, breathing, Art Deco fantasy—muscular, yes, but more like a dreamy Adonis than a magazine-ad Charles Atlas. In Superman II, the most romantic of all superhero movies, his Superman/Clark Kent becomes acutely aware that Lois Lane (played by the feisty, luminous Margot Kidder) will only suffer, having discovered his dual identity: there's no way he can settle down and have the normal romance she yearns for. As Clark Kent, he bestows upon her a Superman kiss, and instantaneously that one bit of painful knowledge—that Clark Kent and Superman are one and the same—is erased. Some Superman fans hate this plot point: it does not appear in a 2006 version of Superman II known as the Donner Cut, which includes patchwork chunks of footage shot by Donner, the original director of Superman II, before the film's wheeler-dealer producers, Alexander and Ilya Salkind, replaced him with Lester (who'd previously directed the wonderful Three Musketeers for them, as well as its sequel The Four Musketeers). The Donner Cut has its devotees, but I'm not one of them: If the Lester-Donner hybrid Superman II isn't perfect, it includes moments of lyrical beauty I wouldn't trade for anything, including that kiss, an act of mercy and empathy. Maybe the moment wouldn't work with just any actors. But with Kidder and Reeve, it's magic. Sadly, there's almost zero magic in Gunn's Superman. Its special effects are more overbearing than special; the plot is all problem-solving and no poetry. Even so, Gunn astutely picks up on the nice-guy aesthetic that sets Superman apart from many of his superhero brethren. At one point Brosnahan's Lois articulates a Superman character trait that he can only acknowledge is accurate: 'You trust everyone, and you think everyone you've ever met is beautiful.' She tells him he's just not 'punk rock,' though he wonders aloud if she's wrong. He posits, almost melting the universe around him with his impossibly blue eyes, that maybe caring about people is the real punk rock. It's dorky cornpone dialogue, but Gunn is onto something, the same diffuse yet potent concept that Joachim Trier articulated at the press conference for his film Sentimental Value when it premiered at Cannes in May. 'Polarization, anger, and machismo aren't the way forward,' Trier said. 'Tenderness is the new punk.' As a character, Siegel and Shuster's creation deserves better than Gunn's Superman. And that's unfortunate, because we probably need a great Superman now more than ever. When he first appeared, well into the Depression, it's no wonder Superman had an almost immediate hold on the public imagination, at a time when so many many Americans were feeling helpless. If you had generational wealth in your pocket, you were probably doing OK. But if you were either a recent immigrant or the child of immigrants—and given the large number of people who'd emigrated to the United States in the first 30 years of the 20th century, there's a good chance you fell into one of those categories—Superman, himself a transplant from another planet, must have felt like kin. Then as now, he had a stake in the value of tenderness and kindness; he took it upon himself to right all sorts of wrongs that humans inflict on one another. In his resolute squareness, he was also the coolest—and he still is.
Euronews
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Film of the Week: 'Superman' – A bird? A plane? No, a terrific reboot
I confess I've never been much of a Superman fan. Compared to other superheroes, the Man of Steel always seemed boring to me. Yes, the story of a god growing up amongst men and fighting for the oppressed is inherently interesting, but I never felt a sense of jeopardy when it came to the super strong Christlike martyr who seemed so impervious to most threats that there was no real drama. Granted, there's always Kryptonite, but when Supes eventually shakes off the glowing green irritant before breaking through the time barrier by flying around the world so fast he reverses the direction of time's arrow and thereby undoes the tragedy that just occurred – like in the 1978 movie – then the stakes are at an all-time low. Then came Zack Snyder's ambitious but botched attempt to replicate the grounded nature of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. That dour take on Superman didn't help much, and I can't say I was giddy about yet another cinematic reboot. However, and much to my surprise, James Gunn's Last Son of Krypton feels far from invincible, giving Superman enough emotional stakes to pierce my cold heart. More than that, this flawed but exuberant blockbuster may be the first time I've properly enjoyed a Superman film. The film opens with a bruised and bloodied Big Blue (a perfectly cast David Corenswet) crash landing in the Arctic near the Fortress of Solitude. As the opening credits inform us, Superman has just lost a fight for the first time, courtesy of scheming billionaire bastard Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) and his very own floating robot dubbed 'The Hammer of Boravia'. That name refers to a geopolitical SNAFU that Supes is embroiled in. Having prevented fascistic Boravia from invading its neighbouring country, Jarhanpur, despite Boravia being a US ally, everyone's favourite superhero is at the heart of a PR disaster – also orchestrated by Luthor. Cue: Krypto, the caped, plucky but obstinate supercanine, helping out his bleeding master and getting him back on his feet. Such a good boy. On top of the bad press, Superman / Clark Kent is three months into a dicey relationship with intrepid reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), and the revelation of a previously corrupted recorded message from his parents makes him question his place on Earth. No time to mope too much though, as Luther's greed and envy has driven him to extreme lengths to discredit the immigrant alien he refers to as 'it'. By ditching not only the doom and gloom of the Snyderverse but also the tiresome need for an umpteenth backstory, Gunn starts in medias res to better embrace the spirit of the seemingly bygone era of campy comic books. And it works. This fast-paced adventure looks and feels like a comic book transposed onto the big screen, with all the unapologetic strangeness, colourful palette and intentional corniness that befits a 'naive but well-intentioned" boyscout who will take the time to save a squirrel in peril. The 'silliness' of Gunn's approach feels bold in these current times – and the director knows what he's doing. He clearly understands that superhero fatigue has settled in; his reset doubles down on the fun factor without shying away from some real-world mirroring. This may not be anything new for Superman films, but the inclusion of xenophobia laced with cancel culture (aided by social media bots / monkeys) and the contentious Middle Eastern geopolitical dispute with obvious – but not overplayed - topical parallels to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Palestine conflict is a bold touch. You can almost hear nose-bleedingly annoying comments about Superman going 'woke' - the pithy last defence of those who never tire of shouting at clouds. But that's what Superman has always been: an alien humanitarian who fights for justice and for whom 'kindness is punk rock.' A cheesy line, granted, but one which nonetheless lands - especially with the film's final needle drop of a deep cut Iggy Pop collab which works wonders. As great as Superman is, there are undeniable issues – chiefly an overstuffed script that tries to cram in a bit too much in one go. As well as one too many black holes during the contractually-obliged CGI onslaught. That said, Gunn proves once again that he can gleefully tick boxes while indulging in a large cast – like he did in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies – and still make the plot make sense. The other 'metahumans' in the Justice Gang get their time to shine, with Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi) and Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) standing out. It's a shame that Hawkgirl (The Last Of Us' breakout star Isabela Merced) is shortchanged, but the motley crew remains a charming addition to this new DC Universe. Ultimately, it's so much fun to watch that anyone willing to get with the program won't care enough to riot. As for those who get too hung up on its negatives, it'll be a hardened viewer who doesn't fall for Corenswet's disarmingly earnest portrayal and that spiralling slaying soundtracked to Noah and the Whale's 'Five Years Time'. Superman may not be a perfect movie, but it's a terrifically endearing crowdpleaser – one which dwarfs this year's other blockbusters like Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, F1® The Movie and Jurassic World Rebirth. More than that, it's a deliriously entertaining start for the newly minted DC Studios under Gunn and Peter Safran's management and above all, a breath of fresh air that left me with a big, dumb grin on my face. It made me believe a man (and a dog) can fly. Best of all, it made me care about the flying man. And his dog. Who, again, is such a good boy. Superman is out in cinemas now.
