Writing Movie “Wrongs”
By: Jim West
Superman
Directed by: James Gunn
Written by: James Gunn
I’ve been a huge fan of what James Gunn brought to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Guardians of the Galaxy—that perfect blend of quirky, oddball humor and genuine, heartfelt character moments was exactly the lifeline the franchise needed. Those films had heart and truly connected with audiences through characters they never thought they’d root for. Unfortunately, this new Superman feels like it’s trying way too hard. With major continuity hiccups and so many messy narrative leaps—it feels like perhaps Gunn needed a bold co-writer to have pushed back on a few of these beats.
Here come the spoilers…
In Gunn’s reboot, we jump into a world where Clark Kent/Superman is already the world’s most beloved metahuman. After unilaterally ending a looming conflict—a mission that puts him at odds with the U.S. government—his popularity plummets overnight. Stripped of his usual confidence, Superman finds himself outmatched by The Hammer of Borovia. In the film, the internet seems determined that Superman needs to answer for his intentions. Cue LexCorp. Billionaire genius Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) seizes the moment, imprisoning Superman in a pocket dimension. With public opinion turned against him by Luthor’s online smear campaign, Superman’s only hope rests with Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), who infiltrate that dimension, stage a daring rescue, and expose Luthor’s machinations. The final showdown sees Superman outthink his clone, collapse Luthor’s black-hole–creating reactor, and restore his reputation just in time for the Pentagon to make some choice in how to respond to the metahumans, but not before a few leaps in logic leave you scratching your head.
In the theatrical cut, Luthor’s grand villain arc boils down to corporate envy and fear of an “alien” metahuman. That’s a fine start, but it never connects on a deeper, more personal level. Imagine instead opening the film with a flashback: A young teen boy is riding in the back of a car with his parents, who are arguing about the young man’s future. We then hear a loud commotion from outside the car, followed by a building suddenly collapsing onto the car. The boy is screaming for his mom and dad, but no reply is heard. With tears streaming down his face as the rubble is being lifted “heroically” away, we see Superman’s silhouette against the sky. Fast-forward to the present, and you instantly understand every ounce of Luthor’s resentment: Superman couldn’t save his parents from the wreck, or could have even possibly caused it, and boom: You have the emotional bedrock this script sorely misses.
My first gripe in the main narrative is the drone-camera gimmick. Why does Superman suddenly spot them, but only at the climax? How does he not figure out how this Hammer guy is mopping the floor with our hero in battle? He would have had to notice these drones flying around at THE START, quickly figured it out, and lasered the handful of drones out of the sky and gone about his Superman day. A simple fix: Show him overwhelmed by sheer numbers, drone after drone, so fast he can’t cut them down all at once.
Then there’s the Mr. Terrific and Lois Lane infiltration of Lex’s base, where they breeze into a top-secret base in broad daylight without triggering sirens, radios, or even a single guard to signal back to LexCorp that the base had been attacked. When Mr. Terrific and Lois Lane exit the pocket universe, it’s magically nighttime—yet none of the bodies are still littering the ground, and nobody happened to radio for backup of this top-secret location?
I would’ve had a response team awaiting them with Ultraman leading the way. Mr. Terrific tells Lois to take Superman to his ship while he holds the attackers off. A tense ‘you can hear a pin drop’ standoff ensues, and right before Ultraman goes in for his attack, Mr. Terrific throws his hands up and surrenders as Lois and Superman escape. Then the audience can wonder why Ultraman and Lex let them escape the pocket universe as Mr. Terrific is hauled into LexCorp’s HQ to work his real ploy: To get closer to Lex and his command center to stop the rift from destroying Earth.
The film would then continue as written until Superman has his moment to confront Lex. Mr. Terrific would then break free from his handcuffs and start working to close the rift and save Earth.
Cut to a confused Superman asking the deadpan Mr. Terrific, “You were here the entire time?”
“Yes,” Mr. Terrific retorts.
“You watched me being beat this WHOLE time?”
“Yes.”
“And you could have stopped it at anytime?”
“Yes, but I knew you would make it.”
“You did?” from the now bedraggled Superman.
“Well, I had a 54.7% probability that you would,” replies the already furiously typing Mr. Terrific.
And don’t get me started on how Gunn could have written Lex’s emotional payoff in this confrontational climax. In this this version of the storyline, Superman delivers his monologue about how he is human because he makes mistakes, giving Lex the opportunity to fire back, “Mistakes! I’m your greatest mistake. While you wield all this strength and power over us, you don’t realize the collateral damage you leave behind. You should have let. Me. Die. Under that rubble with my parents.”
As the moment of realization sinks in for Superman, we then have the flashback of Lois and Superman leaving the top-secret base, and Lex’s henchmen having put a tracker on the spaceship before letting them escape back to his parents’ farm. In the present, a call comes over Lex’s headpiece saying the raptors have arrived at the farm. Superman can hear the team lead’s request for approval to commence, and Lex then commands the raptors to destroy Clark’s childhood home, and with it, his parents.
Had Superman left the boy under the rubble in my opening, killing Superman’s parents then satiates Lex’s hunger for vengeance, and the film lands with an emotional gut-punch. That is the collateral damage to make “the genius villain” truly chilling, and the kind of risks that should be taken story-wise: To have a man so powerful his real kryptonite is the ones he loves being his greatest weakness, and what truly makes him human.
Lastly, Gunn misses a huge opportunity to include a viral “meta” moment in the end-credit scenes. The first end-credit would be scene is the Green Lantern and crew debating the new legislation requiring all metahumans to register with the U.S. Government and if they should relocate outside of the U.S. — until we see a shadowy figure step in the room.
“I have a place where you can go, but you have GOT to change the name.”
The offended Green Lantern, “Well, what name do you think is better than Justice Gang?”
Pan to the shadow-lined figure of Batman, “How about…The Justice League?”
Boom! Instant geek-out moment for audiences everywhere.
The final end-credit scene would be Lex in a maximum-security prison, sitting in solitary confinement, stone-silent and staring at the wall. As the door closes behind a pair of guards walk away after dropping off another untouched meal, Lex then stands and steps towards the wall where one of his hidden portals opens, and he slips through. Cue his promise of “portals everywhere” and a flashback to his corporation having built the prison many years before.
In short, a superhero film is only as compelling as its supervillain. Gunn’s Superman has bright spots and earnest performances, but it’s still a 6.5 at best. Inject these story tweaks—a true origin flashback, tighter continuity, and a heart-wrenching Lex backstory—and you’ve got a solid 9 that demands repeat visits to the theater.
Thanks for reading Writing Movie “WRONGS.”