Before I get started with this review, I gotta get some SEO/GEO stuff out of the way really quick in the lede: James Gunn was reportedly fired from the DCU this week as his Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, goes into post-production.
Whew, OK. Now that nonsense is over, we can get to the real meat of this column.
Superman — the one that came out last year marking the start of a very short-lived Gunn-led DCU — sucks. And not in a way like, “ah that movie sucks.” Like, really sucks. I will stand on business
and say that it’s the worst movie I’ve seen in at least five years.
That sucks for a few reasons. While I’m a vocal Superman skeptic — oh, cool, an invincible alien that can only be hurt by a rare space crystal, that sure has a lot of stakes — I do have a soft spot for the old Christopher Reeve films. They’re a little hokey, but damn that John Williams score hits. I also have a lot of room for James Gunn as a filmmaker, at least in theory. I think his Guardians of the Galaxy films don’t get enough credit for revitalizing the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I think his writing style, though kind of grating and not nearly as transgressive as he’d like to think, can open up unexpectedly poignant character moments.
None of those positive associations with the man of steel or Mr. Gunn, a hometown hero in St. Louis, were enough to save the drudgery of last year’s Superman movie, which I found to be aggressively boring, horribly written, and politically cynical. It was the first time in my recent memory that I could remember angrily shouting at a screen while I watched a movie… from the comfort of my home, of course. I’m not some sort of animal that screams in theaters, I promise.
And you may already be seeing some connections here, specifically with my feelings toward Gunn and Eli Drinkwitz, though I’m admittedly much higher on the latter. But truthfully as I mulled over how to write this Revue, the thing that kept coming back to my mind was the anger I felt watching Mizzou miss its opportunity against Texas. Because ultimately that’s what this felt most like: a missed opportunity.
You can go to Rock M+ to read my full breakdown of feelings about the officiating in Saturday’s game. Long story short, I agree with Laird Veatch’s recent statement. The officials weren’t the reason Mizzou lost that game, simply because the Tigers still had a chance to win it after all the most damaging calls were made. Did they change the complexion and the trajectory of the game? Certainly! But is Mizzou even at that point if Blake Craig doesn’t miss two easy field goals or the offense finds a way to stem its flood of issues in the red zone? Probably not!
Still, those decisions did happen. And they did impact the flow of the game. And they made me feel something in the midst of a game that I can’t remember ever feeling, a feeling that has now morphed into anger. And that feeling was apathy.
It was strange. I was watching Mizzou lose to a team that, after years of conditioning, I generally don’t care for. I was angry about the bad calls, sure. I rolled my eyes when Craig’s two FG misses sailed wide. But generally, I just felt apathy about the whole season. Because, let’s be honest, it’s kind of been a drag from the start. The Ahmad Hardy injury saga might’ve been an omen for how the 2026 season was going to play out – a whole lot of promise, wiped out in a second, suddenly revived… only to peter into nothingness.
And that’s not to say there haven’t been incredibly exciting things to come of this campaign. Austin Simmons is a future NFLer, and he’ll be in Columbia for at least another year. Corey Batoon might be coaching his best defense yet after an offseason of massive turnover. Jamal Roberts has been a revelation in his transition to the main role. Donovan Olugbode and Cayden Lee have been a great 1-2 pairing who could light SEC secondaries on fire if they both return for 2027. Hell, there’s even hope that the Tigers could have Hardy back for another year if everything goes well with his continued recovery.
Yet the loss to Texas kind of summarized the feelings that have been building in me since Mizzou got wiped out by Ole Miss in October. This team, like many before it, is really good. But they’re also just a few steps short of truly great. They can’t recover from missed field goals. They can’t come back from egregious officiating errors. They’re not potent enough to power through horrible red zone offense. They may be in 2027, which looks like it could be a very special season for Mizzou Football.
But it’s still 2026. And the season, even with three games left to play, feels dead in the water. Maybe that’s the downside of an expanded playoff. More opportunity means more hope, and more hope means more disappointment when it doesn’t work out. And that disappointment flips to anger when you realize it was all so close, only to be stripped away by some idiot in Mississippi with a firearm and a few officials who decided November 7 was the day they’d have their worst performance in zebra stripes.
Where was I? Superman? No, that’s for the closing line.
There’s still time for this Mizzou season to be redeemed, even without beating Georgia on Saturday. Finishing the season 8-4 with a bowl win would do wonders for morale and give the program a whole lot of momentum going into a key offseason. And like I said a few weeks ago, if Auburn can do it, so can Mizzou.
I still can’t shake the feeling, however, that there’s been a whole lot of kryptonite just lying around this fall. And that, like all conveniently-placed narrative devices, pisses me off.
For losing to Texas, Mizzou gets 1 out of 5 Kryptos. He was the only good part of that movie, and you only get one.
