I'll be frank: I had mixed feelings, based solely on the trailers, about James Gunn's Superman reboot. Sure, the casting seemed great, Gunn has a winning track record on superhero fare, and Krypto the dog stole the show every time he appeared. The trailers struck a nice balance between action, humor, and heart. Yet the film also seemed overpacked with super-character cameos, and it was hard to get any sense of the actual plot.
I've now seen the film, and those impressions were largely correct. But I'm happy to report that the positives far outweigh any negatives. Superman is a super-fun ride that unabashedly embraces its early comic book roots, naive optimism and all.
(Spoilers below, but no major reveals.)
Gunn has described his take as less of an origin story and more of a journey, with Superman (David Corenswet) struggling to reconcile his Kryptonian heritage and aristocratic origins with his small-town adoptive human family. In fact, Gunn wanted to avoid the origin story entirely, asserting (correctly, in my opinion) that it has already been depicted multiple times and there is no need to cover the same ground.
So the film opens in medias res, with Superman's first defeat in battle against a metahuman dubbed the "Hammer of Boravia." We see him fall into the snow, bloodied and battered, and whistle for Krypto. The plucky little superdog drags Superman to the Fortress of Solitude, where he is treated by a posse of robots. Then he heads out again for Round 2—only to once again be thrashed by his rival metahuman (codename: Ultraman) who, we learn, is being controlled by Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) for mysterious and no doubt nefarious purposes.
Why is Ultraman attacking Metropolis? Because a few weeks before, Superman had foiled the Boravian army's invasion of the neighboring country of Jarhanpur, avoiding pointless bloodshed but drawing criticism for interfering in a foreign war when he lacked any governmental authority to do so. Naturally, Luthor expertly manipulates the media coverage against Superman while trying to convince the Pentagon that Superman poses a major threat to national security. The idealistic and naively optimistic Superman walks right into the trap.
Man of Steel
Unfortunately, avoiding the origin story makes for a rather weak first act; one feels as if one has blindly stumbled into the middle of a very complicated narrative with few guideposts as to what's going on. We eventually get our bearings and the film finds its footing—and although the overstuffed plot never really makes much sense, by then we're having too much fun to mind—but that first 20 minutes is a slog.
It doesn't help that Gunn also sidestepped the whole "Why doesn't Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) realize that Clark Kent is Superman?" question. In this incarnation, Lois and Clark are already romantically involved, albeit secretly, and she is well aware of his true identity. (As for why nobody else makes the connection, we're told at one point that Clark's glasses interfere somehow with how humans perceive him—certainly a novel explanation.)
Again, it's a good creative instinct on Gunn's part, but that decision weakens the impact of an early scene where Lois interviews Clark as Superman about his Boravian actions, during which he gets defensive, and they have a major fight. We don't know this couple yet, so we're not emotionally invested, and it's not that interesting to watch the extended bickering. The whole scene just feels forced. By contrast, a later reconciliation scene between Lois and Clark packs an emotional punch precisely because by then we do know these people and care about the outcome.
A hero’s journey
The film's greatest strength is its stellar cast, starting with Corenswet's Clark Kent/Superman. The Juilliard-trained actor brings the perfect mix of quiet strength, compassion, humility, and naive optimism to the character, who finds himself questioning everything he thought he believed when he encounters a devastating truth about his heritage. (I won't spoil the reveal, but it's a significant change to the Superman canon and is likely to have ramifications for future films in the franchise.)
Brosnahan is the best Lois Lane we've seen since Margot Kidder, and Skyler Gisondo gives us a more mature, competent version of Jimmy Olsen, who also seems to have quite a way with the ladies, much to Lois' puzzlement. Hoult gives us a Lex Luthor made for the moment: a super-smart, ruthless businessman with a massive-yet-fragile ego who simply can't stand the fact that a "metahuman" gets more public attention and adoration than he does.
There are way too many cameos and supporting characters for an already crowded cast, but I'll single out Anthony Carrigan's Metamorpho, Edi Gathegi's Mister Terrific, and Pruitt Taylor Vince's Jonathan Kent for special mention. Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) is largely wasted here, and Nathan Fillion's Green Lantern is mostly an obnoxious jerk played for laughs—especially that disastrous bowl-cut hair.
It's much to Gunn's credit that Superman works exceptionally well despite a few shortcomings. I'd give it a solid B+. Gunn has described his film as being "about kindness. It’s a movie about being good." Kindness is rather out of fashion these days, but Gunn's take is very much in line with the classic, pre-Snyderverse, ultra-idealistic noble Superman we've long known and loved. Add Corenswet's soulful vulnerability, and this is the superhero we need right now. Audiences clearly agree, as evidenced by the strong early box office numbers. We'll see where Gunn takes the DC Universe with his Gods and Monsters arc from here, but the franchise reboot is off to a very promising start.
Superman is now playing in theaters.
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