Tag Archives: James Gunn

Movie Review of “Superman” (2025)

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© James Pyles

Last night, I watched James Gunn’s Superman (2025). OMG, where do I begin?

Oh, Spoiler Alert. This review is full of them.

First of all, let me say that I get where Gunn was taking the film and the character. He was balancing Superman as an alien vs Clark as a human. This is seen both in how goofy (in my opinion) both Superman and Clark (played by David Corenswet) appear and behave. Face it. Clark really doesn’t have to act like an inept nebbish to keep people from finding out he’s Superman. Why would people even believe Superman has another identity and if he did, he could be anyone living anywhere.

The secret to Clark’s insecurities, sometimes unstable behavior, and pathetically Boy Scout (even by campy comic book and earlier movie and TV standards) actions and attitudes lies in his humanity, in being raised by Martha and Jonathan Kent on a farm in Kansas.

The Kents, played by Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell respectively, are the quintessential country hicks. I’ve worked in rural settings before, and Ma and Pa Kent might as well have been Ma and Pa Kettle. They weren’t necessarily strong or heroic and are never seen struggling over raising a son from outer space. They’re “just plain folks” and their defining characteristic is how much they love their son.

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When Social Media Becomes a Lynch Mob

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Screenshot of Mark Duplass’s tweet about Ben Shapiro

There are days when I lose all hope for humanity. Really, it’s gotten that ridiculous.

First off, actor Mark Duplass said something nice about conservative speaker, attorney, and Orthodox Jew Ben Shapiro on twitter. Then he is immediately caught up in a twitter-storm so severe that the very next day, he formally apologizes.

Then “Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn defends Duplass while at the same time, sliming Shapiro. And then, it’s discovered that Gunn made some pretty horrible tweets back in the day and is subsequently fired by Disney so you won’t see him directing “Guardians 3.”

I suppose Shapiro thought in the aftermath of all this, someone might take a look at his “dumb stuff” tweets, so he posted a list of them, and promised to keep updating it (I haven’t had the time to read that last article yet).

What the heck is going on? Have liberals have decided as a group, that no individual liberal can be friends with or even like a conservative without starting a social media flame war?

Why? How did we enter this twilight zone of dysfunctional communication?

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