Jyger’s Rant – Superman: Unbound (WARNING – SPOILERS)

So it’s been a long time since I reviewed something, and recently I found a certain movie on the Movie Network and got my Mom to record it for me. And now that I’ve watched it a couple of times (once alone, and once with N. Harmonik), I feel confident that I can give a fair review of Superman: Unbound. If you have not seen the movie, I’m sorry, but there will be spoilers here. If you don’t want to know what happens, turn back now.

After saving Lois Lane for the trillionth time (although this time with an unexpected assist from the badass Supergirl), Superman returns to the Daily Planet as Clark Kent and, after a small issue with Steve Lombard, gets chewed out by Lois because they’ve apparently been dating for some time, but in secret. However, this is interrupted as Superman has to leave to battle a robot that actually manages to hurt him. Superman ultimately beats it down, though, and takes it back to the Fortress of Solitude, where Supergirl recognizes it: Many of them attacked the Krypton capital city of Kandor just a short time before Krypton’s destruction. Under the rule of their master, Brainiac, they killed many Kryptonians before the city was miniaturized and taken aboard Brainiac’s ship.

With this knowledge, and knowing Brainiac could someday come to Earth, Superman decides to track the foe down, eventually finding him in the middle of an attack on another planet. While he starts to kick ass, a Solar Aggressor missile to the planet’s sun causes a shockwave that destroys the planet and knocks Superman unconscious. Though Superman regains consciousness and starts to fight his way through robots, along the way discovering that Brainiac has shrunken down cities from worlds all over the galaxy and then bottled them, Brainiac ultimately levels him and learns of his and Kara’s presence on Earth, setting course for there as he shrinks Superman down into the bottled city of Kandor. Despite his power fading due to a red sun placed over Kandor, Superman meets with Kara’s parents and formulates a plan to escape, disconnecting Brainiac from his ship before heading back to Earth with Kandor in hand.

I like to pretend that Lois is actually sending this to Scott Lobdell and whoever else was in charge of making the changes to her character in the New 52.

Unfortunately, even disconnected from it, the ship is an extension of Brainiac himself, and is still able to send enough small orders to it to reconnect himself and set course for Earth. Superman and Supergirl aid the military in defending Metropolis, but it is ultimately bottled and the two heroes are captured and tortured. However, Superman is able to summon all his strength and break himself and Supergirl free, leading to one last brawl between himself and Brainiac down on Earth as he exploits Brainiac’s biggest flaw: He doesn’t really understand the worlds he attacks outside of the controlled cities he keeps bottled up. His mind can’t handle the strain of the constant cars honking, birds chirping, planes taking off, bugs buzzing all around, mud soaking his body, and all the sounds, sights, and sensations that make up life on Earth. Superman pummels his weakened foe until finally the strain of it all burns Brainiac down to slag. And so the movie ends with Superman returning Metropolis to normal, releasing Kandor on a planet with a red sun, and deciding not only to be open about his relationship with Lois, but even proposing marriage…all the while, the remains of Brainiac turn out to still be active in the Fortress of Solitude.

So let’s talk about some of the things I liked. First off, Supergirl is a BADASS. Sure, when Brainiac and his forces actually show up, she wants to run for it, but I tend to chalk it up to post-traumatic stress. Remember, in this movie, she had only recently awoken from stasis, so the attack on Kandor was only a few weeks ago for her. And speaking of badass women, I LOVE Lois Lane in this movie. They nailed her personality completely right. Naturally, Superman is awesome too, and we get to see him fighting smart and using an opponent’s weaknesses against them, which is always more fun than just seeing him plough through his foes…not that I don’t enjoy that at times as well.

Now for some stuff I didn’t like. The first thing to note: Some of the designs are kind of odd to me. While I love Lois’ personality, I’m not sure what the motivation was for her appearance. Likewise, some of the colours don’t seem quite right to me. For example, it always bugs me to see Superman and Supergirl in the same room and not have the same colour-scheme, particularly that the blue on Superman has an olive tinge, and Supergirl’s blue has a violet tinge. And finally, while I haven’t read Superman: Brainiac, I do know a lot of what happens in it, and there’s one thing I know for a fact they changed: By this point in the comics, Lois and Clark had been married for YEARS. Not sure why they changed that, but since the ending seems to allude to a sequel, it’s possible that they want to do a movie about them getting married later, so I’ll try not to complain.

One change I wanna bring up that I actually approve of: Superman releasing Kandor on a planet with a red sun, which I can assume we can refer to as New Krypton. In the comics, he released it in the Arctic, not that far from the Fortress of Solitude…I should note that before I looked up the full details of the New Krypton stories in the comics, I told N. Harmonik that the idea of a whole city full of Supermen showing up out of no where would be a nightmare in the making. AND IT WAS, for the exact reasons I said it would be: Not every last Kryptonian can be expected to have the same value system that Superman demonstrates. Also, with certain governments being untrustful and paranoid, it would only take one small incident with the Kryptonians to cause war to break out. And again, IT DID.

Anyway, my overall thoughts? I like this movie a lot. I apologise for having not read the comic it’s based off of, and who knows, I may yet someday. If yer a fan of Superman, I think you’ll really like this…Speaking of which, one of these days, I need to get back to writing up my review of Justice League: Hereafter. But yeah, leave your own thoughts on the movie below, and I’ll see y’all later. Ja né!

Related articles

• Stana Katic Discusses Her Role As Lois Lane In SUPERMAN: UNBOUND (comicbookmovie.com)
• ‘Superman: Unbound’ (variety.com)
• Superman: Unbound (2013) Blu-ray review (metalgrinch.wordpress.com)
• SUPERMAN UNBOUND Interview Clips Featuring Molly Quinn (Supergirl) (comicbookmovie.com)
• Gear up for Man of Steel with Superman Unbound! (horrorhavenreviews.wordpress.com)
• REVIEW: Superman Unbound (comicmix.com)
• Exclusive: ‘Superman Unbound’ Star Matt Bomer On Playing The Man Of Steel (geek-news.mtv.com)
• Exclusive: ‘Superman Unbound’ Gets Fiery In The Latest Clip (geek-news.mtv.com)
• All-New DC Universe Animated Original Movie ‘Superman: Unbound’ Out June 26th (analogaddiction.org)