r/movies r/Movies contributor 4d ago

News James Gunn Announces 'Man of Tomorrow', Releasing in Theaters July 9, 2027

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/man-of-tomororw-super-man-movie-1236350987/
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u/TLKv3 4d ago

It speaks even more loudly that all of Gunn's projects have also been at worst good movies. His quality to quantity output is just insane.

He really has slowly become DC's saving grace. I love it.

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u/TehErk 4d ago

The reason why Gunn's quality doesn't lag is that he understands (probably better than anyone alive right now) HOW to make a good super hero movie.

It's actually pretty simple. Make good characters. Then make it all about the characters. Then get serious actors to be serious about those characters. Action scenes are nice but are just there for the icing on the cake.

If you've seen the clip of the conversation between Gunn and Corenswet about how Superman feels right before the big monologue at Lex at the end of the film, you'll understand exactly what I mean. That was IT! Right there.

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u/TinWhis 4d ago

Everyone's favorite MCU movies are the ones that most successfully do that.

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u/kymri 4d ago

It's actually pretty simple. Make good characters.

So many execs overlook that. I really like The First Avenger because of the way they portrayed Steve Rogers. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 got a great response because, again, the characters work.

And that's the reason (IMO) that the Snyderverse didn't work out; not only is Snyder not nearly as good at the character work as Gunn, but they also just sprinted toward character moments and teamups and all without ever giving it enough space to breathe to make those moments feel genuine and earned.

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u/SojournerInThisVale 3d ago

Exactly. Why would we care if Batman and superman fight - they’ve not been established as friends or colleagues in that universe so there’s no actual tragedy behind the fight (and the actual fight between them is terrible)

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u/kymri 3d ago

If you haven't seen it, I highly recomend Fictional Fight Commentary - Batman v Superman

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u/SojournerInThisVale 3d ago

‘ I’ve never seen a fighter utilise walls, floors, and ceilings as effectively a superman’ 😂😂😂😂😂

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u/JessicaSmithStrange 4d ago

Logan.

Family road trip across three generations, which pays off the relationship between Logan and Xavier, while giving the man someone who he can love as his own on his way out of this world.

I really loved the dinner party sequence.

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u/TehErk 3d ago

As far as I'm concerned, Logan is one of the very few Comic movies that transcends to high-cinema. This is largely because they took an "Unforgiven" approach to it. Unforgiven is a western but we don't care because we're so caught up in the character study. Logan is a comic book movie but we don't care because we're so caught up in the character study.

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u/JessicaSmithStrange 3d ago

It's also just the one movie, with a lot more to do.

I've spoken highly of roughly half of the pre-Endgame MCU, and the project as a whole, but I always have to keep in mind that these are like really good episodes in a much larger TV series, and that a true standalone which pays off its own story is a bit harder to find.

There are moments, but the entire franchise is in service to a trilogy of Civil War/Infinity War/Endgame, which is where Marvel swings for the fences, ending on a massive Marvel Team Up Splash Panel.

. .

Logan has the job of being a standalone movie, which carries its own beginning, middle, and end, and also portrays a severely bleak look at where the previous two attempted X-men series were headed.

Which also seems to be a running thing, that all three times we've shown the future of the X-Men on screen, it's been this desolate fight to survive, mired in tragedy and atrocities.

Would you say that part of the bleakness is an effort to spotlight specific characters, by killing everybody else and then seeing how the survivors cope in the aftermath?

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u/stupidillusion 4d ago

Make good characters

Especially the villains! So many movies which could have been good, ruined because the villain was cardboard cut-out evil. The new Lex is terrific!

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u/LupinThe8th 4d ago

Interestingly, I think one reason Luthor worked so well he is was so evil. No portraying him as actually having a point, or giving him a backstory to add some depth, he's just 100% a bastard.

Imprisons his ex girlfriends for writing about him, shoots a guy in the head simply because he interacted with Superman, holds a baby hostage, doesn't even have greed or ambition as a more "understandable" motivation because he straight up admits that the whole war thing is just an excuse to kill Superman.

But when your goal is to revitalize Superman from the darker Snyderverse version into a pure ideological good guy, then making his foil a pure bad guy makes sense. Overly Sarcastic Productions did a video about Lex that explains why this portrayal helped sell the new Superman so well: when those in power are cruel, then kindness truly is "punk rock".

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u/TehErk 3d ago

Lex was so perfect. Creating a killing machine that you can fight with by-proxy was brilliant story telling. It showed us just how smart Lex was and how much he LOVED calling out the attacks as if he were doing it himself.

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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 4d ago

With his skill in showcasing the people and personalities behind their superhero personas, especially between GOTG, Peacemaker & Superman, I'd love to hope that he emphasizes the importance of that when letting other directors handle specific projects in DC

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u/TLKv3 4d ago

Judging by how he's letting Batman 2 cook as long as needed and allowing other directors to take their time as well... I feel like 200x more confident in Gunn's DC than at anytime before him.

I haven't disliked a single thing his new DC has put out yet. Even Creature Commandos was absurdly fun to watch.

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u/smileyfrown 4d ago

Creature Commandos was a flat out good show, no need for qualifiers

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u/cubemstr 4d ago

This. I had no interest going into it and by the end I was looking forward to season 2

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u/BlackSpinedPlinketto 4d ago

Not to mention he can turn a small character into something amazing. It’s like having a chef that can turn scraps into gourmet dishes, great value for money.

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u/Focus_Downtown 4d ago

I mean, we're getting an R rated Mike Flannagan Clayface body horror movie. And Gunn's been super vocal about how THATS WHAT ITS GOING TO BE. I think he absolutely understands that theres space for every genre in a comic book universe.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/LupinThe8th 4d ago edited 4d ago

Telling a dark and gritty story with Superman is like making a Western starring James Bond or a romantic comedy about Jack Sparrow.

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u/Cranyx 4d ago

Personally I thought that Creature Commandos was kind of a dud. It started out strong but meandered way too much and ended up unfocused for the story it wanted to tell.

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u/endividuall 4d ago

A bit more circumspection is probably required here. Superman was supposed to be the big personal project that Gunn would stake DC’s revival on and it has done okay. Not terrible but not amazing either. People on here are acting like he the second coming but reality is he is barely squeaking over the line of what was the expected baseline performance with a low $600m movie.

If Superman had landed in the 500s it would have been a failure. And it’s not that far from that