{"id":21,"date":"2023-08-15T17:30:52","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T16:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joshtest04.wordpress.com\/2023\/08\/15\/superman-solar\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T20:21:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T19:21:42","slug":"superman-solar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/2023\/08\/15\/superman-solar\/","title":{"rendered":"Superman: Solar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This review was originally published on Letterboxd, but Superman: Solar<\/em> was removed from that service.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Superman saves the cow.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You can\u2019t get mad at a fan film! It\u2019s always nice to see people play the hits, and when Superman: Solar stays in that ball park it\u2019s positively lovable. Much like the titular character, the film is at its best when allowed to \u2018cut loose\u2019 and do a flying action scene with a dynamic camera which captures no small percent of the dynamism of Man of Steel, the short\u2019s obvious inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone involved here is giving it their all, but the standard deviation of quality scene-to-scene ends up quite wide. For example, there\u2019s a scene towards the end where Clark meets Lois Lane to accept a job at the Daily Planet suffers terribly from the choice of set location, which ends up making the placid Clark seem like he\u2019s borderline harassing Lane simply by remaining present in the tight corridor. Lex Luthor has an extended cameo by a chap doing a stellar Jason Statham impression, which is certainly a new direction for the character\u200a\u2014\u200aI wanted more of that guy. And the green screen is pretty competently done, with only some evidently strained lighting choices and backspill in the desert fight to complain about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s that connection to Man of Steel which is Superman: Solar\u2019s Achilles\u2019s heel though. Snyder\u2019s film is both saint and sinner to this adaptation, with constant commendably-executed visual references somewhat at war with a script that has a little of the \u2018fix-it\u2019 ethos about it. When it\u2019s not dubious pablum put into the mouths of side characters (the Clarks \u201csaved our business\u201d says one man, so he won\u2019t be turning them in to the FBI) the script is relitigating twitter arguments which border on theodicy. Aping Batman v Superman\u2019s news studio scenes, a pair of broadcasters debate whether an invincible man is braver than the troops. A delightfully hard-nosed Lois Lane asks directly if Superman is a \u2018dictator\u2019, but is bizarrely placated when he basically answers \u2018yes\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central conflict of the film isn\u2019t drawn from Man of Steel however, it\u2019s ostensibly pulled from the page of Grant Morrison\u2019s All-Star Superman where Superman rescues Regan, a suicidal teen, from a rooftop. I\u2019ve long argued that the page in question is very specific to the format and context and would prove difficult to adapt to another medium, and this does not dissuade me. The scene as adapted quickly swings into bathos, but the absurd dialogue between Superman and the teen\u200a\u2014\u200awho gives a performance that rescues the affair\u200a\u2014\u200aends up coming round to its own poignancy. They connect, not because any of Superman\u2019s mantras hit home, but just in that they make a silly shared conversation on this rooftop, and connect, and sometimes that\u2019s all someone needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Damn Superman, gonna make the kid host you for dinner?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As I said above, ultimately it\u2019s quite a fun watch. Making films is hard! Hollywood, with its outlandish budgets, often makes it seem like the easiest thing in the world. This fan film aims high, and I can\u2019t hate that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This review was originally published on Letterboxd, but Superman: Solar was removed from that service. You can\u2019t get mad at a fan film! It\u2019s always nice to see people play the hits, and when Superman: Solar stays in that ball park it\u2019s positively lovable. Much like the titular character, the film is at its best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,96],"tags":[54,18,28,55],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-media-criticism","tag-fan-film","tag-movie-review","tag-superman","tag-superman-solar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108,"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fevered.earth\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}