Personal Growth, Robots Optional

Barely two months after its theatrical bow, James Gunn’s Superman is out on disc, and all I want to do is watch it over and over again. It’s been a rough year, and it looks like it’s only going to get rougher. So let’s lose ourselves in hope.

When I caught up to Gunn’s much-discussed relaunch of the DC Comics cinematic universe last summer, it was exactly what I needed. Not only was a proper summer blockbuster filled with bright, colorful characters, refreshing performances and inventive set pieces, but it feels like a glorious statement of purpose for a hero who’s been perceived as either hopelessly old-fashioned or naïve in our more cynical age. Gunn’s movie elegantly makes the case that Superman is neither of those things. It’s just that people don’t know what to do with kindness when they see it.

I used to say that Henry Cavill understood the role of Superman a lot better than Zack Snyder did; certainly there’s a lot more depth and feeling in Cavill’s interpretation than Snyder could handle, and it’s telling that Joss Whedon’s reshot scenes Justice League are the only ones where Cavill gets to relax and play the indulgent big brother with his new super-friends. Snyder saw Superman as a god among men; Gunn knows there’s nothing Kal-El wants more than to be an ordinary human.

He even gives him a climactic speech about how human he feels, and David Corenswet – so quietly charming in Ned Benson’s underseen The Greatest Hits – demonstrates that in every scene. Superman is an aspirational figure for the whole world, brave and forthright and unfailingly honest. (Corenswet also understands that Superman is who Clark Kent wants to be; just listen to the way he lowers his voice when he’s in character, and how Clark’s higher register comes out when he’s stressed or angry.)

Gunn’s film opens with Superman fully established in a world of heroes and villains, dating Lois Lane (a perfect Rachel Brosnahan, who borrows Margot Kidder’s distinctive pronunciation of “Superman” but otherwise makes the character her own) and embroiled in controversy after stopping an invasion of Jarhanpur by the neighboring Boravia without asking permission from the US or the UN before intervening. Said controversy has of course been engineered by calculating techno-capitalist Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) to turn the public against him, but public opinion is really the least of Superman’s troubles. There’s also a kaiju to stop and a global conspiracy to thwart and a couple of supervillains to battle … one of whom seems to be as powerful as Superman himself.

Gunn juggles all of these plot strands effortlessly, shifting between coherent, exhilarating action sequences and smaller material like a kid flipping enthusiastically through the pages of a new comic book – which this Superman very much is. Heroes and heavies roll in and out as needed, most cheerfully the squabbling Justice Gang of Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi, a scene-stealer among scene-stealers), but the focus is always on Clark, a guy trying to do the right thing in the moment without worrying about his own safety.

James Gunn is a couple of years older than me, and we clearly grew up on the same comics and movies; there’s no question he loves what Richard Donner, Christopher Reeve and John Williams did as much as I do. But rather than building an addition onto their accomplishments, as Bryan Singer did in Superman Returns, Gunn’s Superman acknowledges the perfection of John Williams’ score and John Barry’s production design while charting its own bold path. Gunn isn’t as interested in Donner’s verisimilitude, and drops into a whiz-bang adventure with impossible technology, boundless vistas and a startling level of allegorical content: The story may not be set in the real world, but its parallels are ambitious and even audacious. The fantasy is in the way they’re resolved, I guess. But when you have a hero who’s powered by light and hope, you’re gonna get better results.

Superman isn’t the only film coming to disc this week … and Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN 2.0 has its own take on hope, oddly enough. It’s also a reboot of sorts, leaning heavily on James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day for a story that switches the original movie’s perky tween murderbot from evil to good, pitting her (it?) against a new mechanical menace.

Two years after M3GAN’s rampage, robotics engineer Gemma (Allison Williams) and her niece Cady (Violet McGraw) are getting on with their lives. Gemma has partnered with a former cybersecurity expert (Aristotle Athari) to launch a nonprofit AI watchdog, and Cady is adjusting to a new school and taking aikido lessons to channel her entirely understandable PTSD from the whole almost-got-killed-by-a-robot thing.

But when the government's new killer droid AMELIA (played by Elisabeth Olsen doppelganger Ivanna Sakhno) goes rogue, our heroes are yanked into a whole new level of techno-nightmare … and a resurrected M3GAN is their only hope of surviving. Unless she decides to kill them herself.

M3GAN 2.0 failed to catch fire when it opened theatrically earlier this summer, and I guess I’m not surprised; “T2, but with M3GAN” is an honest and even appealing description of the new film, but it also promises such a departure from the tone of the original that it alienated the audience that would have enjoyed it the most. The closest point of comparison is another Blumhouse sequel, Happy Death Day 2U, which traded “slasher Groundhog Day” for “slasher Back to the Future Part II,” and managed to wring some depth out of the idea. M3GAN 2.0 doesn’t try for anything like that; it’s much more fun to watch M3GAN – once again played by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis – puncture the idea of anyone in this world experiencing personal growth.

But even if the movie definitely overstays its welcome at two full hours, it’s pretty enjoyable for what it is, giving the audience what they think they want – robots kill people! M3GAN does a dance! Jemaine Clement plays an even smarmier version of Elon Musk! – and writer-director Johnstone, working from a story he developed with the ever-reliable Akela Cooper, has a blast referencing not just T2 but Jonathan Mostow’s subsequent T3, and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Leigh Whannell’s Upgrade besides. I wasn’t expecting much, and ended up having a pretty good time with it. You might too.

And now we come to Sorry, Baby, which also arrived on disc yesterday – at least in Canada – and offers neither superheroes nor killer robots.

But that’s fine. Not every summer movie needs to be a blockbuster, and Eva Victor’s first feature – in which the writer-director plays a grad student at a small college dealing with a traumatic event – is perfect as it is. It’s a minor-key study of trauma and recovery, following Victor’s bright, sensitive Agnes through the years before, during and after an incident that changes the immediate trajectory of her life.

The chronology is scrambled, with chapter titles like “The Year Before the Baby” that hint at where we are in time without offering any specifics; we might be skipping through Agnes’ memories, or we might be seeing her more clearly than she does. We meet the people in her life – housemate Lydie (Naomi Ackie), neighbor Gavin (Lucas Hedges), advisor Decker (Louis Cancelmi), the weirdly direct Natasha (Kelly McCormack) – and have to figure out what spaces they occupy there.

I don’t want to spoil the experience of watching Sorry, Baby without knowing anything more than that, because that’s how I saw it and it absolutely floored me. Victor – of whom I was entirely unaware before this movie came along – is a prodigious talent, and delivers one perfectly tailored scene after another, leavening the growing tension with moments of unexpected comedy that reveal something essential about a character, or make us lean forward to see what might happen next. Victor’s performance as Agnes is an extension of that aesthetic, but it’s not the only richly inhabited turn in the picture; John Carroll Lynch turns up for one scene and gives us a guy worthy of his own miniseries.

I should do the full-disclosure thing and point out that not only do I consider McCormack a pal, but I’ve known co-producer Kiva Reardon for something like twenty years. But because I am a bad friend, I didn’t know either of them was part of this until Kelly’s first appearance and Kiva’s name popped up in the end credits. And I am so, so happy for them both, because people are going to see this and more work will follow. I hope some of it comes from Victor, of whom I was entirely unaware before this movie came along and who I will now follow to the ends of the earth. So should you.

A24 has yet to announce a US Blu-ray release for Sorry, Baby, but VVS Films has taken the initiative and rolled out a Canadian edition this week, offering the feature in a beautiful 1080p/24 transfer and 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio in both English and French. The sole extra is an audio commentary that pairs Victor with editor Alex O’Flinn for a chatty, enthusiastic watchalong in which they trade on-set anecdotes, production secrets and thematic observations; it’s a very engaging track, and one that feels like an invaluable resource for aspiring filmmakers trying to figure out their own character studies. The existence of this commentary almost certainly means an A24 edition is coming at some point, and I’ll cover that if and when it surfaces. But this is an excellent release on its own.

Universal’s 4K/Blu-ray combo of M3GAN 2.0 offers both the PG-13 and unrated cuts of the film – there’s a little more violence, but that’s about it – and the same quartet of featurettes on both discs.

“Total Upgrade: Making M3GAN 2.0” is an overview of the production, with cast and crew interviews and quick looks at the production design and the effects, while “Droid DNA” looks more closely at the film’s non-human characters and “The Art of Slaying” goes deeper into the fight scenes and physical effects. Finally, “Scene Breakdown: Embrace AI Convention” gives us a glimpse of the massive undertaking that resulted in the picture’s biggest set piece … though at only five minutes, it’s just a glimpse. Cumulative running time is just over half an hour.

If you want a truly special special edition, Warner’s 4K disc of Superman is a stunner. The feature is presented in a bright, sparkling 2160p/24 master, with an HDR grade that ensures the reds and blues of Corenswet’s costume look like they came straight out of the comic pages. And it’s not all primary colors: The purple-gray depths of Luthor’s interdimensional space are given an almost three-dimensional texture. The Dolby Atmos soundscape is complex and lively, but precise enough to let us hear discrete keyboards tapping in the Planet’s bullpen or Krypto’s collar jingling at the edges of the sound field during various Fortress sequences. It’s a reference-quality disc even before the extras.

And the extras are swell. The hour-long documentary “Adventures in the Making of Superman” follows the production from start to finish, just as interested in the character choices as it is in the big action set pieces. What comes across, in moment after moment, is the enthusiasm everyone has for the project; you get the sense no one’s here for a paycheck. They’ve all grown up with Superman – as have we all – and the joy they take in bringing this new iteration to life is downright heartening.

Eight shorter featurettes push in on different aspects of the movie: The Daily Planet, the villains, the Justice Gang, Krypto, the score (by John Murphy and David Fleming), the legacy of Superman and DC Comics and the “New Era” of movies this film is meant to launch. There’s also an animated Krypto short, “School Bus Shuffle,” which was released online earlier this year. It might be heresy, but I prefer the CG character. He’s a very good boy.

Superman is now available from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment in individual 4K and Blu-ray editions; a combo steelbook is out there as well. M3GAN 2.0 is available in 4K/Blu-ray and Blu-ray editions from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Sorry, Baby is available on Blu-ray from VVS Films in Canada; the US release has yet to be announced.

Up next: Mamoru Hosoda’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride return in 4K upgrades. But first there’s a new edition of What’s Worth Watching for subscribers to the paid tier on Friday. Will I write about The Lowdown? Of course I goddamn will. Maybe level up so you don’t miss that.