It was an okay movie.
I have not hated the "heroes" so much for a long time. They acted all superior, went in guns blazing to a situation they knew very little about, a country they knew very little about, not seeming to know or care about the plight of the people, coming in as "liberators", constantly saving the bad guys, while ignoring to save the common people, or care about the destruction they caused. All could have been avoided if they came in with a less antagonistic approach - actually talking to the guy first instead of choosing to fight and berate him. Their first course of action was to put him in jail!? Why? For what reason and by what right?
And I was wondering why the heroes were under the command of Amanda Waller, who is clearly a villain, and who chooses villainous courses of action and I kept wondering why the heroes would ever be okay with that kind of leadership. They chose violence over diplomacy, and even after the situation was resolved, Amanda Waller still came in with threats and escalating the situation - bringing in a hammer to fight a hammer, in the form of Superman, with the musical cue of a better Superman: the Christopher Reeve's Superman. Superman is supposed to be anything but the hammer - he's supposed to be the ultimate diplomat, the diffuser of bad situations, always choosing the most noble option. To have him be under the beg and call of the villainous Amanda Waller is heartbreaking and dangerous, since he's the hero who's fighting for *Truth, Justice and the Amarican Way* and it's being perverted by Amanda Waller, because she's been put in charge. So glad he came in, in a diplomatic way - talking instead of with his fists. I like Henry Cavill. I like him as Superman. I absolutely DO NOT like the movies he's been in or the way he's been portrayed in any of the DCEU movies - he deserves a movie where he gets to play the TRUE Superman.
At the end I was beginning to think this movie's depiction of the heroes was a satire or a farce, or a commentary on something.
Then while discussing it with my friend afterwards, he dropped a bomb so great it made all the sense. The heroes are *Team America: World Police*. Dumb, oppressive, destructive and 100% in the wrong. It clicked for me why all the heroes in the DCEU does not act like heroes, but acts more like villains do in other, better movies. Self-righteous. Above the law. Destructive and uncaring of the people they are supposedly claiming to fight to protect. Makes so much sense now.
Hope the heroes have a confrontation with Amanda Waller in the future, because they need to get out from under her villainous ways, to become the true heroes they are meant to be.
And anyone in the future making another Superman movie needs to watch these two videos summarizing the best way to do so and what Superman truly stands for.
They are lengthy and indepth and tells exactly what the DCEU and many others gets wrong about Superman and why it is absolutely not the case that he's a boring character who's difficult to create a movie for. Only bad or lazy writers, and people who does not understand what it means to be a hero, cannot write Superman.
deadline.com
