Last weekend we went to see the new Superman film, and, well, it’s the Superman I’ve been waiting my whole life to see.
I thought every Superman film before this was disappointing in some way, with Superman II being the best of the bunch. I remember seeing Superman: The Movie in the theater and being terribly disappointed in Gene Hackman’s Luthor being written as a clown with a decidedly pedestrian master plan (for amusingly-sharp contrast on this point, John Scalzi disagrees). Superman Returns felt like an updating of the first Christopher Reeve film but didn’t have much new to offer, right down to Luthor’s master plan. And the less said about Man of Steel and the Zack Snyder films, the better; the tone is wrong, the stories are dumb, and it’s just all so dreary. Henry Cavill might have been a great Superman, but not in those films. (Ironically he does get the single best line in any of them, and it was in Joss Whedon’s reshoots of Justice League: “Well, I believe in truth. But I’m also a big fan of justice.”)
This film, written and directed by James Gunn, is the first one that feels like it does justice to the cinematic potential of the character. It’s bright, exciting, action-packed, and moving. Is it a bit too overstuffed? Maybe. Are there little threads here and there which could have used more elaboration, and feel like things which are never going to be followed up on? Yeah. But it keeps its eye on the prize, of a heroic figure whose enemy assails him in multiple ways, but who manages to retain his ideals and persevere against adversity.
Maybe the best thing about the film is that it doesn’t work under the weight of its predecessors. They keep some of the John Williams theme music – which, if you’re going to keep one thing, that’s it – and everything else feels more drawn from the comics than from earlier films. As with Spider-Man: Homecoming, I was very grateful that we didn’t have to sit through the origin story again.
David Corenswet is an excellent piece of casting in the lead role, projecting the right level of heroism while also exhibiting a wider range of emotion than previous actors. Viewers of the previous films will recall the many times earlier actors brooded or exhibited tightly-contained anger, but Corenswet has license to let loose here, partly because his Superman is not quite as powerful – relatively speaking – as others, but he also just seems like someone more given to feeling.
But honestly Nicholas Hoult is maybe even better casting, giving an absolutely psychopathic turn as Lex Luthor. He’s Elon Musk if Musk were an even remotely competent scientist. He does horrible things at both grand and small scales, and he sees Superman as a threat to humanity, and himself as its only savior.
Gunn of course directed the three Guardians of the Galaxy films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he clearly has a pretty good idea of how to juggle putting together a universe. Rather than building it up from first pieces, as the MCU did, Gunn has opted to have a fully-formed world of superheroes, some of whom have been around for a long time, and even Superman has been active for three years. So he can pick and choose which characters he wants to use for his story.
The script and direction have a lot of Gunn hallmarks. His sense of humor is quirky and occasionally dumb (Mr. Terrific and Lois going to the former’s vehicle is one of the dumber gags in the film). He also likes having a big showy fight scene with lots of CGI and clever camera angles. in Guardians of the Galaxy vol 3 this was the “I’m done running” gauntlet scene, and here the scene goes to Mr. Terrific, keeping Superman’s action scenes more traditionally staged. He’s also really good at having one thing which seems like a small thing, but which is clearly there as a – very effective – hook to make a segment of potential audience want to see the film, whether it’s the soundtrack in the first Guardians, Baby Groot in the second, and here it’s Krypton the super-dog, who was all over the advertising campaign.
The story makes some interesting and largely successful choices in handling character and lore – your mileage may vary, of course. For long time comics fans it has a neat little puzzle about the identity of one of the henchmen. He also wisely shies away from some over-used tropes, such as avoiding a hero-vs-hero fight which could easily have been staged if the story had been handled differently.
Overall, I liked it a lot. It wears its heart and its comic book origins on its sleeve, and ultimately it does the most important thing that made the MCU work in the beginning: The characters feel like the comic book characters. They’re not exactly the same, but they feel like the real thing even if they’re a slightly different take. If Gunn and his crew don’t lose sight of that, the DCU ought to be a lot of fun.