This article contains spoilers for "Superman."
By now, plenty has already been written about the more absurd aspects of James Gunn's "Superman." Those aspects are intentional, of course -- efforts to remove the film from the more self-serious tone of some other recent adaptations and embrace the silliness of the comics. No character in the movie embodies that philosophy better than Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor, whose bulging eyes and furrowed brow get put through the ringer over the course of the film's
two hours.
It's perfect casting, and Hoult plays the classic Superman villain with overflowing, cartoonish evil. He shouts, he screams, he laughs at cruelty, and he obsesses over Superman. It's all good fun, but when you put your villain so fully in the mustache-twirling space, you run the risk of crossing the "this makes no sense" line, and "Superman" inevitably makes that mistake.
The detail I'm speaking of concerns Ultraman, who's revealed to be an imperfect clone of Superman created by Lex, and who battles the real Kryptonian on several occasions throughout the movie. In each of these fights, Lex controls Ultraman like some maniacal arcade-stick twiddler learning fatalities on "Mortal Kombat II." He has a whole room full of lackeys monitoring the fight, and as Luthor shouts out numbered commands -- each one corresponding to a different fighting move -- his command center translates them to Ultraman.
The setup gives Hoult plenty of opportunity to be ridiculous, but it also, quite frankly, makes no sense.
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Just think about this for a second: In order for Ultraman to perform a move, Lex and company must first watch Superman through their live video feeds and see his own approach. Lex then reacts to that, shouts out a command, which is heard and relayed by his cronies, and then sent to Ultraman, who performs the move.
The problem, of course, is that Superman is way, way too fast for that to ever work. I don't know if you've heard, but there are some who say he's faster than a speeding bullet. When he races the Flash, it is famously close. Yes, this is a younger version of Superman. He's clearly operating at a lower power level (to put things in "Dragon Ball Z" terms, since Superman is essentially Goku) than what we see during his highlight comic book moments. But even still, the Luthor setup shouldn't be able to land a single hit.
By the time a command goes from Lex's mouth to Ultraman's fist, Superman should be well past the point where the desired move would connect. It's literally like fighting someone in an online game, but you have zero input lag, and they're operating at 200 ping. Ultraman should never land a single shot on Superman. Instead, he beats him decisively -- on multiple occasions!
Does It Matter That Superman Sometimes Doesn't Make Any Sense?
I think I've made my point that Lex Luthor's evil LAN party wouldn't work at all against Superman. The more relevant question, perhaps, is whether or not it actually matters that his battle setup makes no sense. In Lex's defense (or Gunn's, I suppose), this isn't the only part of the movie that sacrifices realism for camp aesthetic. How are those pocket universe glass prison cells remotely practical? And in what world is a billionaire ever arrested when proof of their crimes is published in the press?
The intention throughout is not to create a "realistic" world, but one that feels adjacent to ours -- recognizable, but with its own rules. That extends to the whole tone of the world: the hypno glasses, Guy Gardner's haircut, the works. And for the most part, it works. Why go to a superhero movie where the protagonist has shorts over his blue tights if you're expecting realism? The film crafts a fun, effective tone for the kind of goofy but heartfelt story it wants to tell.
All that said, the Luthor fight thing still bugs me. I think that's because it seems to be ignoring the movie's own rules about this alternate reality. Superman is just too fast, and while "fighting him by committee" is an interesting and funny concept, I think these battles with Ultraman would have felt a bit more dynamic if they were slightly more believable.
"Superman" is in theaters now.
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