By In the wake of the massive launch of the teaser trailer for James Gunn’s “Superman” film the other week, further reports have cropped up that are all dealing in speculation – and with little in the way of consensus.
The ball got rolling pre-trailer in early December at THR when a posting indicated Gunn had been screening the film “in its unfinished, still deep-in- post form”.
They cite multiple sources discussing “one screening in particular, on the lot and with his close-knit crew of people he trusts.” They also pointedly refused to talk about the ‘buzz’ they were hearing about the film.
Then a week ago, Jeff Sneider reported that he’d heard from a “rock-solid source” that the film is “kind of a mess” after a private screening at the Warner lot.
Cut to today and Sneider and John Rocha offered a further update on The Hot Mic saying there had been a few screenings now and his source “knew multiple people who had seen Superman”. That source reportedly claims to Sneider (via World of Reel) that: “[The] buzz is not good. I’m hearing bad things. I’m hearing ‘you should be worried things’. It sounds like James Gunn is aware of some of the feedback.”
Rocha then added: “Someone who’s seen Superman told me it has the tone of the first Captain America movie and the Mummy films. They said Nicholas Hoult is the standout and the film is ‘decent’ but a large chunk of the film was unfinished with only a third of the film’s VFX done. [It has] the least amount of humor of any Gunn film but there’s still humor throughout the film. Most people will be satisfied with the movie and it should be received well enough to continue Gunn’s DCU.”
Others have since come out in response and offered quite different takes. Long-running test screening source BigScreenLeaks (via Reddit) reportedly indicated that the film has been very well received internally at the studio thus far.
CBM spoke with their source who called it “Guardians of Galaxy-level good” and that a “lot of the shots were polished enough with seven months to go”. The others they spoke to reportedly “loved the movie.”
Response to Sneider’s report so far has been decidedly sceptical across forums and Reddit with plenty of criticism about the problematic nature of releasing ‘buzz talk’ (good or bad) to a film that’s still an assembly cut. Others have brought up examples of “Superman Returns” and “Man of Steel” as films that got good early buzz and fizzled, while both “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Barbie” had bad early buzz and ended up being critical and commercial triumphs – so ‘early buzz’ as such is mostly worthless.
Gunn himself hasn’t commented on the talk and, for now, it seems there are no plans for reshoots beyond the day-and-a-half of pickup shots Gunn already disclosed a while back. “Superman” will open in cinemas on July 11th.
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