I’m still riding my Superman high, trying to figure out exactly how it went from “a joyful celebration of comics and a fun time at the movies” to “this movie has lodged itself directly in my heart.” I saw a recap from some YouTubers that I think nailed it: watching Superman makes me want to be a better person.
I tried to find two thematically appropriate songs but with little luck. Turns out that “Better Man” by Pearl Jam is actually a downer about a woman settling in an unhappy relationship, which doesn’t work at all. So I’ll just have to stop trying to be clever and embrace being on-the-nose.
“Punkrocker” by Teddybears feat. Iggy Pop is the closing track for the movie, and if you want an idea of just how corny and emotional I am, listening to it again now while thinking of that final scene has me happy-crying at my desk.
Walking through CityWalk after seeing it a second time, I noticed that dozens of people were wearing T-shirts with various incarnations of the Superman logo. I liked imagining that it was more than just the kind of thing you’d expect to see on the opening weekend of a blockbuster movie. That people weren’t just celebrating fandom, but the idea of rejecting cynicism and being fearlessly kind.
So how about re-using a song I’ve already used before, but removing it from any 1990s college radio irony and treating it like a sincere celebration?
“Superman’s Song” by Crash Test Dummies felt like a novelty song back in 1991, a slow dirge/ballad about comic book characters that got a ton of radio airplay as an alternative to grunge. But whether it was corny in a self-aware way or just corny, I like to listen to it as a sincere appreciation of what the character’s all about. A character that’s been kept alive and familiar to audiences for almost a hundred years now, not because of media companies’ endless attempts to reboot or reimagine him to keep him relevant, but because the core idea is timelessly relevant: someone with the power to do anything, but who chooses to be selflessly and tirelessly heroic.
Also, I admit that this gets me really excited about future movies in the franchise, because I hadn’t considered a live action version with the same tone that might include the Legion of Doom and Solomon Grundy. The first time I saw the movie, I went to the bathroom during the part where Lois visits the Hall of Justice, so when I saw it on my second viewing (not to mention learning it was based on a real building which was used for filming), I made a gasp that alarmed the people in the theater sitting next to me.
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