The ScreenVision pre-show reel predicted a $150 million opening. This must have been the same team of fortune-tellers hired by the Times that gave Hillary Clinton a commanding 11 point lead, for other than one family, I had the theatre to myself. (It fell short of their prognostications with a $96 million take.) The real Krypto was a test animal who spent years drifting through space after the earthbound rocket that carried him was knocked askew. In this telling, were it not for the pup’s pluck, Kal-El’s callous super-parents would have left Krypto behind with them to face certain death. Krypto grows to love Clark Kent’s solitary life and when Lois Lane begins spending the night, he becomes as protective of his master as Pongo was of Roger. When Lex Luthor kidnaps Superman, it’s up to Krypto, with the aid of a group of orange kryptonite-enhanced shelter pets, to rescue his master. Duane Johnson has a ball putting on the dog, and is it me, or has Chris Rock’s screeching delivery reached a level of annoyance on par with that of the late Gilbert Gottfried’s unremittingly kvetching Iago? Colorful, fast-paced, and better than Paws of Fury, but not by much. Directed by Jared Stern and Sam Levine. (2022) — Scott Marks
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