Superman: Legacy First Look

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

17 minutes ago, battlewraith said:

They took one of the most oddball Spiderman villains, the Vulture, and made him into an actually relatable villain. One who was not some world ender that needed to be stopped at all costs.

It helps that they cast Keaton for that. Aside from the Bat-references, he's a vastly underestimated actor both for drama and comedy: and was MUCH better for both without the bird suit. Specifically, the scene in the car where he twigs Peter's identity, and the argument with his unfortunate henchman (I thought that was the Gravity Gun?)

 

Oh, and if you've not seen Birdman yet...

[ZacKing]

Official trailer

 

 

I don't have a good feeling about this.

 

[Troo]

54 minutes ago, ZacKing said:

Official trailer

I don't have a good feeling about this.

 

Looks fun.

Also looks like lots of room for missteps but it appears to be taking a big swing at 'don't stream it at home' summer movie.

[Skyhawke]

This will get me back to a theater. That trailer was a banger!

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Krypto is best boy.💖

They’d better not kill him off.

 

If I’m still a bit weirded out, it’s that there’s  a lot of characters - heroes, villains and bit players - and I still can’t see how this meshes into a coherent story.

 

Nonetheless, I’m gonna be there.

[El D]

Supes does Big Damn Hero stuff and actually wants to help people, Lois is an intrepid reporter who takes no guff from anyone, Lex is a conniving mastermind who hates that his spotlight is taken by 'the alien,' and Ma & Pa Kent are supportive parents who provide the moral heart. Core elements all seem to be there in spades. Kicking the trailer off with an interview scene containing actual chemistry and personality already has me more engaged than any of the grimdark nonsense the Snyder films did. The cast might be a bit overstuffed, but I'll take 'busy and hopeful' over 'shallow and nihilistic' any day.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

17 hours ago, El D said:

but I'll take 'busy and hopeful' over 'shallow and nihilistic' any day.

Seconded. It's not like Gunn hasn't delivered great ensemble cast pieces before, it's just you don't want Lois & Clark's emotional core (and Lex's dark, twisted, bitter counterpoint) getting lost in a whirl of new folks to meet.

 

That's one of the things that appeals to me about the OG Donner/Reeve/Kidder/Hackman flick. Compared to a modern comic book flick, there's really not that much going on - so everything and everybody gets room to cook. And even though he's an iconic character, Kal's story gets explored properly. Lois isn't one-dimensional. And then, of course, there's the greatest criminal mastermind of our time tapping Hackman's underused comedy skills.

 

With this one, I consider myself a mild-to-medium-spicy nerd, and I have never heard of Mr. Terrific, The Engineer, or a couple of the other key characters. Guy's also fairly new to me, but he's a Lantern, so we don't need to have that explained (and nothing's explaining that haircut.)

So people with less nerd knowledge than I will need them built out a little and given a reason to be there.

Edited May 15 by ThaOGDreamWeaver

[ZacKing]

19 hours ago, El D said:

but I'll take 'busy and hopeful' over 'shallow and nihilistic' any day.

 

Fair enough.  I didn't care for the dark and brooding Superman in the Snyder films either. 

[PeregrineFalcon]

16 minutes ago, ZacKing said:

Fair enough.  I didn't care for the dark and brooding Superman in the Snyder films either. 

Ya know, I love Christopher Reeve, but Man of Steel is still my favorite Superman movie.

[BrandX]

1 minute ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Ya know, I love Christopher Reeve, but Man of Steel is still my favorite Superman movie.

 

Agreed!  Tho, I still think Superman Returns has some the best Superman saves moments.  Lifting the ship.  Saving the city.  Taking the gatling gun to the eye.  The space shuttle rescue.

 

I wouldn't have gone other directions with the movie, but those scenes were pure awesome 🙂

 

MoS...I was all "Okay, at the end we got a non broody Superman.  He'll be the brightness to Batman's darkness."  Well, didn't get that.  Still, my favorite Superman movie too.

[Oubliette_Red]

Get a room.

 

Regarding the movie, I actually liked the trailer. Granted, I don't recall the last movie I saw in a theatre but it was long before the pandemic sidelined most viewing.

[Techwright]

On 5/14/2025 at 3:12 PM, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Krypto is best boy.💖

They’d better not kill him off.

 

I'm more concerned about the potential of killing off Pa Kent...again.  Granted, I'm not a dedicated comic collector, but I don't think Pa Kent died in the comics, at least until the Christopher Reeves movie.  Then, most every version except perhaps Lois & Clark on TV had him dying.  That was Spider-Man's schtick with Uncle Ben.  I'd rather they find the DC crew carve their own path.  Not every superhero needs a relative killed in order to function as a hero.

 

9 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

 I have never heard of Mr. Terrific, The Engineer, or a couple of the other key characters. Guy's also fairly new to me, but he's a Lantern, so we don't need to have that explained (and nothing's explaining that haircut.)

So people with less nerd knowledge than I will need them built out a little and given a reason to be there.

 Mr. Terrific is a technological and tactical genius.  When I've seen him, he most often utilizes a series of tennis-ball-sized tech spheres that can produce a variety of offensive and defensive effects. They had a version of him in the Arrow TV show, though I suspect that version was goofier than the comic version.  He was also in some of the animation.  I believe Justice League Unlimited was where I first encountered him, where the character became something like second-in-command of the Watchtower, Justice League's space base.

 

It is the Engineer I know nothing about.  What I know of Guy Gardner says that he's the bad-to-the-bone human Green Lantern, the one most likely to hang out at the motorcycle gang bars.  The bowl haircut, well, it's long been iconic with Guy.  It's also been some rib-poking fun between Gunn and Fillion.

[JKCarrier]

4 hours ago, Techwright said:

Granted, I'm not a dedicated comic collector, but I don't think Pa Kent died in the comics, at least until the Christopher Reeves movie. 

From Superman #1, 1939:

The Kents were both dead until the Byrne reboot in 1986.

[TTRPGWhiz]

On 5/2/2025 at 12:53 PM, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

I'm gonna say jury's out on this one until the movie comes out.

 
It’s wild that this isn’t the default take. 

[Techwright]

7 hours ago, JKCarrier said:

From Superman #1, 1939:

The Kents were both dead until the Byrne reboot in 1986.

Thank you for the clarification.

 

[TTRPGWhiz]

20 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I'm concerned that instead of a good Superman movie what we'll end up getting is a boring and ham-fisted lecture about the current administration.

 

…it’s Superman. His story has INTENTIONALLY been an immigrant story since day one. What are we even doing.

[battlewraith]

7 minutes ago, TTRPGWhiz said:

…it’s Superman. His story has INTENTIONALLY been an immigrant story since day one. What are we even doing.

IKR? Especially when the whole Supes-in handcuffs things has been done in other films and animations. 

[TTRPGWhiz]

4 minutes ago, battlewraith said:

IKR? Especially when the whole Supes-in handcuffs things has been done in other films and animations. 

Supes gets arrested and handcuffed and is explicitly called an illegal immigrant in Man of Steel. Which is the stated favorite Superman movie of at least one person who does not want to see this Superman movie be political. Help.

[Ghost]

48 minutes ago, TTRPGWhiz said:

Supes gets arrested and handcuffed and is explicitly called an illegal immigrant in Man of Steel. Which is the stated favorite Superman movie of at least one person who does not want to see this Superman movie be political. Help.

For the record, I don’t believe that’s the political issue they are referring too.

 

[Jacke]

21 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I'm concerned that instead of a good Superman movie what we'll end up getting is a boring and ham-fisted lecture about the current administration.

 

Well, what would Superman--or any other character of good moral character, like Captain America--think of the current regime?

 

A critique can be skillfully worked into a story.  It's actually what most stories have.  Let's hope whatever the story of the film is, it is well scripted and then produced into an excellent film.

[battlewraith]

34 minutes ago, Ghost said:

For the record, I don’t believe that’s the political issue they are referring too.

 

That's the funniest thing about it. As someone who sees the current administration as an Onion parody come to life, I have no idea what the "political" issue is. 

I watched that trailer and just saw a bunch of standard Superman story tropes.

[TTRPGWhiz]

57 minutes ago, Ghost said:

For the record, I don’t believe that’s the political issue they are referring too.

 

It reads like the issue is less about the politics and more about how it’s addressed. If it isn’t ham-fisted, would that be OK? I’m dubious.

[PeregrineFalcon]

11 minutes ago, TTRPGWhiz said:

It reads like the issue is less about the politics and more about how it’s addressed. If it isn’t ham-fisted, would that be OK? I’m dubious.

Yes. The issue is that I want to watch a good Superman movie. Now, if there's also a little bit of a political story in there, as there was in Man of Steel, that's fine. One of the things that I liked about Man of Steel is that the authorities reacted realistically instead of just being non-existent like they have been in most Superman stories.

 

But if the dialog comes off like a blue-haired, patriarchy hater is condescendingly lecturing me about "Orange Man Bad". . .  Well, I don't plan on sitting in the theater for two hours listening to that garbage.

[Ghost]

36 minutes ago, TTRPGWhiz said:

It reads like the issue is less about the politics and more about how it’s addressed. If it isn’t ham-fisted, would that be OK? I’m dubious.

 

Movies can be political without being preachy.  That’s what I want.

 

 

[GM_GooglyMoogly]

 

Our players have strong opinions on superhero movies.  It makes sense considering we're all playing a superhero game. 

 

But sometimes those strong opinions lead to heated personal arguments.  This is a preemptive request to be excellent to each other and also not get into politics before it's too late!  

 

Thanks!