The year is 2006. The world seems to have forgotten the latest sequel to Christopher Reeve’s Superman, almost 20 years after its release. After a failed attempt with Tim Burton and Nicolas Cage in the 90s, The new millennium brings a kind of “spiritual sequel” to Richard Donner’s film under the title ‘Superman Returns’, its primary objective was to recover the essence of the original. The result… was not what was expected.
Almost another 20 years have passed and fans of the character have gone through flying dildos, deaths, resurrections, black suits and a Clark Kent always in a bad mood or with a digital cleft lip, so they have been eagerly awaiting the first trailer of the new ‘Superman’ movie directed by James Gunn, who promises a reinvention of the iconic hero with the unique vision of the director of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, which has it upon its men to make us forget that “dark” approach of ‘Man of Steel’.
A bright and optimistic approach (again)
Although many details of the plot are still unknown, the trailer has generated enormous enthusiasm among many fans, with decent visual effects, an epic atmosphere and a more human and vulnerable vision of the hero. It is focused as the first feature film from DC Studios, a newly imagined universe in which humor and emotion, returns the character to unwavering confidence in the goodness of humanity. Gunn directs from his own script, which brings back the hero’s pet Kripto, as well as the lycra pajama-like suit.
To do this, it seems that the safest option was to return to what we all associate with ‘Superman’, the soundtrack that John Williams conceived for the character almost 50 years ago. A detail that almost does not attract attention when watching the trailer again, but that implies a lot of deliberation and intention with respect to this approach, as well as the choice of the suit and the bright colors, which the producer revealed to be an unthinkable and impossible option. to avoid. Although the composer John Murphy has its own reasons, Williams’ score, came into the plan before he even finished writing the film.
The big question Gunn asked himself at the beginning was to what extent the Williams issue would influence the process, taking into account that he feels a deep personal attachment to the original soundtrack, as he tells Collider:
“I knew from the beginning what I wanted to do with the music. I thought a lot about it: ‘Are we going to do something completely different? Are we going to use Williams’ theme? It’s one of my favorite soundtracks of all time, and when “I was a kid, really… what I liked most about the movie was the music. I knew we were doing something that was reminiscent of the past but also looked to the future, so it was about finding that balance.”
back to the past
Murphy began working on the music before the script was finished and was one of the first people to read it, with the first mission to make his own version of Williams’ theme, which which gave rise to many other inspired pieces in that tune.
“There are other tracks that are purely John Murphy. Williams comes in and out, and John Murphy is used. And he’s used wonderfully throughout the movie. John has worked non-stop for almost two years to compose the score. As many people know, I write the basic elements of the score beforehand and I play them on set during filming, and that’s what we did with this one. But with everything in this movie, it’s about finding that balance between the new and the traditional.”
In Bryan Singer’s case, the director wanted John Williams to compose his score, but he was busy with ‘Star Wars’ ep. so Singer chose John Ottman, who did the same as Murphy, adapting the original melodies to the emotional element. Although we have seen different interpretations in series and films, the idea has something of what James Bond or ‘Mission Impossible’ have continued to practice in all the iterations of those films, but there is A worrying element here is that this has been conceived as an “antidote” to Zack Snyder’s serious and messianic version.
Context is everything, and the operation has a touch of nostalgia that has been the kryptonite of the superhero genre lately, although it is not exactly Gunn’s style. That’s why it seems like a false step, or at least a conservative measure to ensure that the first attempt of this new DC have them all with you. A somewhat half-baked option, because the visual choice is too reminiscent of DC television events on the CW channel, even Andy Muschietti’s ‘Flash’. A bit disappointing as a breakup, but it doesn’t raise as many doubts as its score.
Beyond the internal wars between fans of the Snyderverse and the original comics, or how the script may be, the truth is that the musical decision implies a return to that 2006 film, which It cost 204 million at that time and raised only 390, and whose marketing dynamics were not very different from what we see now. In addition, Singer had just made ‘X-Men’ 1 and 2, that is, the films that put Marvel at the seed of the success of superhero adaptations, a role that is reminiscent of Gunn, coming from the success of the MCU to try to raise the cinematic DC, a challenge that he has decided to take hand in hand with the best-known fanfare of the genre, a move on which the entire development of his own universe may depend. The intentions are very good, but history sometimes repeats itself.
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