BIG RED S: Superman (David Corenswet) arrives at the Fortress of Solitude in James Gunn’s Superman. (Warner Bros.)
Review by Curt Holman
It’s no surprise that in James Gunn’s splashy Superman, the titular Man of Steel saves lives. Protecting the innocent has always been his thing.
But this Superman (David Corenswet) doesn’t just rescue the citizens of Metropolis from the latest disaster. He sticks up for distant, smaller countries when war-mongering neighbors send in tanks. If a fire-breathing kaiju goes on a rampage, he looks for a non-lethal means to stop it. In the midst of a spectacular fight scene, he’ll even take a second to move a lowly SQUIRREL out of harm’s way.
Corenswet makes Superman a delightfully wholesome goody two-shoes, in sharp contrast to Henry Cavill’s glowering demigod in Zach Snyder’s divisive take on DC superheroes. Superman, written and directed by James Gunn, represents a sharp, sunshiny change of course and a launching pad for a renewed DC franchise on the big and small screen.
As a rebrand, Gunn’s Superman sets an upbeat tone for future installments. For Superman, the writer-director of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy films (among others) puts a premium on brightness, color, snappy comedy and the goofiness of old-school comic books. The film’s opening scenes introduce Silver Age comic mainstays like rambunctious super-dog Krypto, as well as the crystalline Fortress of Solitude and its staff of caped Superman robots.
Possibly the film’s greatest power is Corenswet’s ability to convey the goodness and decency of Clark Kent/Kal-El while still feeling like an authentic 21st century person. He’s able to exclaim “Golly!” and sound like he means it.
He’s perfectly matched with Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane, who has not just a flirtation but a romance-as-equals with him. In one of the film’s early highlights, Lois interviews Clark about Superman’s international interventionism, and his naive vision of good vs. evil hits against her nuanced understanding of global complexities. It’s an argument in which neither one is right nor wrong, and while Superman can fly and has super-vision, Lois is better at seeing the big picture. The actors have great chemistry reminiscent of Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder, and Lois wonders about their long-term compatibility, not just as Kryptonian vs. human, but idealist vs. cynic.
At times Lois’ reporter skills come to Superman’s rescue, and even Jimmy Olsen (a likable Skyler Gisondo) gets a subplot that’s unexpectedly relevant to the main story. Nicholas Hoult plays Superman’s arch nemesis Lex Luthor as a multitasking, tyrannical plutocrat implementing multiple interconnected schemes to undermine the superhero and amass power.
Hoult’s enraged, sadistic take on the character is possibly the most loathsome Luthor ever seen in movies (which is saying something when one Luthor was played by Kevin Spacey and another patterned after Max Landis). Superman goes to some visually and thematically dark, murky territory, with some plot points – innocent citizens held in detention without due process by masked enforcers of the status quo – turning out to have more present-day relevance than Gunn could have guessed a year ago. Superman doesn’t get as grim as Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but it’s less effective at reconciling the sharp changes in tone.
It’s also a film overstuffed with characters and story threads, as if Gunn has set a huge table that serves more than the viewer can digest. In addition to Superman’s parents (in Kryptonian recordings and at the Kansas homestead), there are more Daily Planet staffers, several high-tech adversaries and a gross, conniving foreign president. There’s even a team of superheroes, tentatively called the “Justice Gang,” who prove to be allies and rivals to Superman.
Frequent Gunn collaborator Nathan Fillion plays a comics-perfect take on Guy Gardener, the a-hole Green Lantern with the galaxy’s worst haircut. But perhaps the film’s best non-Krypto supporting player is Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), a tech genius who becomes a deadpan comedic foil and Superman’s staunchest defender against his better judgment. Honestly, nerds love nothing more than when minor-league comic characters like Mr. Terrific get plucked from obscurity and hit a home run in the mainstream.
With so many elements at play, Superman has to hit the ground running and rush to keep all the plates spinning. It takes a while for the story to gel – and frankly, some subplots, like the Russia vs. Ukraine military analog – never come satisfyingly together. But it’s arguably better for a film to have too many interesting ideas than too few, and Superman will probably hold up well on repeat viewings.
Certainly Krypto, despite being a mostly CGI creation, emerges as a star ready for a spot on the Hollywood walk of fame. Easily distracted and only sporadically obedient, Krypto appears in the film just often enough to make for wonderful comic relief and to provide Clark with extra motivation. There’s a final bit with the super-dog near the movie’s end that plays like an uproarious punchline after nearly two hours of setup. Krypto’s a perfect example of Gunn’s confidence that some of the silliest items in comics lore can become audience favorites. This take on the Man of Tomorrow bodes well for the future.
Superman. Grade: B+. Stars David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult. Directed by James Gunn. Rated PG-13.