Sorry for those of you caught in the I-71 Lytle Tunnel traffic jam during Superman filming a year ago.
Don’t expect to see your car in the movie. The Lytle Tunnel scene goes by faster than a speeding bullet.
And despite all the local hoopla, don’t expect to see much of Cincinnati in director James Gunn’s new Superman, starring David Corenswet, which opens this weekend. It’s a Cleveland movie.
Look up there on the screen! It's Public Square! It's Cleveland City Hall! It's the Cleveland Arcade!
Metropolis sure looks like Cleveland's PNC Plaza; the Howard M. Metzenbaum U.S. Courthouse; the old Greyhound station; the Cleveland Guardians’ Progressive Field (home of the “Metropolis Meteors”) and the location of the old Cleveland Leader, the city’s only remaining newspaper building.
And that’s fine by me. After all, the Superman comic was created by Cleveland native Jerry Siegel and Canadian Joe Shuster, both of whom grew up in Cleveland.
The Cincinnati Museum Center (no spoiler alert here, given all the media coverage this week) makes an appearance about an hour into the film.
The iconic Union Terminal, which inspired the Justice League headquarters in the 1970s Super Friends cartoon series on ABC, is shown with the words “Hall of Justice” above the clock, and a green Metropolis flag on the north flagpole.
It’s followed by one extensive scene in the rotunda, which serves as the main hangout for Superman’s super friends from the DC Universe: Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and computer wiz Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi). The Green Lantern insists they’re the “Justice Gang.”
That’s it for Cincinnati.
This new iteration of Superman has all the elements of a summer blockbuster. Gunn, who also wrote the screenplay, portrays the Man of Steel as a vulnerable “alien,” and outsider who desperately wants to be a human being.
Like a human, he doesn’t win every fight. That’s not a spoiler, because it’s the opening scene. By the end of the two-hour film, Superman — spoiler alert here — rescues the world (and a squirrel). Philadelphia native Corenswet (Twister, Lady in the Lake) fits the role perfectly to an “S,” the newly stylized red letter on his chest.
To Gunn’s credit, this is not another story about Superman’s origin; we’ve seen that too many times. Corenswet plays it perfectly as a coming of age story. As Superman says, “Being human, that’s my greatest strength.”
Of course Gunn gives Superman fans romance when Clark Kent hooks up with fellow Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and House of Cards). There’s also romance for cub reporter Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo). But I’m guessing most viewers will fall in love with Krypto — not the digital currency, but the playful superhero dog which debuted in a 1955 Superboy comic book.
No spoiler alert here: At the root of all evil is the corrupt Lex Luthor, played perfectly by Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Mad Max: Fury Road). His Luthor Corp. cons the U.S. Defense Department; unleashes monsters in downtown Metropolis; creates a PlanetWatch army to help Boravia conquer neighboring Johporian; produces a deep fake video message from Superman’s parents claiming their son was sent on a mission to destroy the world (which plays 24/7 on the all-news channels); and invents a pocket universe to hold hundreds of his enemies.
My favorite of Luthor’s bad guys was the “Outrage Monkeys,” a gang of chimps at computers pounding out a torrent of negative comments trashing Superman on the internet. In Gunn’s hip social media script Superman says, “Superman doesn’t have time for selfies.”
Anyway, Luthor’s pocket universe leads to a tear in the Earth, a catastrophic chasm heading toward downtown Cleveland — er, Metropolis. (It made me wonder if the Haslam family conspired with Lex Luthor to destroy Cleveland’s downtown NFL stadium to justify the Haslams building a new indoor stadium out by Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.)
Gunn brought Superman to Ohio because he could receive $11 million in Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit funds from the state Department of Development. He considered filming in Cincinnati, but instead chose That City Up North. Cincinnati, which has been used by directors for New York and numerous other cities, didn’t have the look Gunn wanted.
“We looked all over for the place that was the best Metropolis,” Gunn told Cleveland.com. “We liked Cincinnati a lot, but we really liked Cleveland. A lot of it’s because of all the old Art Deco architecture that people really don’t know about in Cleveland. So although we were making whatever city we filmed in a much bigger city than it is, Cleveland worked best for all of the basic architecture we’re using up close.”
Superman fans will be very satisfied at this new incarnation of “Big Blue,” as he fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and squirrels. Honestly, I’m not a super fan of Marvel and DC superhero movies. I prefer a good comedy over the drama, death, destruction and violent high-tech clashes.
But I think Superman will soar at the box office this summer. It's full of surprising plot twists; tons of big budget special effects; and engaging actors playing relatable characters you want to root for, particularly Corenswet’s humanized superhero. And we can witness the potential near destruction of Cleveland, not the Queen City.
And if someone calls Superman a Cincinnati movie, you can paraphrase former Bengals head coach Sam Wyche: “You don’t live in Metropolis! You live in Cincinnati!”
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