The teaser trailer release for James Gunn’s Superman was huge. To put it in context, more people watched the trailer in 15 hours than have watched the trailer for Avatar from the day that trailer was released right up until today. In case you have been asleep for two weeks, you can see the trailer here.
Around the same time, there were some reports of various screenings happening in various forms, purely for Warner Bros insiders and crews on the lot. Now, an excellent report by Garth Franklin over at Dark Horizons has summarised all of these into an easily digestible walk through the rumor and speculation.
In his report, Garth highlights The Hollywood Reporter story that said Gunn had screened the movie in a highly unfinished form for a “close-knit crew of people he trusts” a couple of weeks before the rest of the world got to see the first glimpse at the new Superman via the teaser. The report made a comment that it would not report the buzz it was hearing from this screening due to this closeness.
Following fast after the trailer release Jeff Sneider claimed a “rock-solid source” told him that the film is “kind of a mess” after a private screening at the Warner lot.
Then, yesterday, Sneider doubled down on this, saying their sources “knew multiple people who had seen Superman” and that:
“[The] buzz is not good. I’m hearing bad things. I’m hearing ‘you should be worried things’. It sounds like James Gunn is aware of some of the feedback.”
However, there is a completely opposing view via John Rocha, who commented in more detail via The Hot Mic podcast:
“Someone who’s seen Superman told me it has the tone of the first Captain America movie and the Mummy films. They said Nicholas Hoult is the standout and the film is ‘decent’ but a large chunk of the film was unfinished with only a third of the film’s VFX done. [It has] the least amount of humor of any Gunn film but there’s still humor throughout the film. Most people will be satisfied with the movie and it should be received well enough to continue Gunn’s DCU.”
This sparked a flurry of leaks, also summarised nicely by Dark Horizons. A reliable, long-standing test screening source BigScreenLeaks conflicted with the InSneider report, echoing the Rocha feedback, saying that the film has been very well received internally at the studio thus far.
CBM also chimed in, with their source calling the unfinished cut of the movie they had seen so far as “Guardians of Galaxy-level good”, saying multiple sources told them the movie is very good.
Gunn himself hasn’t commented on the talk and the article highlights that there are no plans for reshoots beyond pick-up shots. This would tend to support the view that the studio is happy.
So there it is. One thing is sure. Many will choose what they want to believe based on their preconceived ideas and expectations of the movie. If they are all in on the new DCU, or if they are a Snyder-Bro who just can’t let go, will determine where on this spectrum people fall.