Superman and Lois (and Me) Through the Years

Some thoughts leading up to the movie (click here to skip straight to the review):

Superman and I go way back. My first memories of the Man of Steel include lying on my belly on the yellow-gold living room carpet, watching the Christopher Reeve movies with my parents and older brothers. Our VHS copies of the films had been recorded from TV, which meant two things:

1.) They had been edited for running time and content. (I didn’t realize until years later that several scenes had been cut).

2.) They had commercials. My dad and brothers were pretty much experts at stopping/starting the recording to omit these, but one notable goof stands out, and the original Superman movies will forever be associated in my mind with a woman’s voice saying, “I don’t like your face” and the man’s reply of, “Shaving irritates it!”

The Christopher Reeve movies were good. I enjoyed them as much as a little girl could. Clark trying to keep his identity hidden from Lois in Superman II and having to battle a dark version of himself in Superman III were particularly memorable.

I got a little older and Superman faded out of my life, until a new show came on called Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Boy, was I hooked! Yes, the storylines were sometimes cheesy and the special effects were at times undeniably horrible. But the love story felt real.

In this version, rather than Clark Kent being a bumbling persona put on for show, Clark is actually the character’s real identity, and Superman is just his alter ego.

Clark Kent is who I am. Superman is what I can do.

This idea resonated with me, and I credit Lois & Clark for my deep love of Superman which still burns to this day.

When it came to Smallville, well I was still a little bitter about L&C getting cancelled, and questioned why we needed another Superman show so soon. Once I gave it a chance, I fell in love – hard – with this charming take on Clark Kent’s early years. Also, the special effects were pretty darn good.

Superman Returns was an unexpected pleasure. I know I’m in the minority, but I dug it. I liked the general storyline, and Brandon Routh’s portrayal of both Superman and Clark blew me away. He’s got this one line – I’ll take you back now, Lois – that’s so heavy with double meaning it makes me shiver. I was very much looking forward to the next installment of this, which we never got, because instead they gave us:

Man of Steel.

Which. I. Hated.

From Kryptonian creatures that looked like Avatar rejects to a young Clark just standing there pointlessly watching his dad die, this movie seemed to spit on everything I knew and loved about this fandom. I didn’t think it was possible for me to hate a Superman movie. This one proved me wrong.

I surprised myself by actually liking Batman versus Superman and Justice League. They were entertaining and they had Wonder Woman, so, all good.

Then along comes the TV show Superman and Lois.

Once again, I’m thinking, Do we really need ANOTHER Superman show? Once again, I’m proven wrong. Superman and Lois, I felt, was exceptionally well done (minus the last 5-10 minutes of the series finale – seriously, Do Not Watch, it’s horrible). But here we had an experienced, mature Superman battling to save the world while also raising two teen boys and attempting to be a good husband. It was the romance of L&C meets the teenaged-hero-coming-of-age-story of Smallville. Major props to Superman and Lois, and I’ll try to forgive the wretched ending, which apparently happened in part so there would not be two live-action versions of Superman in existence at the same time.

Because I guess they thought people might get confused between the TV version and the movie.

Which I wasn’t even sure I wanted to see. I mean, I’m 44 and there have already been three different Superman TV shows as well as seven(???) Superman movies in my lifetime alone. I mean, I love the guy, but seriously?

So, I waffled. Then I watched the trailer, and thought maybe. Heard some good things in interviews and decided to give it a go.

I spent part of the previews (pre-commercials, more like) explaining to my dad that it wasn’t going to be the same actors or storyline from Superman and Lois. I told him the show was cancelled.

Dad: Why?

Me: So they could make this movie.

Dad: ?????

Me: Yeah.

He then asked me how the show ended, and I had to go into all the depressing/annoying details.

Dad: Why did they end it like that?

Me: ?????

Finally, it was movie time.

Superman 2025 (this movie needs a better name) Review

Well, I knew going into it that a CGI dog in a cape was going to play a prominent role. So, I was aware the movie wasn’t going to have my preferred level of realism. Even so, as Krypto came running up in the opening scene, I still had to make a mental adjustment. It was like the first Avengers movie – I came to that having only seen Iron Man 1 and 2, which were fairly believable explorations of advanced technology. And then in Avengers there’s suddenly aliens talking about taking over Earth and I’m like, whoa, okay, I have to rapidly shift my expectations in order to enjoy this movie.

So, it was like that here, too. I had get in gear for things to be a little less realistic and a bit more absurd. Once I got in the right mind-frame, I could just sit back and enjoy the pleasant rollercoaster ride that was this movie.

Superman is more playful than your typical DC movie. It honestly felt more like a Marvel film. It has high energy, high stakes, lots of fun characters, and several one-liners that made me laugh. There are monkeys on computers, pocket universes, and a King Kong-sized creature that looks like Stitch from Lilo & Stitch.

It also has weirdly juxtaposed scenes at times, like Clark and Lois having a serious conversation while the Justice Gang (yes that’s their name, lol) battles a giant glowing monster in the sky outside the window.

This version of Superman’s character is a lot less restrained/reserved than what I’m used to seeing. At one point he is near hysterical when confronting Lex Luthor about Krypto’s whereabouts, and also gets pretty bent out of shape during a frustrating interview with Lois. I didn’t quite know what to make of this – Superman is usually about control and restraint. Because of how powerful he is, he can’t risk accidentally hurting someone, and he wouldn’t want to even appear to lose his temper in the public eye because it would erode people’s faith in him.

Granted, the public’s faith in him was pretty much in the toilet by the time he had the Krypto meltdown, but still. It bothered me. Then I read a review of the movie where the reviewer pointed out that this is Superman at the beginning of his career. He’s still figuring out how to act as Superman, how to interact with his fellow metahumans, how to do this whole hero thing. This isn’t Tyler Hoechlin’s older character with decades of experience under his belt. This is someone who’s fresh and naive and trying to do good but not always going about it in the most effective way or making the smartest choices.

That explanation worked for me, and helped me adjust my expectations for the character.

Lois and Clark had good chemistry, and for once Clark actually looked like a believably different person than Superman, sporting a wild mop of curls and glasses that supposedly had hypnotic powers capable of changing his appearance (good detail – makes the whole glasses-as-a-disguise thing seem more plausible). Jimmy Olsen, Eve Teschmacher, and Kara all made me laugh. The real scene-stealers, though, were Captain Hammer – er, Green Lantern – played by Nathan Fillion, Mister Terrific (he probably made me chuckle the most), and oddly enough, Krypto.

Yes, I can see why everyone loves the dang CGI dog. His behavior is SO awful it just takes you back to every encounter you’ve ever had with a terribly trained animal that you can’t help but love anyway. We’ve all had that dog, or know someone who does.

Lex Luthor is darkly determined to eliminate his nemesis, Superman. He has gone to extreme lengths to manipulate events in order to take out the Man of Steel. In the final confrontation, I really felt Lex’s raw hatred.

At one point in the film, a character gets murdered. This is the one part of the movie you really wouldn’t want younger audiences to see, and I don’t think it was necessary to the plot. The death is used as a catalyst to get one character motivated to take action. I think this could’ve been accomplished by something short of murder (torture, maybe?). It just felt like too much.

Overall, the plot worked, though towards the end I wasn’t entirely sure exactly what was happening, but I knew who I was rooting for and that was all that really mattered.

I liked that the movie touched on relevant topics, such as the risks/benefits/motivations for getting involved in foreign wars, the power of social media to shape public opinion, and the complicated tangle that is immigration. It felt fresh.

The ending is sweet and uplifting and kind of perfect, and will leave you glad you watched the movie. I saw one scene (also super-sweet) after the credits, but I’m hearing there’s a later one I missed. No worries – I’ll definitely watch the movie again (and probably own it). My dad turned to me after the movie and said he really liked it. I concurred.

The last and probably best thing I’ll say about it is this: I went looking for fanfiction afterwards, and found an excellent, still-in-progress story about this new version of Lois, Clark, and the gang. The author: someone who had never seen a previous version of Superman, but was inspired enough to write over a hundred thousand words about these characters and this universe. To me, that says more than positive reviews or ticket sales. Just like Lois & Clark did for me back in the 90s, this movie brought a new fan into the red-yellow-blue fold.

And I’m pretty sure they’ll be rooting for the Man of Steel for years to come.