Space Invader: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The superhero stakes for 2025!
The Tip Sheet has spun off. Introducing Space Invaders, a newsletter about movies and pop culture that invades this space on Saturday. Arrives irregularly during this pilot phase.
2024 has been an odd year for the comic book movie genre. Thanks to labour action last year in Hollywood, plus a variety of creative factors, there were only two major releases from the two main studios: Deadpool & Wolverine from Marvel/Disney was so dense with fan service you had to understand decades of movie development news and gossip to get all the jokes (like this one), while Joker: Folie à Deux from DC/Warners seemed to be made for the sole purpose of casting contempt on the fans of the original.
Hollywood’s “survive till ‘25” mantra for the last 12 months has applied doubly to superheroes, and the stakes cannot be higher. For Marvel, they have to get back on the right creative track; Deadpool was a balm, but it was also a holdover from the old guard of X-Men moves at the pre-amalgamated 20th Century Fox. For DC it’s the dawn of a new era! They have cast aside a mixed bag of films to essentially start again from scratch, a “take two” for creating a comprehensive extended universe where all the heroes and villains can crossover.
Easy-peasy, right?
Not really, but in light of the stakes – not to mention the money – both studios are putting all their chips on properties that have not paid off in the recent past. Indeed, for both of these films, 2025 will mark the third time in 20 years that some producer has tried to do something that should be easy, and that’s turning Superman and the Fantastic Four into long running and successful film franchises!
Let’s do Superman first because you can now actually get a taste of what that movie is offering…
This Superman comes from James Gunn, the director of the Guardians of the Galaxy films, who took over as the co-head of DC Studios in 2022. This constitutes the first solo Superman movie since 2013’s Man of Steel, which has as many fans as it does detractors. Gone is the sombre and grounded realism of that project as seen through the lens of Zack Snyder, who’s take on the character into Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League leaned towards the skeptical if not outright cynical. Snyder’s Superman was not a “big, blue boy scout”, but a visage of impending doom because how can someone so powerful be expected to play by humanity’s rules?
For Gunn, the remedy seems to go big and bright. Gone are the pounding rhythms of Hans Zimmer’s Steel scored, which has now been replaced with an electric guitar riff version of John Williams’ theme from Superman The Movie. We see Superman do Superman things like save people, give kids hope, fight giant monsters, and flummox Lex Luthor with his inherent goodness. And in case you’re worried this Superman is morally flexible, behold, he’s got a super-dog!
The tone is reassuring because while Gunn has shown repeatedly that he can handle the rigours of a comic book movie, the earnest of a traditional Superman story is not his usual cup of tea, not from someone who’s on-the-job training was in the vulgar and violent realm of Trauma Studios and who previously produced a kind of Superman movie called Brightburn, which essentially answered the question: What If Superman landed on Earth and was born evil? "I do think that if we can focus on our humanity, which is what Superman is about as a character and as a movie, and focus on doing the best we can day-to-day, then it's a little bit healing, but not a lot," Gunn said about what he hopes his film will deliver this summer.
One wonders though if there’s enough room in this movie for remunerations on humanity and healing because almost as much time in the trailer is dedicated to showing off other superheroes as it is to showing off just how romantic Superman and Lois Lane are together. Gunn has proven that he knows how to handle an ensemble, and balance big superhero action with big character stakes, but you have to be concerned that he’s going to end up tripping over the same line that drowned his predecessors by being so focused on the universe building that he loses the plot.
In order to succeed though Gunn may have a relatively easy path to victory. Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns in 2006 was chastised for his devotion to the Richard Donner original and being fairly light on action, while Snyder’s Steel was seen as too heavy on action and then accused of having not much of a heart. If Gunn can find the Goldilocks spot, Superman can succeed by finding a middle path that’s just right.
By comparison though, Gunn probably has an easier job than Matt Shankman.
The Fantastic Four haven’t been the world’s biggest movie stars, but it’s safe to say that there would be no Marvel Cinematic Universe without them. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1961, the Fantastic Four launched the Silver Age of comics as Lee’s test case that you can have complex heroes with complicated interpersonal issues while still telling fanciful stories about people with powers in tights. After Fantastic Four, Lee immediately churned out Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, the X-Men and we were off to races…
In movies though, the Fantastic Four have been cursed. A 1991 version produced by Roger Corman has only ever been seen in dark corners and panel rooms at comic conventions, while the first big budget effort, two films made by Tim Story in 2005 and 2007, honestly looked cheap by even the standards of comic book movie filmmaking at the time. In 2015, Chronicle director Josh Trank tried that grounded realism thing, but even an impressive cast couldn’t save such a troubled production or ease the pressure to deliver something in the billion-dollar realm.
But now, Marvel’s First Family has the Marvel Studios pedigree. Shankman made what is arguably the best Marvel series in WandaVision, and the casting of Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby as Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman puts two of the sexiest, most talented and charismatic people in Hollywood right now front and centre for what the studio is banking on as the new lead franchise in their menagerie of superhero serials. As for the tone of the film, “We’re doing a retro-future ’60s. Syd Mead was an inspiration. The ’60s, to me, is all about optimism,” Shankman told the audience at Comic Con last summer.
If you don’t know you Syd Mead is, he’s been called "the artist who illustrated the future". His designs were used in some of the most influential movies of the last 50 years including Blade Runner, Aliens, 2010, TRON, and more. “His was a world was larger than ours- the technology was bolder, magical even, the cars and transport more sleek and luxurious, the architecture more graceful and geometric, and the cities are both more optimistic, and bleakly pessimistic (Blade Runner) than our own,” read his 2019 obituary in Car Design News. “His renderings of life in outer space enlarged our vision beyond Earth to the stars.”
Shankman’s also hired Michael Giacchino to do the score for the film, a sample of which has already been released, but the reason why this is important is because of another 60s throwback: J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek. While Giacchino is a Marvel regular (Doctor Strange, Spider-Man: No Way Home), it’s his music for Trek that remains some of his best work with hopeful tones, big brass, and soaring themes that can be attenuated to go from grand to intimate then grand again. I’ve long said that any Fantastic Four movie should use Abrams’ Trek as a guide to capture the can-do energy of the space age 60s while still feeling sleek and modern.
But here’s the warning. We also found out last summer at Comic Con that Robert Downey Jr. will be playing Doctor Doom, the traditional “Big Bad” of the Fantastic Four. Doom will be making his debut as the villain in Avengers: Doomsday but will likely make some kind of appearance in First Steps. At the heart of the Four/Doom friction is the villain’s utter contempt and envy for his former colleague, Mr. Fantastic, but the hiring of Downey centres the drama not on that personal dynamic, but the inevitable friction between Doom and the other Marvel heroes when they realize the bad guy has the same face as their sainted hero who saved the universe from Thanos in Avengers: Endgame.
That’s right, we’re still doing the multiverse!
Deadpool & Wolverine should have been the coffin nail in any future dalliance with multiple universes and multiple variants of beloved characters, but it’s probably inspired Marvel to double down. Fans of these movies may be excited about Downey’s return, and the recently announced return of Chris Evans who also retired at the end of Endgame, but these moves are signs of a lack of confidence for Marvel, once the most confident in the universe of Hollywood power players. You don’t lean on nostalgia like a reliable crutch when you know people are going to buy the new thing. Think about McDonalds: What do they do when they need to get people back into their restaurants? Bring back the McRib!
Now, as we look forward to seeing how this new class of comic book movies play out, and whether or not these big bets are going to pay off, I think I’m going to hold out for a world where we can just focus on one movie at a time without having to worry about the state, or slate, of a whole universe.
Superman will be in theatres on July 11, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be in theatres two weeks later on July 25.
The Bookshelf:
Anora (Sat)
Conclave (Sun)
Flow
A Real Pain (Thurs-Fri)
*The Cinema will be closed Wednesday and Thursday.
Galaxy Cinemas – Woodlawn:
A Complete Unknown (starting Tues)
Gladiator II (till Tues)
Kraven The Hunter
Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
Moana 2
Mufasa: The Lion King
Pushpa 2: The Rule
Sonic The Hedgehog 3
Wicked
Starting Wednesday: Babygirl, Baby John, and Nosferatu.
Galaxy Cinemas – Clair:
*Temporarily closed due to flood damage.
Mustang Drive-In:
*Closed for the season.
Princess Cinemas – Twin:
Conclave (Sat-Mon)
Flow (Sat-Sun)
Maria (Sat-Mon)
Memoir of a Snail (Sat-Mon)
Queer (Sat-Tues)
Y2K (Sat)
Starting Wednesday: A Complete Unknown and Nosferatu
Princess Cinemas – Original:
Gremlins (Sat)
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (Sat)
Oh, Canada (Sat-Mon)
Trailer Park Boys Presents: Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties (Sat-Sun)
White Christmas (Sun, Tues)
Starting Thursday: Babygirl
*The Cinema will be closed Wednesday.
Apollo Cinema:
Don’t Look Back (Sat, Mon)
Muppet’s Christmas Carol (Sat, Mon)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (Sun-Mon)
Queer (Thurs-Fri)
Rifle Club (Sun)
Small Things Like These (Mon, Fri)
Silent Night, Deadly Night (Sun)
Viduthalai (Sat)
Viduthalai 2 (Mon)
White Christmas – Sing Along! (Sun)
*The Cinema will be closed Wednesday and Thursday.
This week on End Credits, Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon, Candice Lepage and special guest Jen Barson all co-host our special Christmas Day episode, the Christmas Movie Draft! Through six carefully selected categories, we will curate the perfect list of 30 holiday movies for your viewing, and sometimes singing, pleasure. Gather the family around the radio and film nerd out for the ultimate Christmas tradition, ignoring your family with a movie!
And finally, feel free to reach out to me by email at adamadonaldson [at] gmail [dot] com, or find me on Facebook, Twitter, and, of course, GuelphPolitico.ca!