movie review

Movie Review: Superman 2025

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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.

Me being Superman at an outdoor Comic Con (I should’ve taken off the glasses!)

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.

Me in my Superman shirt proudly holding an advanced copy of my superhero novel

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.

Movie Review: Mr. Monk’s Last Case

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Just to start off: I am a major Monk-aholic. I’ve seen every episode at least twice, plus read most of the excellent tie-in novels by Lee Goldberg. So naturally, I was thrilled to see an advertisement on Peacock for a brand new Monk movie. I watched Mr. Monk’s Last Case on the day it released – December 8th – and I’ve been wanting, maybe needing, to talk about it ever since.

The first thing fans need to know is that this movie has an underlying tone of despair which was not typical of the original series. I noticed by chance in the upper corner of the screen that one of the warnings on the film was for suicide. I frowned, thinking this might be an unintentional spoiler for the case Monk would be investigating. Not so.

The reason for the warning quickly becomes clear in the movie’s early scenes. Mr. Monk is not doing well at all. In fact, he is deeply depressed and planning to end his own life.

When last we saw Adrian, he was euphoric from finally solving his wife’s murder, and happily building a relationship with his newly-discovered step-daughter, Molly. But more than a decade has passed between then and now, and times have definitely changed. Over the course of the movie, we learn it’s not one big thing causing Monk’s depression, but rather a series of events and feelings that have all chipped at him over time.

Most of his loved ones have scattered and moved away, including Natalie. Monk is no longer working as a police consultant, and the only people he regularly interacts with are Molly, Dr. Bell, and Trudy (in the form of ghostly visions). Monk’s social isolation is sharp and palpable.

The pandemic dealt his mental health another crippling blow, causing a resurgence of his agoraphobia as well as cranking up his OCD to unbearable levels. Although Monk lived to see the other side, he never truly recovered from the trauma of being that afraid for so long.

There’s been much talk about how we all came out of the pandemic psychologically worse for wear. Whether or not you got the virus, whether or not you personally knew someone who passed away, we all have scars. No one came out of those years unscathed.

But there hasn’t been as much discussion about how it affected the people who were already struggling with demons like depression, germaphobia, isolation, etc. before Covid, how much worse it was for them. By now, most of the world has moved on, but there is this forgotten group of people who physically survived, but never fully came back. In some ways, I am one of them.

I appreciated that the movie talked about this, and using Mr. Monk as an example was the perfect way to explore the issue – a beloved character who is already well-known for his mental health battles, so we’d easily be able to understand just how hard everything hit him.

Monk’s suicidal intent is the dark current running beneath the rest of the plot, which features many of the character returns and emotional moments fans will be expecting.

The regular gang reunites for this adventure, including Stottlemeyer, Natalie, Randy, and Dr. Bell, all portrayed by their original actors. Trudy’s spirit plays an important role here, just as she did in the series, and Sharona appears in a flashback, so she is included as well.

The only recast is Molly, originally played by Alona Tal (aka Jo on Supernatural). Not sure why they cast a different actress for the film – possibly they wanted someone with a more easy, free-spirited vibe? – but it shouldn’t bother people too much as Molly’s only appearance on the original series was for probably about 60 seconds in the last episode, and the new actress, Caitlin McGee, does a great job.

The movie hits all the right beats for a typical Monk story:

  • Randy presents an outlandish “theory” about the case, complete with an equally ridiculous visual aid.
  • The Randy Disher Project gets a hilarious shout-out.
  • Adrian plays his clarinet (incorrectly identified in the closed captioning as an oboe).
  • Stottlemeyer grumpily disagrees with Monk about the prime suspect.
  • Monk gets to say his classic, “He’s the guy.”
  • Natalie and Monk team up to investigate, resulting in numerous car crashes and lots of hysterical screaming (Monk being the screamer, of course).
  • The bad guy looks like he’s going to get away with it.
  • Monk gets that smile on his face when he finally solves the case, closely followed by, “Here’s what happened…”

Another highlight was the introduction of the new, cooler-than-cool police captain, Lisa Rudner, who obviously knows a valuable asset when she sees one. She makes it very clear she wants Monk to return as a consultant. Although Rudner isn’t in this first movie that much (yes, despite the movie’s “last case” title, I would be surprised if they didn’t make another one), her brief scenes show that she cares more about getting justice for victims than about politics or appearances – a sharp contrast to Captain Stottlemeyer in his early days, when he hated having Monk called in on a case because it might make the captain and his officers look incompetent.

Overall, the mystery is not the most complex or well-written one in the history of the series, and there are a few plot holes I won’t get into here to avoid being spoilery, but emotion is the true engine of this story, and the movie has that in spades. From the devastatingly personal nature of the case to Monk’s private battle with depression, there is more than enough substance here to elevate the storyline to the status of a movie as opposed to just a super-sized episode.

Despite the many wonderful comedic moments, the sadness is what stayed with me most, so much so that when I walked in on my mom watching an old Monk episode the other day, my heart twisted at the knowledge of what is to come for this character, what he will have to endure before finally coming back into the light again.

And, yes, Mr. Monk does survive the movie. But not because one of his friends runs up at the last moment to knock the pills out of his hand. Despite Monk’s cryptic comments throughout the movie, and the concerned looks he gets from Natalie, Molly, and even Stottlemeyer, no one seems to know exactly how close he is to ending it all, and that’s scary.

Monk’s psychiatrist has a better idea of what’s going on than anyone else, and there’s an extremely touching scene that brings them both to tears (me too). But no matter how many people tell Monk he is loved and needed, it just doesn’t seem to sink in.

And as desperately as I wanted someone to get through to him, to shake him and yell at him and tie him down until he finally listened, in the end the decision to live comes from within Monk himself. I think it has to. The way it happens is sweet and special and I won’t spoil it, but it is worth seeing – just like the movie itself.

Honestly, I don’t know if it will hit most people as hard as it did me. It’s all about what you’ve been through, and what you’re going through right now. I’ve known three people who’ve taken their own lives, so this movie dredged up a lot of that old pain. For viewers without that personal history, it might just be like a regular Monk episode. For others, it might be too hard to even watch. Graphic images of Monk hoarding and counting out prescription sleeping pills, opening a high-rise window as if to jump out, writing goodbye letters to all of his loved ones – these could be triggers for people who are already on the brink.

In the end, I think it was an important movie exploring the after-effects of the pandemic on those who were already in crisis. It made me want to listen to “Hate Me” by Blue October. It made me want to check up on the people in my life. It made me want to check up on myself.

If you’re reading this, and you’re feeling some dark thoughts, I hope this movie inspires you to reach out for help. Or reach inward, as Monk does, and see the value you bring to this big, scary, wonderful world and the people in it. A value only you can bring.

We’re never as alone as we think we are, and neither is Mr. Monk. (Keep watching past the credits, and you’ll see what I mean.)

Stay safe, take care of each other, and have a Happy New Year.

~G

Movie Review: Kick-Ass

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Okay, so when this movie came out in 2010, I was dying to see it, but I was also terrified because of its apparent similarity to my then-unpublished novel, Even Heroes. If memory serves, I would have been finished with the actual writing of the first draft in 2010, and possibly done typing it out (yes, I wrote my first draft by hand!), but it was still a 300K-word hot mess that was nowhere near ready for publication. Then along comes this movie about a regular kid who decides to go out and become a superhero in the real world – EXACTLY what my novel was about. So yeah, as a newbie writer, I freaked.

In the years since then, I’ve realized that having other stories out in the world that are similar to mine isn’t a bad thing – especially if people seem to like them. In fact, it’s good to know that there is an audience for your work, that it fits into some specific category (although, admittedly, real-world superhero tales don’t seem to be a very large category…yet). I’ve also come to realize that I didn’t have to be worried about being accused of copying Kick-Ass, or vice versa. Even if the plots bear a close resemblance, every author, every creator, has their own unique take on the subject matter that will set their work apart.

So, fast-forwarding to 2022, when one book blogger mentioned Kick-Ass in a review of my novel, I was delighted that someone made the connection. I also realized it was high time for me to watch the movie. Here’s what I thought:

At the beginning, I LOVED it. Dave Lizewski is a likeable teen who decides – despite having no powers, no training, and no special skills – to don a spandex costume and attempt to help people as a superhero named Kick-Ass. When he tries to intervene against some local thugs, things take a startlingly violent turn when Kick-Ass gets brutally stabbed and then hit by a car. A very realistic outcome, I thought, for someone with no training and no real plan. In the hospital, he awakens to find he’s had metal rods put in his body to stabilize broken bones (like the Wolverine!) and has sustained nerve damage which makes it difficult for him to feel pain (a superpower!).

Despite his disastrous initial attempt, Dave gets another costume (the paramedics kindly got rid of his first one before anyone saw it) and goes right back out for more superhero-ing. I love him for this. He has a kind heart and genuinely wants to help. He even goes so far as attempting to retrieve a lost cat named “Mr. Bitey.” That reminded me so much of a cut scene from my book that I had a huge grin on my face. What superhero story is complete without trying to save a cat from a tree (or in this case, a billboard platform)?

Kick-Ass eventually has his breakout moment, becoming an internet sensation when someone films him standing up against three criminals who are viciously beating a man on the street. It’s a great moment in the film, because the only thing keeping Dave standing is his heart (and his nerve damage, which allows him to withstand some of the worst blows).

At this point, I was full-on in love with the movie. Yes, it was bloody and gory, and the language was over-the-top foul, but it was every bit the realistic superhero story I’d hoped for.

Things went downhill for me when Kick-Ass heads to the apartment of some dangerous drug-dealer dude who’s been bothering Katie, a girl at school that Dave has a crush on. Kick-Ass is soon WAY over his head once again, facing down a group of armed gunmen ready and willing to kill him. Enter another costumed vigilante – an 11-year-old girl in a purple wig who, after saving Kick-Ass’s life, goes on to horrifically murder every single person in the apartment, including people who are fleeing and/or unarmed and begging for their lives.

In the wake of the senseless violence, the movie lost so much of its heart – as well as its believability. The purple-wigged Hit Girl and her father, a Batman-ish vigilante called Big Daddy, introduce themselves to Kick-Ass as the “real deal” compared to his wannabe superhero efforts (in my opinion, it’s Dave who’s the real deal – a person with his heart in the right place who’s trying his best). Hit Girl and Big Daddy have a completely carefree attitude about violence and killing, and happily stab, shoot, burn, and crush (yes, there’s a trash-compactor murder in there) their way through the criminal organization that Big Daddy blames for the death of his wife.

Seeing a father raising a young girl to be nothing but a revenge-obsessed killing machine was hard to watch. I also felt that Hit Girl’s skills were way too advanced for the amount of time she’d been trained by her father (she’s only 11, and he’d been in jail for at least part of her life). There is an action scene near the end of the movie that’s absolutely epic to watch – Hit Girl fighting her way through a hallway full of hardened killers – but there’s just no way a child that small with that little training could fight like that. I will say that the actress does a great job. I’m not a fan of little girls cussing every other word and slaughtering people with abandon, but there are moments when she is cornered and scared and grieving that she portrays very well.

Other storylines include Dave pretending to be gay to get close to Katie, and a kid named Chris who becomes a fake superhero to get close to Kick-Ass (Chris is really gathering intel for his father, the head of the drug operation Hit Girl and Big Daddy are targeting). There is a lot of potential in these elements, but too much of it is glossed over and underdeveloped. Not enough time is spent on Kick-Ass’s relationship with Chris’s alter-ego, Red Mist – a true friendship between the two could’ve made their battle at the end much more emotional. Likewise, I thought Katie was way too quick to forgive Dave for lying about being gay (and also for breaking into her room to reveal himself as Kick-Ass). The movie tried to cover too much ground, and many of the elements did not get the attention they deserved to make them full-fledged story arcs.

Despite the gruesome, over-the-top action finale, the movie does finally find its heart again through the bond between Kick-Ass and Hit Girl, who end up working together, and eventually trust each other enough to take off their masks and reveal their true identities.

In the end, I loved the concept for the movie, and some of the characters and relationships, but I wanted it to remain what it was in the beginning – a realistic story about a kid trying to be a superhero in the real world – rather than devolving into a tale of horrific child abuse and gratuitous violence. In order to get the regular-teen-becomes-a-hero flick I’m truly longing for, I may just have to take a page out of Kick-Ass producer Matthew Vaughn’s book and make the movie myself. Realistically, would I ever be able to raise the budget for a film adaptation of Even Heroes at a dinner party? Probably not. But would the movie be epic if it ever got made? Totally.