I've made no secret of my utter loathing of the "Snyderverse" series of films based on DC Comics characters. It was a dark, bored, joyless slog. Man of Steel was a horrifically bad take on Superman, which was a bitter pill to swallow given how much I loved Henry Cavill for the role. Then we moved on to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice which somehow ended up being even worse. There was a brief reprieve with the exceptional Wonder Woman flick, but then we got Justice League which is one of my most hated movies of all time.
And that was that. Other than a cameo in the atrocious Black Adam and a kinda-cameo in the even more atrocious Shazam!, Superman was done.
Until now.
As I said yesterday, I liked the movie quite a lot. I watched it again yesterday so I could write up a running commentary while my first reactions were fresh in my head.
If you're on the fence about watching the film, here's a look at one of the best comic book fight scenes you'll see on the silver screen...
Needless to say, I'll be spoiling the movie completely...
And now we wait for June 26, 2026.
Still recovering from a trip to the coast and back yesterday, but that's no excuse... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Super, Man! I loved pretty much every frame of Superman. Thank you, James Gunn for giving us a fantastic spectacle of a comic book movie that has me excited for new DC films. The one thing I don't get is how he could get everything so right with all the characters and the story... but saddle us with one of the most insanely weird takes on Jimmy Olson I've ever seen. I guess no movie is perfect... but damn. So close. And is it wrong that the reason I'm most looking forward to the Supergirl film is to see more Krypto?
And, oh yeah, I will be *very* upset if we don't get a Mr. Terrific series on HBO or HBO Max or whatever. NOT "The Terrifics"... I'm so done with "Team Arrow" and "Team Flash" and "Team Supergirl" and "Team Whatever" series... just Mr. Terrific. Maybe with an occasional guest star. But anyway... I'll put up a post with my full comments when I've had a chance to watch it again.
• Have it Our Way! Remember when Burger King actually let you "have it your way" instead of just saying you can "have it your way" but not really? BECAUSE MY WAY IS WITH EXTRA MAYO... AND YOUR NEW APP DOESN'T ALLOW THAT. You either get "regular" or nothing...
And notice how you can't see the ingredient you're altering. I can only guess that some bean-counting dumbass at corporate thinks that not allowing somebody to put an extra 2¢ worth of mayo on their fucking $8.19 Impossible Whopper is a good financial move. Well, it's making me not want to eat at your restaurant any more, so congratulations. I wonder if this dipshit is the same one in charge at Chipotle who thought raising prices and lowering portions at the same time would make their customers happy? What's so fucking stupid here is that I just asked for two packets of free mayo so I could add it to my burger myself, which most certainly costs more than just adding it from the giant mayo bucket. And speaking of this new app... did anybody at BK beta test it? I am assuming this third option is Coke Zero because the one before it is Diet Coke and there's 0 calories in it... but who the fuck knows?
There's absolutely no way to confirm it. And so I had to order for pick-up instead of drive-thru because I knew they'd hand me a cup and I could fill it with the correct Coke myself. Good Lord. Pathetic. This is the whole Sonos app disaster all over. Do these fucking companies ever learn?
• Via Variety: PETA Urges Nintendo to Remove ‘Mario Kart World’ Cow’s Nose Ring: ‘It’s-a Mean!’ To think there was a time I actually supported the dumbasses at PETA. What a fucking joke.With each new idiotic act, they make me want to go out and buy a steak...
And since I'm a vegetarian, that tells you about all you need to know.
• Pop Quiz, Hotshot! Take a guess...
And now I want Taco Bell. Which is about the only fast food restaurant left to me after this stupid Burger King fiasco.
• Via People: Plus Size Park Hoppers' Say Brutal Backlash Over Their Experiences at Disney Theme Parks Won't Stop Them. What is it with people? Just leave them alone. One of the more difficult things I witnessed at a Disney Parks was a couple who stood in line for over an hour to ride the Seven Dwarves Mine Car Ride. But when they got to the front of the line, the woman couldn't fit in the car. She asked if they could ride-swap so she could ride in a row by herself then her boyfriend could ride the next time, but they wouldn't let her because of the way the seats are built. — First of all, you'd think that Disney would have one row in just one car that is built for a larger person. And second of all, if the woman could have only visited a website which would have told her if she could fit, then she wouldn't have wasted an hour of her life for nothing and have to leave embarrassed and upset. — You'd think that assholes who make fun of these ladies or insult them would instead support them sharing this information, because you just know that they're in line complaining because they have to wait for larger people who are trying to see if they fit into the ride car.
• More Lies! As if we needed yet another video to point out how full of crap Ben Shapiro is. But here you go...
What a lying little shit stain. I have to wonder if he has ever been anything except disingenuous with his audience. This take-down is beautifully done. Elegantly pointing out that all Shapiro does... all he ever does... is lie.
• Via PBS: South Carolina lawmaker in jail on child sex abuse material charges resigns from office. Damn. These drag quee— WHAT? Yet ANOTHER anti-LGBTQ Republican asshole caught assaulting children? You know what... I'm beginning to think that drag queens aren't quite the threat that anti-LGBTQ Republicans say they are! They're just a convenient scapegoat!
And there you have it. I'm all out of bullets this fine Sunday.
I know that there's probably (maybe) at least one person out there who's devastated that I promised a deeper look into the new Apple OS 26s that got released, but I'm still not... there... yet. I keep running into weirdness that I need to look into further so I know if it's not user error... or it's not a bug from a developer release that's not Apple's intent.
Something which sounds easier than it usually is for whatever reason.
So, hopefully tomorrow I'll be back on track. In the meanwhile? The latest Superman trailer is here. And probably the last pre-release trailer we're getting...
And now for my live-watch reaction...
And, as if this new trailer wasn't enough, more Spaceballs too?!?
Reports are saying that not only is Bill Pullman back as Lone Star and Mel Brooks is back as Yogurt, but Rick Moranis is back as Dark Helmet?!?? How sweet is that? The guy obviously realizes how much people love him in that role, and it convinced him to come out of retirement for another run...
Sadly, we know that Barf (John Candy) and Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers) can't make a return... but it's nice that they seem to be doing what they can to get as many actors back as possible.
And then... Bill Pullman's son, Lewis Pullman, is also on board to boot, which is very cool.
I was beginning to think this would never happen. I'm glad it is, because the original was just too dang entertaining to let the franchise lay dormant.
Trying to think of the last time I was excited to see a DC Comics movie.
I'm just putting it out there... After seeing the extended First look trailer for Superman, I want Krypto everything. Krypto plushies. Krypto toys. Krypto stickers. Krypto apparel. ALL THE KRYPTO MERCH!
James Gunn sure knows how to deliver what people want to see. Krypto acts and feels like a dog. A super dog, but a dog...
Congrats DC and Warner Bros. for convincing me that I need to go to a theater to see this amazing-looking film.
Something I won't see in a theater but do want to see is the reboot for The Naked Gun...
There is no replacing Leslie Nielsen. I'm glad they didn't try, but instead had Liam Neeson play his son. And it looks like he is 100% fearless in the role, which is what has to happen. The trailer looks hilarious, for which I'm grateful. You shouldn't do a reboot/revival unless you can do it as well or better.
Today is my mom's birthday. Between this and Mother's Day, it's the worst two days of the year for me. Thankfully, my cats were being entitled little shits this morning, so I was well-distracted from thinking about what crap it is that mom would have turned 80 years old today had she not passed six years ago.
Something else that helped distract me from reality? The teaser trailer for Superman dropped today!
I just want the comic books.
I don't want some crappy dark "interpretation" of Superman. I just want comic book Superman on the big screen. There's so much amazing material to draw from. Take the best bits from all of the iterations. Give us All-Star Superman in an amazing story with plenty of action and some heart.
That's it. That's all I need.
All the comic-bookey stuff that makes the character so great is what the movie should be about. Like the first two Richard Donner Superman films managed to do.
But at this point with the mess that the "Snyderverse" became, I don't even care about the story so much as being able to geek out over having a movie that honors the source material and has cool stuff from the comics. But since it's James Gunn, I know we're getting both cool comic book stuff and a good story. I mean, he took frickin' Guardians of the Galaxy and made it compelling to all audiences! I have confidence he'll do the same with Superman.
I mean... just LOOK at what we're getting! Guy Gardner (complete with his horrible haircut)! Mr. Terrific! Hawkgirl! AND KRYPTO!?! ZOMG! That's just beyond my expectations...
Copyright ©2024 DC Comics / Warner Bros.
Copyright ©2024 DC Comics / Warner Bros.
Copyright ©2024 DC Comics / Warner Bros.
It's frickin' Krypto! He's got the cape and everything? Isn't that just the absolute best?
And is that Metamorpho in there too? Plus amazing action and a Lex Luthor that actually looks menacing? THIS IS ALL I EVER WANTED! No joke... the first three times I watched the trailer it was pretty hard to hold it together.
This is looking like the best Superman movie since Superman II from 1981. NINETEEN EIGHTY-ONE! Everything that followed was pretty much crap... including Bryan Singer's Superman Returns (with the exception of that ONE SCENE with Martha Kent waiting outside the hospital to find out if her son is dead in a crowd of people like she's nobody)... and most definitely the Zack Snyder crap which was gut-wrenchingly awful (and that really hurt because Henry Cavill was an amazing choice).
Bring on the Justice League! The REAL Justice League!
Okay... okay...
James Gunn is out here teasing us with this epic shot promoting the upcoming Superman movie. It's just so... brilliant. Just another mundane day for Superman having to go save the world! I haven't been this excited about a DC movie in over a decade...
Seriously. The last DC movies that were worth a shit was Wonder Woman in 2017 and The Suicide Squad in 2021. I wasn't looking forward to Wonder Woman because I thought it was an extension of the shitty, dark, joyless shit that Zack Snyder had been crapping out of his ass. It took me completely by surprise when it actually ended up being a decent flick.
Here's hoping.
I may be really, really tied of Winter right now, but I'm happy to hold out for Spring... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Boys! I'm just going to start this out with the best thing I've seen all week... and it's why I love TikTok reason #2371 — John Stamos showing Beach Boy Mike Love a young band playing a beautiful rendition of Wouldn’t It Be Nice, a song he co-wrote...
@johnstamos @sittingonstacy I was showing Mike Love Tik Tok and you popped up. He loved you guys! Can’t ##hear us but he was really digging it. Congrats! Stamos
♬ original sound - johnstamos
How unbelievably awesome is this?
• Plus! In advance of "CBS All Access" transforming to " Paramount+" there's an awesome deal where you can get a year of commercial-free streaming for half-price (just select an annual plan and use PARAMOUNTPLUS in the coupon code box at check-out). 90% of network shows I watch are on CBS and I love avoiding commercials, so this was an offer I can't refuse. LOVING IT. I love, love, love Queen Latifah at The Equalizer, and revisiting Young Sheldon has been fun. Of course there's also Magnum P.I., one of the best shows on television. Some older shows are not streaming properly yet (I'm guessing that will be fixed after the transition come March 4th) but new shows are working fine. I wanted to try out Clarice but Siri keeps typing "Clarisse" so I had to hand-type it into AppleTV manually... WHY, LORD? WHY DOES LIFE HAVE TO BE THIS HARD? — On the other hand, I am liking Clarice very much. How does CBS do it? Other networks just don't have the track record for great television like this! If you love TV, then check out this amazing 50% off deal before it disappears on March 3rd!
• YAS QWEEN! I get irrationally invested in the lives of people on TikTok. This guy hasn’t updated in two days and I’m probably going to lose sleep wondering if he got the job...
@thatrylanguy ♬ original sound - thatrylanguy
He has exactly two videos posted. This one was enough to get me totally invested. I guess that's what happens when the pandemic hasn't left you with much of a life of your own to live? Best of luck to you, sir, in finding a new job.
• Super New! Ta-Nehisi Coates writing a Superman movie? YES PLEASE! I mean, how many damn times are we going to have to sit through the same old Superman movie? Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh, and Henry Cavill all did great jobs, but I'm ready for something truly different. Like maybe Calvin Ellis Superman?!?
Though I wouldn't be mad if Henry Cavill was given another go. He's actually a great Superman, and it's not his fault that he's had to work from shitty, SHITTY scripts. In any event, I am definitely excited at what might come of this.
• EcoBullshit! This video is absolutely fascinating. A lot to unpack when it comes to the "green" direction that the smartphone market is heading... fortunately Arun Maini has done the work for you, and it's well worth a watch...
The hypocrisy of it all is mind-boggling... but oh so expected.
• Retail Therapy! Well darn. Fry's Electronics had some of the coolest retail stores outside of Disney, and they just shuttered all their stores. They were destination-worthy places, and I traveled to several in California when they were at the height of their popularity. From the NASA-themed store in Anaheim and Egypt-themed store in Campbell... to Alice in Wonderland-themed in Woodland Hills and Old-Timey Sci-Fi-themed in Burbank, Fry's sure made shopping fun! Brick-and-mortar shops were having a tough time staying afloat before the pandemic... I have a feeling that because of COVID this is the fate for many of them.
• Without Telling Me... I don't know why I find this so incredibly sweet... but I really do...
@garrettbazany My girlfriend thinks she’s funny ##foryoupage ##fyp ##wheelchair ##tellmeyourboyfriendwontcheatonyou ##prank ##couple
♬ original sound - Garrett Bazany
And for anybody thinking that she's being an asshole... it's a joke. And he was obviously in on it...
And that's a wrap on bullets, Sparky... bring on Springtime weather.
I've never been a "Superman guy."
Not that I didn't like the character... on the contrary, I own hundreds and hundreds of Superman comic books. My problem is that Superman, as a character, never made much sense to me. And I never really knew why. I always assumed that it was because I was more of a "Batman guy," having put more stock into the idea that a rich guy wanting to fight crime to avenge his parents made more sense than an alien with god-like powers wanting to be a newspaper reporter.
Then I saw Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill...
And there it was...
"Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race."
It wasn't that Superman wanted to be a newspaper reporter... it was that Superman wanted to be human at all. The excuse has always been that he slums with humans as a way to not lose touch with the humanity he found while being raised by the Kents. That's all well and good... but it still doesn't make much sense. He's an adult man. If he's still worried about losing his humanity by now, he might as well give up. "Fake it until you make it" may be a valid course of action for a job... but for being human?
And considering he can toss planets around with his bare hands, how human could he ever really be? I don't get it.
But apparently a lot of people do, because Superman is in a comic book that just hit 1000 issues...
The best Superman stories are always those which come up with a way of finding something new while maintaining the continuity which came before. The best of the best being Alan Moore's For the Man Who Has Everything and Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? and Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman. There have been others I've enjoyed, but they usually involve some kind of smart take on why Superman is the way he is... not stories that come up with somebody bigger and stronger to pound on Superman for a few issues.
And don't get me started on the current cinematic take on Superman with Man of Steel, Batman vs. Superman, and Justice League, which just plain suck because they are exactly what make a bad Superman story.
But anyway... back to Action Comics #1000...
I haven't been following the character since George Pérez jumped ship after the New 52 reboot years ago. I am aware that there was yet another reboot called "Rebirth" last year, but I haven't read any of it. So you can imagine my surprise when I find that Superman is married to Lois Lane and has a son named Jon that is Superboy. Not that this really affects what's happening in Action Comics #1000, but it's still something that permeates the issue.
The bulk of the issue is a love-letter to Superman by a chunk of very talented writers and artists and it's mostly wonderful. Many of the things you would hope to find in a landmark issue like this are there. And then there's the money-story... Brian Michael Bendis starting his run on the character with artwork by Jim Lee!
And what we get is... meh.
Because here we go again, somebody bigger and stronger to pound on Superman for a few issues. There's a twist, of course, but its one that's of little consequence in the grand scheme of things. In general, I like the stuff that Bendis does, but I'll not be tuning in for this. I'm just not a big enough Superman fan to get involved... especially when DC is probably going to reboot the Rebirth reboot to the New 52 reboot to the Flashpoint reboot to the Infinite Crisis reboot to the Zero Hour reboot to the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot.
Maybe I'll have a change of heart in the reboot after that. You never know.
I am so far beyond giving a shit about Zack Snyder's shitty DC Comics super-hero movies that I honestly don't know if I'll even bother seeing Justice League in theaters.
I mean, just look at this bullshit trailer...
Some observations...
It's said that Joss Whedon is doing extensive reshoots for Justice League after Zack Snyder had to remove himself from the film to deal with a family emergency. I don't think punching up the dialogue (Whedon's specialty) is going to help. It's just pouring more money down a hole. What's really sad here... almost to the point of tragedy... is how much better the DC television division is at making good super-hero live action. They should have turned the Justice League movie over to them and built on the terrific, faithful, and far-superior versions of The Flash and Superman they already have on TV.
But instead we got this crapfest.
Maybe one day we'll finally get a DC Cinematic Universe that doesn't suck copious amounts of ass... but, sadly, that day is not today.
Or even tomorrow, apparently.
As a massively huge Batman fan, nobody wants Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice to be a great film more than I do.
Problem is, it's a continuation of the crap-fest that was Zach Snyder's Man of Steel... a movie I hate so much that just typing Man of Steel is enough for me to to start going into an apoplectic fit of rage. Snyder took a gigantic dump all over Superman, and DC Comics didn't seem to care... despite the fact that it took in "only" $668 million (against a budget of $225 million). That may seem like a lot, but it pales in comparison to Nolan's The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises (each earning in excess of 1 billion). And don't even start on The Avengers (1.5 billion). But whatever, it was a bad Superman movie because it wasn't Superman on the screen.
And now Zach Snyder is back at it with the afore-mentioned Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Which looks like utter shit...
Wait... was that... The Comedian?!?
From the trailer it looks like Snyder tried to make a present-day version of Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, but had no concept as to what made that book so great... Frank Miller stayed respectful to the source material.
Oh well. Luckily for everybody, Marvel continues to knock their super-hero films out of the park. Next up? Ant-Man! Which looks amazing, by the way...
What I wouldn't give to have Marvel take over DC's film franchises.