The other week, DC Studios dropped the first trailer for Superman, a new movie about the Man of Steel written and directed by James Gunn, the behind the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, TV shows like Peacemaker and Creature Commandoes, and a lot of other things if he and Peter Safran get to continue building out a new DC Cinematic Universe. And for that to happen, the new Superman movie needs to be a hit, preferably a huge one.
Buzz for the trailer has been very strong; call me easy, but I was sold the second Krypto the Superdog dragged an unconscious Superman through the snow. The dog is wearing a cape, people; obviously the movie will be a hit.
But behind the scenes, things are reportedly more mixed. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gunn has showed off an early cut of Superman to select parties at Warner Bros. Discovery, and apparently different people have different opinions. Speaking on The Hot Mic podcast, John Rocha and Jeff Sneider said they've been hearing bad things from their sources, or at least lukewarm things. " buzz is not good," Sneider said. "I'm hearing 'you should be worried things.' It sounds like James Gunn is aware of some of the feedback."
Rocha weighed in as well: “Someone who's seen Superman told me it has the tone of the first Captain America movie and The Mummy films. They said Nicholas Hoult is the standout and the film is 'decent; but a large chunk of the film was unfinished with only a third of the film's VFX done."
"[It has] the least amount of humor of any Gunn film but there's still humor throughout the film...Most people will be satisfied with the movie and it should be received well enough to continue Gunn's DCU."
Then again, the folks at ComicBookMovie have heard largely the opposite from their sources, who have described Superman as "Guardians of the Galaxy-level good." The people who saw it reportedly "loved the movie."
So who's right? Well, both opinions could be true; maybe some people liked it and some didn't. In any case, it feels like everyone is jumping the gun considering the movie isn't scheduled to come out until July 11, 2025; the version of Superman shown off to people at WBD is unfinished and there remains a work of work to be done on it between now and then.
And in any any case, there are lots of movies throughout history that got bad initial buzz before becoming smashes in theaters, and movies that got great early buzz that ended up disappointing. So basically, no one knows anything at this juncture and we're sorry for wasting your time. Goodbye and have a nice day.
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h/t World of Reel