Movie Review: New 'Superman' From Director James Gunn | Seven Days

So, yes, the discourse is out of control. It started when Superman writer-director James Gunn suggested to interviewers that the beloved DC Comics hero was an “immigrant.” (Superman is, after all, a refugee from another planet.) The right-wing media sphere riposted by deriding Gunn’s reboot as “woke.” The White House posted a doctored version of the movie poster with the president’s face on the Man of Steel. People spread an unfounded rumor that Gunn was suing over the appropriation. Superman made a lot of money over the weekend, which didn’t silence the naysayers.

It would be absurd to decry the “politicization” of Superman — fiction and politics have always been overlapping spheres. But does the hero’s second full cinematic reboot have a reason to exist beyond offering the latest excuse for online hullabaloo?

The deal

Forget about origin stories. Everybody already knows how Superman reached Earth and was raised by kindhearted Ma and Pa Kent (Neva Howell and Pruitt Taylor Vince). This tale opens in medias res, with young Superman (David Corenswet) already well known in Metropolis, masquerading as Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent and dating fellow newshound Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan). Superman isn’t the only “metahuman” in this world, but he is the strongest, and he’s made powerful enemies by foiling the invasion plans of a dictator. (There’s no single glaring analogue to real-world events here, which hasn’t stopped the speculation.)

While the State Department frets over Superman’s unilateral foreign interventions, billionaire Lex Luthor (a wonderfully smug Nicholas Hoult) takes matters into his own hands. Eager to protect his economic interests, he crafts new metahumans to attack Superman.

But Lex’s real coup is a PR smear. Having infiltrated Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, he reconstructs the fragmentary message that Superman’s alien parents (Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan) sent with him to Earth. Turns out the Kryptonians intended Kal-El to rule humanity and not just be our protector, as he’s always assumed. Once the news leaks, the world decides Superman is a wannabe tyrant with a “secret harem.”

It’s a shock to a gee-whiz guy who has only ever wanted to help people. When Lex kidnaps the Superdog, Krypto, Superman gets really pissed off.

Will you like it?

Much has been made of the vibe shift from Zack Snyder’s “gritty,” tormented 2013 version of the Man of Steel to this one. Without a doubt, Gunn’s Superman returns to the sunnier, cornier tone of the 1978 Richard Donner film. Corenswet’s Superman is almost comically good — he rescues kids, dogs, even unwary squirrels — and he isn’t afraid to be uncool. When Lois accuses him of being naïve, he suggests that trust and kindness to others are “the real punk rock.”

It’s the mission statement of an uncynical hero who has been very knowingly designed for an ultra-cynical era. Superman is often a silly movie, much like Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films, yet there’s nothing pandering or sanitized about it.

Indeed, it has one telling resemblance to Man of Steel: Both take place in a 24-7 news culture where everyone is expecting Superman to make a fascist heel turn. The 21st century doesn’t know how to comprehend someone so strong and so decent, but that’s just who this guy is.

The movie manages to make goodness interesting, in large part because its star radiates old-fashioned charisma. Corenswet deploys a slightly dorky charm to play the character as confident without being arrogant, just like original Superman Christopher Reeve. Brosnahan matches him with a tight-wound nerviness reminiscent of Margot Kidder. This Lois already knows Clark’s secret identity, so we get to watch them work out the growing pains of their relationship without secrets. In one deftly written scene, she challenges both his geopolitical savvy and his journalistic ethics — Superman has a questionable habit of interviewing himself.

Somehow this adult romance coexists just fine with the kid-friendly shenanigans of Krypto (who is not a very good boy). Most of the long roster of wacky supporting characters make strong impressions, from a lady-killer Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) to a fatuous Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) to Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), who’s so fearsomely competent that he regards everyone else with a touch of serene disdain. It’s easier to forgive the dullness of the requisite city-wrecking CGI battles with such amusing company.

If you want a more “realistic” Superman or just hate comic-book movies, this Superman isn’t for you. The primary colors, chaotic world-building and goofy, self-referential humor all work in synergy. It’s the kind of movie where the sneering villain has a lair that doubles as an escape vehicle.

But if you’re weary of comic-book movies that take themselves ultra-seriously, Gunn’s Superman delivers. Sure, maybe it’s political, if you think there’s something radical about a Superman who just wants to save people, regardless of their nationality, color or creed. Also, it’s fun.

If you like this, try…

Super (2010; AMC+, Philo, Pluto TV, Roku Channel, YouTube Primetime, rentable): Back when Gunn was a low-budget indie filmmaker, he made this comedy that deconstructs the whole superhero mythos, with Rainn Wilson as a jilted husband homicidally determined to fight evil. It’s equally disturbing and funny.

Man of Steel (2013; HBO Max, YouTube Primetime, rentable): There’s been endless debate over whether Snyder’s edgy version of Superman (Henry Cavill) is the superior one.

Superman (1978; HBO Max, YouTube Primetime, rentable): But most people seem to acknowledge the classic status of Donner’s version, which predated the comic-book conquest of cinema.