Gritty is fine as a theme. The problem was that they made him constantly angry. You can have the grit and realism while still keeping the hope and optimism in place.
Thank you for saying this. I sometimes see people like the one you replied to as not really getting what gritty is and can be but just not liking Snyder's take. Hating on "gritty" just because of that, which is weird to me because plenty of what I think are great Superman stories have this mixed with what you said.
I don’t mean this in a patronizing way, but Superman works best when he’s for the children. He’s basically a god, and while flawed gods can be interesting, I just don’t think it works for Superman. So give me a Superman for kids, a Boy Scout in a world that’s a little goofy and a little weird, and I’ll be happy. This looks like it checks those boxes.
You know what this reminds me of? The Sam Raimi Spiderman. It came out in 2001, when we were devastated by 9/11 and fearful of what would happen next. We had no trust in our leader and we were dragged into a war (sorry, "political action"). Then Spider-Man swooped in, showed us how resilient New Yorkers and people in general can be, and it gave us a fun superhero at just the right time. It gave us hope. Now, in this time, this movie feels like that.
We had no trust in our leader and we were dragged into a war (sorry, "political action").
I assume you weren't alive or were a child at the time? This is reviosionist history. At the time of release (May of 2002), George W Bush's approval rating was around 75% source nationwide. The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolition wouldn't even be passed until 5 months after the Spider-man release, and was passed 293-133 in the Senate.
Helping because they can and they think that means they should 🥹 Gods among men who spend their days saving kittens out of trees and retrieving wayward balloons
A lot of people try to subvert Superman without realizing that Superman himself is a subversion. We all know what men with power are usually like, so let’s imagine what a man with power should be like.
I heard someone describe it as this: Superman isn't a power fantasy. It's not about seeing all the things he can do and pretending you could too. It's an altruism fantasy. It's seeing all the things he can do, and pretending he'd do what's right no matter the situation.
And if your Superman isn't about helping everyone then it's not being done right.
And I think the only way that works is if it's goofy too. Because if he's dark and gritty and tortured then the whole thing becomes sad in a way other heroes don't. They can be compromised and use it for fuel. Superman doesn't get to do that, or he goes crazy and kills all the villains and takes over the world. So make him goofy, happy and hopeful.
“When a child first catches adults out -- when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not always have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just -- his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child's world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing.”
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden
I mean, heck, overly gritty isn't even what BATMAN is supposed to be 100% of the time. Even as hardcore as he is, he's supposed to be an incredibly caring and empathetic person, which is something the animated series often went to great lengths to portray. Batman writers of late have just gotten this weird hard-on for completely ignoring that, for some reason.
I mean, there's a real balance that's possible. If we see the biggest superhero in the world with the best effects on the biggest screen doing campy things while still trying to have blockbuster realistic effects it will seem a bit corny.
Personally I prefer a grounded but still epic Superman. There's many takes on Superman that all serve their own stories, and this is one of them - but as long as his core principles remain the same as the original then all variations are Superman.
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u/The_Lone_Apple 2d ago
Finally, someone who understands that Superman is not gritty.