Multiplex Madness
Abraham's Boys
⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Drama, Horror
Director: Natasha Kermani
Starring: Titus Welliver, Brady Hepner, Judah Mackey, Jocelin Donahue, Aurora Perrineau
Abraham Van Helsing (yes, that Abraham Van Helsing) moves to the Californian countryside with his wife Mina (yes, that Mina) to raise their children. As the boys grow older, they become more curious about their father's continued work, which stems from, you know, that story. This high-concept sequel story to the famed Bram Stoker novel, Abraham's Boys is less of a horror movie than it is a macabre, psychological drama. The big catch to its take is conveying Van Helsing as an obsessed extremist, wanting the audience to wonder if he really was the hero who overcame Dracula or if he was a madman who created a tale of nosferatu in his head and had just killed a bunch of people (or maybe it actually happened and he continues to kill people because he sees vampires everywhere now). The story is told through the eyes of two innocents who have little context for their father's past, wanting to believe him but finding flaws in his story. It's an interesting take, but it was done much better in 2002 when it was called Frailty and starred Bill Paxton. The movie is slow by design, uncovering the plot as the two boys begin to learn and question more. I found that the movie was increasingly becoming reliant on what it was building toward, and if it didn't stick the landing then it's meandering nature wasn't going to be worth it. And the ending doesn't hit the way you would hope, leaving me appreciating what the movie was going for but wanting it to go much further with it.
Superman
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Superhero, Fantasy, Action, Science Fiction
Director: James Gunn
Starring: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabella Merced, Skylar Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, Wendell Pierce, María Gabriela de Fería, Frank Grillo
Stop me if you've heard this one, DC wants its own cinematic universe, so they start by rebooting Superman from scratch. Actually, if we're going to be frank, this would actually be DC's third attempt at a cinematic universe, but people just choose not to talk about the first one because it was Green Lantern, it was bad, and it bombed. Then was Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, which wasn't more than an effort to "Do a Superman version of Batman Begins" during filming but spawned the DCEU because the first Avengers came out before release and DC needed something. Then the production woes on Justice League happened, and the franchise just never recovered. A couple of good movies came out of it (you can pry Wonder Woman and Shazam! out of my cold dead hands), but the DC brand became synonymous with inconsistency and most people just decided "Eh, I'll watch it on streaming." This is why nobody saw The Flash no matter how much Tom Cruise tried to gaslight them.
Of course, Marvel is fighting the same thing right now. Thunderbolts, which is inarguably the best superhero movie of the year so far, underperformed because most people spent their dollar on Captain America: Brave New World and thought to themselves "Maybe I'm just not into this anymore."
Now, James Gunn is running the show over at DC, deciding the last effort was a mess (and who can blame him?) and just dumps the whole thing and asks for a do-over. Because he's a lovable little scamp, we're going to let him. He's already played with the toys at Marvel and DC, bringing about Guardians of the Galaxy, The Suicide Squad (the good one, not the other one), and Peacemaker, while also having made several superhero parodies in his early days, The Specials and Super. His first priority: Superman. This is the right path, because half of understanding the DC universe is understanding Superman. If you can nail him, the rest will more easily fall into place. At long last, we have the opening entry in James Gunn's newly christened DC Studios, and anybody who loves the genre has been waiting with baited breath for it. The result is a bit of a Rorschach test, as the movie is pretty solid, while reactions are stemming from "Reignites the superhero genre" to "Should effectively kill it." The movie isn't really either of these things, and more of just a goofy romp that some people are going to love more than others. Watching James Gunn's Superman is like listening to a kid with ADHD describe his idea for a Saturday morning cartoon. It moves a hundred miles per hour, parts of it don't make sense, a lot of it is really fun and silly, and it's undeniably imaginative.
The film starts in the aftermath of Superman interfering in a potential invasion of fictional country "Bovaria" (which may or may not have parallels to certain world events of the last few years), where his intervention in world conflict brings both political and public scrutiny. It's an idea that Zack Snyder tried to do in Batman v Superman, but opted to do mini-montages of Superman being treated like a messiah instead of commentary. Meanwhile, Gunn raises the question of what are the ramifications of a being as powerful as Superman taking a side in foreign policy or war (I always did wonder why the Soviets just stepped aside and allowed Superman to take its nuclear arsenal in The Quest for Peace). But I'm not giving Gunn a total free pass on this either, because he chooses not to actually show it, instead starting with Superman being retaliated against. That scene of Superman having had the shit kicked out of him and being dragged home by Krypto? The one that was in all the trailers and feels like it should be the start of the third act? That's the first scene in the movie. I'm not really sold on it being the big reintroduction of this character (especially since Krypto is practically a new character to most audiences), but it certainly was a bold choice. But the incident puts Superman into conflict with Lex Luthor, who puts together his own group of planetary protectors known as "Planet Watch," led by the Engineer and Ultraman (not Tsuburaya's Ultraman, DC's Ultraman, which is also kind of a spoiler if you know who DC's Ultraman is, but don't make me go down this rabbit hole) and have deemed Superman a threat. Meanwhile, Superman also has professional tension with a fellow group of defenders called "The Justice Gang," featuring Green Lantern (Guy Gardner version), Mister Terrific, and Hawkgirl, while also navigating a complicated romantic relationship with Lois Lane after they have their first fight.
As you can see, the movie's story is a bit all over the map, and this isn't even all of it. I think what Gunn is going for is that we've been interjected into the daily life of Superman going about his business and we're just watching it as it plays out. There are pros and cons to this. A lot of the positives lie in that it really allows this world and these characters to feel lived in. The problem that hits the most is that it seems like there is something massive trying to crush Metropolis every few days, so when the third act hits and the city is being torn apart, the sense of urgency just doesn't land because this shit has happened at least three times during the duration of this movie. It's great spectacle, but it's just not very exciting. But the idea is actually really funny, that situations where the city is under attack are so normalized and Superman usually takes care of it, so people just go about their business. If this were Power Rangers, I'd call it "Angel Grove Syndrome."
The unconventional narrative also hinders the movie's pacing. There's a lot happening in the movie, but it rushes the viewer in choice moments, making it feel like Homer Simpson running a marathon. It'll run, walk, sit down, try to run again, take a nap, and, eventually, go home. I think it works for this particular movie, because the plot is just "Superman does Superman things" and the movie is never not entertaining, but people wanting a story might leave disappointed. This movie isn't really a story, it's a character-piece and a mood-setter, a giant simulation room for what it would be like to live in Metropolis and, oh look, there's a flying man over there. The movie's ambitions are a complicated delivery of simple. That's almost admirable.
But I'm always happy to see a good Superman movie. This one's not my favorite, not by a long shot (I still go to bat for the first two Christopher Reeve films), but this one did things differently and I'll give it respect for that. Without Superman, DC comics likely wouldn't exist today and he deserves all the flowers. Marvel is giving their own makeover to the characters they owe their own existence to, the Fantastic Four, in a few weeks. I might be a little more invested in that, because the Fantastic Four need a win far more desperately than Superman does (did you even see their last movie?), but Gunn does succeed in giving DC fans hope for the future. That's something we haven't felt since our hearts sank while watching the theatrical cut of Justice League.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
28 Years Later... ⭐️⭐️
Elio ⭐️⭐️1/2
F1 ⭐️⭐️
Jurassic World: Rebirth ⭐️1/2
Lilo & Stitch ⭐️⭐️
M3GAN 2.0 ⭐️⭐️
Materialists ⭐️⭐️⭐️
New To Digital
Karate Kid: Legends ⭐️⭐️
New To Physical
The Amateur ⭐️⭐️1/2
Hell of a Summer ⭐️⭐️1/2
The Legend of Ochi ⭐️⭐️
Shadow Force ⭐️1/2
Sinners ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Until Dawn ⭐️1/2
Coming Soon!
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