GET SUPERMAN RIGHT
Everybody knows that Henry Cavill’s Kal-El is not really dead — the Man of Steel’s coffin wasn’t fizzing with energy all by itself at the end of Dawn of Justice. But getting Superman’s return right will be a key task for the movie’s sequel. In part this is a matter of timing. Bring the big blue boy scout back too soon and he could easily overshadow Batman’s journey towards redemption. Take too long to restore the last son of Krypton to life and Warner risks releasing a second DCEU movie in a row in which its supposed biggest hitter barely registers. We learned nothing new about Superman in Dawn of Justice, beyond the pointless fact that his mum shares the same first name with Bruce Wayne’s long-dead mater. (Argh, again at the memory of that cheap turning point in Snyder’s deeply frustrating movie.) This time around, Superman has to prove why he’s always been the greatest superhero of them all. There have been moments of classy screenwriting in among the impenetrable mulch of the early DCEU movies, for example Russell Crowe/Jor-El’s clarion call to his son in the Fortress of Solitude in Man of Steel. “You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun, Kal. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders.” These are the lines that Superman now needs to start owning big time.