James Gunn Removed a Widely Ridiculed Shot From Superman

Movies

One of the most ridiculed scenes in the Superman advertising campaign is no longer in the movie. At the end of the first Superman TV spot, there’s a shot of David Corenswet’s Superman flying towards the screen. You probably remember it because it was everywhere after that commercial hit the internet, and it was so popular because it looked awful. Superman looks goofy and silly, like an awful CGI effect instead of a flying Kryptonian in a fantasy superhero epic. But it’s gone; in an interview with Entertainment Weekly about Superman and the DCU, James Gunn says that he cut the shot from the ads that drew so much ire from fans, not so much because of the ridicule as because Gunn agreed that it didn’t look right. He also reiterates that Superman is not CGI in the shot; it’s actually a picture of David Corenswet and a drone, but it looked like CGI because the effect didn’t work. You can see the ad below if you need to refresh your memory:

When I saw the headlines saying James Gunn had cut a widely mocked scene from Superman, I said, “It’s the shit-posting space monkeys, right? It has to be the shit-posting space monkeys. How can it be anything but the shit-posting space monkeys?” But it’s not; it’s the flying thing. And that’s not to say the shit-posting space monkeys weren’t cut; Gunn never admitted the scene was real – or said it was fake – so he can cut it without acknowledging it was ever in the film for whatever ungodly reason it once was. (It’ll be interesting to see if it makes it into the deleted scenes of the DVD and Blu-ray releases if it is cut from the film.) As for the flying, I get it, and I’m happy it won’t be there because it does look awful. And this whole story is not unusual; that’s the process of filmmaking, and it’s why you often see scenes in trailers that don’t make it to the final film or are slightly altered: production usually isn’t done when the trailers and commercials start rolling out. I can also see the reasoning behind the shot; if it worked, watching Superman fly towards the screen at super speed would be cool and give the audience something to marvel at (no pun intended). It would also be something to differentiate Gunn’s movie from other Superman films and shows. But it didn’t work, so it’s gone; again, this is all fine and normal.

However, the final Superman trailer (embedded above) makes me wonder if excising this one shot will make much of a difference in the look of the movie. That trailer was full of awful visuals, most of them thanks to dreadful CGI that ruins a bunch of scenes that are supposed to be cool and show off Superman’s powers. As bad as it is, that coming-at-you shot in the TV spot looks better than those shots of Superman taking flight at the end of the trailer, where he looks like he’s made of flopping licorice, or when he’s swinging a big pole that’s more rubbery than CGI stunts from early-2000s movies like Daredevil, or darting around the big monster where he seems to jump into and out of reality. Even that shot of Superman using his heat vision against an army of flying foes, which is clearly supposed to be the “whoa” moment of the trailer, looks off, like the effects aren’t finished; it comes off better than the others because it’s darker and more obscured, but it’s not good. So, I’m glad James Gunn removed a bad shot from the movie, but unless those clips were taken from early in the production (and I don’t see how since they’re from the final trailer), I suspect a lot of similar cringe-inducing moments are still waiting for audiences.

Let us know what you think of James Gunn removing the flying shot from Superman in the comments!

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