‘Despite enjoying a successful box office run, Superman director James Gunn has admitted that he is still confused over the backlash the film has sparked, and added that an apparent “anti-American sentiment” has affected the film’s global performance.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly on the topic of the film’s controversial “Superwoke” branding by some far-right groups, Gunn admits that he doesn’t understand what made the film so “woke” to begin with. “I’ve heard people say it was woke, and then I’ve heard a lot of people say it’s not. I am curious as to what in the movie is considered woke,” he explained. “I think people took something I said… I said, it’s a story about an immigrant, but mostly it’s a story to me about kindness, which it is. That’s the centre of the movie for me.”
“That’s the thing we can all act upon, is kindness,” he continued. “I mean, people did value kindness in the past. That was an American value, was kindness, and it doesn’t necessarily seem to be that way to me anymore. So that was always the centre of the movie for me, and it wasn’t about anything other than that.”
Despite the “SuperWoke” backlash, the film is still holding strong in the domestic US box office, garnering US$235 million over two weekends since its release on 10 July. It’s international earnings, on the other hand, fell slightly short at US$171 million over the same time period, although Gunn remains positive that the film will continue to perform well globally.
“We’re definitely performing better domestically than we are internationally, but internationally is also rising and having really good weekday numbers in the same way we are.” the director said in a separate interview with Rolling Stone. “So obviously the word of mouth is very positive both here and everywhere else. Which is the thing that we needed to do the most.”
Gunn added that there is currently “a certain amount of anti-American sentiment around the world”, which has affected the film’s performance outside of the US. “So I think it’s just a matter of letting something grow. But again, for us, everything’s been a total win.” he explained.
Still, the fact remains that millions worldwide are enjoying Gunn’s Man of Steel reboot, and not just audiences, but ex-Superman stars too, with Brandon Routh, who took on the mantle in 2006’s Superman Returns, recently sharing his praise of the new movie during an interview with Variety.
According to the 45-year-old actor, the movie was “a lot of fun”, and it even made him cry “no less than three times”.
“I see this in a different way. I come at it from a different perspective,” Routh added. “I really got into it as I’m watching him navigate those tricky Superman moments in the first conversation with Lois and Clark in the apartment. And then all of the family stuff for me really hit. It’s a big movie. There’s a lot in there. I have to go see it again.”
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Ting Wei
Si Jia
