People complain about "superhero fatigue" because they claim all those films are the same.
Then one with a different take comes out, and they attack it.
This was a cool story, with a unique setting we haven't seen in this DCU yet. Its basis came from a comic book miniseries I enjoyed. However, the characters themselves were very different versions than those that lived in the comic book world at the time of that tale. Therefore, key differences in the story itself were required to fit it all together.
It did feel like DC space stories in the comics to me. No so much in specific characters or races, but in the general tone and feel. A large percentage of the alien cultures in Marvel space stories have been more about blue people, green people, orange people, feathered people and so forth. While DC space aliens have been a larger percentage of "things" (The "things" are also people.)
Krem is a far larger threat here than in the comic story. This is in terms of his physical powers, his standing in the group he leads in this story and the scope and nature of his crimes. He's not really any more defined than he was in the comic story. He remained someone who was simply awful that needed to be faced and dealt with.
The other character that needed to be dealt with was a big introduction for this DCU. Look, I've been a fan of Lobo since the Alan Grant days. I thought the character was perfectly cast...
but every time he was on screen (and in the posters) I thought "Why is he here?"
I mean, he was nice to see and all, I was happy for such a fantastically comic book accurate interpretation, I enjoyed watching him and look forward to him elsewhere...
But it didn't have to be him for this particular story. I guess world builders are gonna build.
The story itself had two main characters, each on their own personal journeys, Supergirl and Ruthye. Both of their performances were fantastically done. While both went up against Krem and his evil gang, their main battle is with grief, making this a different tale than most Superhero stories. As it was a battle with how they accepted and/ or moved past grief, and not an internalization of it as a main character trait, that also set this tale apart from Batman's adventures.
Ruthye's grief was recent from the loss of her family, via Krem and his gang. (Maybe there are some Batman parallels.)
Supergirl's trauma came from her origin. There are several versions of Kara's tale in the comics- but whether she left Krypton to watch over Kal-El and got stuck in a time vortex, so now he's older, or she left the domed Argo City after Krypton's destruction, one key element remains.
She remembers life on her home planet and knows the loss of everything she had there at a far deeper and more personal level than Superman does.
Kara and Ruthye ended up helping each other through what they were experiencing and both came out with a stronger sense of who they were. The grief didn't fully go away, but both provided guidance to the other in dealing with the stage of it they were experiencing and how to keep on going with purpose.
To represent that journey, Supergirl spent A LOT of the tale having her powers nerfed for one reason or another. This is something that happens frequently in stories about Kryptonians. Frequently, it is when the writers cannot think of a better way to build drama. I am (clearly) not the biggest fan of this tactic, but I do understand that it can be used to serve the story. Especially in this case where overcoming those periods of weakness showed a visual element of both overcoming the grief, and illustrating which elements of it remained.
SPOLERS:
As for the ending, this was a very different version of Kara, a very different version of Ruthye, a very different version of Krem, and a very different series of his accomplished and promised evil acts than were in the comic book. I will (and frequently have) argue insanely, yet accurately (complete with references) against Batman, Superman or Spider-Man ever taking a life. For most of the other heroes, now that the Silver Age where they all were clones of each other has long since passed, that line can be crossed if it serves the story well. In this movie, it did just that.
Kara is not Clark, and it will be interesting to see how those differences play out as the DCU continues to grow and expand. I'm looking forward to seeing her in this role even more than the considerable amount I am looking forward to seeing Lobo again.
No comments:
Post a Comment