It’s a bird, it’s a place, it’s an… oversaturation of the James Gunn formula.
Let’s rewind (if you know you know) back to the summer of 2014, when James Gunn came bursting (or light speed-warping) into cinemas with Guardians of the Galaxy. What should have been Marvel’s first flaming disaster became a cultural phenomenon of gifs, quotable lines, memorable needle-drops and a killer emotional hook for audiences across the globe. Yes, there was no dry eye in the theater for ‘“We are Groot!”
Somehow, through sheer force of will, the rag-tag group of misfits with tragic, disturbed pasts became the biggest superheroes in the world, scratch that…galaxy.
But to dive a little deeper and dissect the success, James Gunn was a mad genius behind the lens, carefully curating such a slick, appealing formula that even with all the doubters, he was guaranteed success. A matinee good-looking A-lister with serious comedic chops in the lead, a beefcake wrestler in a stoic supporting role, a femme fatale and a further supporting cast padded with adorable quasi-animals. We’ve got the eye candy, the action scenes, the comedy and the heart… throw in some classic 80’s bangers and some strobe effects and it’s a pretty undefeatable formula.
What further bolstered Guardians of the Galaxy’s success was its position as the palate cleanser between the dark, serious sandwich that was the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Both were high-stakes entries in the MCU franchise and serious tonal pivots towards a grittier, pre-Thanos arrival endgame. Therefore, the bubblegum pop tone of Guardians of the Galaxy could not have been more welcome and more fresh for comic book movie enjoyers.
Then… well the freshness got a little less fresh.
James Gunn repeated that same formula again for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and then again for Guardians Vol. 3, and then again for The Suicide Squad, and then again for Creature Commandos. But then came Superman (2025) and maybe just mayb- no, it fit into that formula too.
The uniqueness and specialness of Guardians of the Galaxy, a palate cleanser, isn’t so refreshing when it tastes exactly the same as every movie released around it.
Don’t get me wrong, James Gunn is always able to deliver on his trademark sentimentality and fist-pumpers, but now they feel like checkbox Gunn-isms rather than congruent with the actual story being told.
This is no more obvious than with his first foray into the world of DC with his re-introduction of The Suicide Squad.
Let’s not beat around the bush… Suicide Squad (2016) was bad. A clear Frankenstein’s monster of studio interference, too many characters, a James Gunn-esque hip-hop soundtrack and flashy, pop visuals to distract from a movie that was quite bare on story, character and plot.
But even with all the mayhem around the movie’s release and the general distaste for the final product, the movie itself made a whopping $749 million worldwide. Not too shabby for a movie with a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes and no real story.
The success of the movie can be attributed to one thing… that damn trailer. The advertising campaign painted Suicide Squad (2016) as a true rival to Marvel, the gritty, scary twin cousin of the behemoth MCU that would take risks, be a bit bolder and scarier. They had their heroine in skimpy tight bikini bottoms, a crocodile eating people on screen and a general promise that we would see people’s heads be blown off… ON SCREEN?
So even when the movie itself didn’t really deliver on being scandalous, the general idea of the Suicide Squad and its costume and character design was so iconic that it was able to persevere through the reviews. Audiences like this version of the Suicide Squad, the cool, edgy bad kids on the superhero playground… they just didn’t like the fact that they had nothing to do.
Then, The Suicide Squad got rebooted in 2021 with a James Gunn re-skin. Gone was the dark, gritty tonality. Gone was the generally favoured darker tone that connects with DC fans. Overnight, the cool, edgy bad kids on the superhero playground got turned into the loser Guardians of the Galaxy rip-offs with all the trademark Gunn-isms.
It has your matinee idol good-looking comedian in Margot Robbie, the beefcake wrestler in John Cena, cute rats and even a cute shark, and enough needle drops to make you forget that these characters actually need to speak. The results of the Gunn-ifying of this once edgy property was a measly $168 million worldwide, nearly $600 million less than its predecessor that it was trying to correct the sins of. This was the first sign that not everything needs the Gunn effect, in fact, some properties are better off without it.
Which brings us nicely to Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2026), a movie based on the comic about a young Kara Zor-El becoming bloodthirsty with rage, hellbent on revenge for the murder of her father in a sort of “space-western.” This should be DC’s True Grit with just a few added laser eye beams and hair tosses. It’s dark, it’s gritty and it’s a story that thematically centers around a young woman’s grief and how she turns to alcoholism and addiction to get through it… pretty heavy stuff.
Then here comes Gunn’s take on the story featuring yet again, a bumbling blonde in the lead role, a wrestler turned actor showing off comedic chops in Jason Momoa, a cute puppy sidekick for emotional effect and again, a main character with a Walkman and a knack for 80’s alt-rock. It’s not even just homage at this point, but direct derivativeness and ultimately… stale.
All of the darkness of the comic is seemingly stripped away so James Gunn and director Craig Gillespie can neatly slot this newest installment into the cookie-cutter factory James Gunn assembly line productions. Supergirl should feel unique, distinct and inherently darker than the other DCU projects so far, and yet it could literally be interchangeable with any number of Gunn’s previous projects.
Therein lies the key problem: James Gunn and his formula are inherently incongruent with the demands of the DC Universe. The most successful movies to come out of DC are Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Suicide Squad and Joker (2019), movies that lean into a darker, quasi-gothic tone. James Gunn applying his MTV teen raver sensibilities to these darker stories is dampening their shine, shedding audience interest and doing a disservice to the dark story that’s begging to be told.
Let’s make no mistake, Gunn was hired for his successes within Marvel, and not to discredit his work, but his success within Marvel was exacerbated by the environment he was working in. The Marvel release schedule was tactfully curated so that audiences would never be seeing the same movie, or tone, two cinema trips in a row. The throughline and connectivity of the MCU is not through tone, but through specific characters and background details that allow superfans to piece the puzzle together.
Gunn, however, as the head of the studio, is creating a DC Universe that is connected and punctuated entirely by his own stylistic choices and very specific taste. What may work perfectly for Superman is not entirely working for The Suicide Squad and Supergirl, and these projects are floundering because they are all becoming pureed in the James Gunn blender. You can only drink the same smoothie so many times before you start to feel sick, and i’m afraid with Supergirl, audiences are starting to get a little queasy.
The challenge for Gunn now is not proving he’s a competent filmmaker, we know that, his challenge is letting go of the reigns for the benefit of the company. There’s starting to become less and less distinction between each story and its making the audience question “are we really in an era of ‘Gods and Monsters’ or are we in an era of ‘varying degrees of Gunn?’”
— Darragh Evans