Michael Levine

The first thing my 8 year old son said at the end was that he already knew the whole movie from the preview lol. He did enjoy it, but... Yeah. My experience was just slogging through cliches, fine-sounding but unmemorable songs that felt wedged in with no purpose, and a wishy washy message that at best was cliche and at worst was just reinforcing the ego with the idea that your wishes are the most important thing in life. That's it! The movie should have been called Wishy Washy. 😊

Holy awful! Do not let your kids watch this. If you were already aware of how the original Disney princess stories (as wonderful as they are) have problematic messaging, then this movie just makes it a ton worse. Messages such as: - A girl needs a man to be happy - Once you're married you've crossed the finish line and will be happy forever - True love is something that can be known within a few minutes or days (that's really just infatuation and will eventually disappear and disappoint) - If a girl gets rejected by a man she loves, then she'll turn into a crazy, evil person forever I had hoped this movie would be more "woke" and correct those old messages, but it seriously just amplified them. And not in any comedic, self-aware way. The movie starts with the beloved Disney princesses acting like whining petty spoiled girls, and have zero of their original personalities. I almost stopped the movie right there. But from there, the characters are trite with little depth, the story predictable with no original twist, and the ending had no real eureka lessons to teach (actually the opposite as I just mentioned).

I really enjoyed this movie! (some spoilers ahead). I thought Brandon Routh did an amazing recreation of Christopher Reeves. I felt like I was a kid again watching the old Superman! And I love the positivity and goodness of so many characters. It seems modern movies have gotten so dark, showing the good and bad sides in the heroes. Well, the way that statement sounds is good, but modern movies overdo it to where you don't leave the movie feeling hopeful or positive about the possibilities in the world. With this movie I felt the love of Superman and his son, the good character of all of them honoring the situation that Lois had to move on, and respecting Richard's goodness and role in their lives. Nothing stupid-dramatic happened like Superman trying to win Lois back, or anyone telling the boy or Richard that Superman is his true father. They all acted for the best good of all (except Lex Luther of course). Even Lex's "girl" (Parker Posey) showed a lot of inner goodness in her limited capacity being stuck with Lex Luther. The biggest weakness of this movie was the plot of Lex wanting to destroy America and millions of lives in order to live on a barren land of ice crystal jagged spears. That was truly stupid. But overall I loved it and I REALLY want to see the boy grow up and develop his powers (but this movie is 13 years old as I watched it, so I guess that's unlikely :-(