Door to Darkness

I’ve heard people saying everything from “no real comic fan could like this!” to “the only people defending this movie are fuckboy Zack Snyder fans!” I’m so mad, oh my god.

I’m a lifelong comic fan. I’m a girl and a feminist and very much not white. I am perfectly capable of critiquing movies. I love this movie so much. There were like two things I didn’t like about it when I walked out of the theatre, but after thinking about them more, that’s changed. A lot. I fucking adore this movie and I don’t give a shit who knows it. This is without question my favourite live action comic movie ever made.

We got great female characters. We got a brilliant Lois Lane. We got a Diana Prince that’s an exhausted, but still compassionate warrior. We got a Martha Kent that loves her son more than anything, and is completely okay with reminding him that he is not obligated to do anything, and he has as much right as anyone to choose his own path. We got a Martha Wayne that despite having no lines was important and loved and after all these versions of that scene, one that was finally at the centre of her death. We got a June Finch that was a Senator and in a position of power, that distrusted Superman but still recognized that he had done a lot of good, someone wary of and opposed to the protagonist that  still portrayed as a good person and not a villain that would side with Lex Luthor.

We got a Clark battling his doubts and his fears that managed to overcome all of that to do what was right. He’s so unbelievably human - yes, he has powers and abilities that people understandably fear, but he’s also just the guy that grew up on a Kansas farm that loves his mom and his girlfriend and playing with dogs.

We got the retelling of Bruce’s parents’ deaths in a way that actually mattered and contributed something to the story. We got a version of Bruce that I can look at and adore, because it’s one that grasps all the best and most interesting parts of the character - his love for his family, his trauma, his desire to protect children and civilians, his stubbornness, his fundamental decency coupled with his penchant for making terrible decisions.

This movie was so unapologetic about what it was. People claim that DC makes movies without embracing their genre, and I call bullshit. This movie was like a love letter to fans and to comics and to superheroes. It embraced the spirit of source material and everything that it as a movie is, while at the same time refusing to be limited to a narrow definition of what it means to be a comic movie and by the characterization from seventy years ago.

This was a movie by a director that loves comics, that loves both Superman and Batman, that actually gives a damn about their complexities and telling a good story for people that care enough to listen. It’s a beautiful movie that I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving. People are free to dislike it, but people that say it’s a bad movie can come fight me.

Something that really irritates me is that people are suddenly now embracing Brandon Routh’s depiction of Superman in an effort to put down Cavill’s, despite the years of abuse directed at him. Routh could have been a fantastic Clark, I agree - I’ve been saying that for years. He just got a terrible script. But saying it now, after so much time berating Routh, just goes to show that Superman movies will never win. It’s not Snyder that doesn’t understand or love Superman, it’s the people that criticize every version of him.

Routh and Cavill’s versions of the character are fundamentaly the same person. The only difference is in how they’re perceived and how that impacts them. Cavill’s Superman isn’t dark - he’s still the pure, idealistic hero that tries his very best. He just belongs to a much more serious movie, and that’s okay.

Another Kingdom Hearts Week

Day 4: Favorite Piece of Music

THESE KI D S

a remake of this post, my trash celebration-for-finally-finishing-days post.