Superman can seemingly do it all. He’s capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound, battling giant monsters the size of said buildings and fighting back armies with his heat vision. We see him accomplish all these extraordinary things in James Gunn’s’ Superman, now in theaters, and yet it’s the character’s humanity that struck me most in his first solo outing in 12 years. This Man of Steel bleeds. He gets angry. He sheds tears. He gets scared. But whenever he gets knocked down, he gets right back up, simply because it’s the right thing to do. He’s Superman, and people are counting on him.
Gunn made the world care about Marvel’s once-obscure Guardians
of the Galaxy across three films during his Marvel Studios tenure, but we all
wondered how he would handle one of the most popular and recognizable
characters in all of fiction. How would he grapple with nearly 90 years of lore?
How would he make Superman matter in 2025? What would he need to do to differentiate
his vision from Richard Donner’s 1978 film, Zack Snyder’s grittier Man of
Steel and the numerous TV takes on the character over the years? In a lot
of ways, Gunn throws it all in a blender, tosses in a dash of punk rock sensibility
and, in keeping with Lois Lane’s coffee preferences, spoons in ample amounts of
sugar to keep things sweet and energetic.
There are a lot of characters to keep track of here, but
fortunately the cast is stacked with talent, up to the challenge of bringing a
comic book to life – this truly does look and feel like a live-action comic in
all its goofy glory – but also seems to be having a lot of fun. David Corenswet
is Superman, bringing The Big Blue Boy Scout to life just as spectacularly
as Christopher Reeve did in the 1970s, but in a way that’s entirely his own.
There’s a “golly-gee” earnestness to the performance throughout, balanced out by
Rachel Brosnahan’s no-nonsense Lois Lane, and there’s a tremendous amount of
chemistry between the two that I can’t wait to see more of in future films.
Meanwhile, Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor is just irredeemably evil
in his quest to ruin Superman both physically and reputationally, and there’s
something undeniably satisfying about a villain that will not only incite war
between two distant nations but imprison an ex-girlfriend in a pocket dimension
of his own design. This is straight-up comic book Lex, and I’m here for it.
I was initially worried there were too many other heroes
sharing the spotlight with Supes in his first solo outing in the revamped DCU,
but I found myself loving every member of the “Justice Gang” (although that’s
not their official name). Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner is the smarmy tough guy
you always want in your corner, while Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl has one of the most
badass moments of the film which I won’t spoil here. And speaking of badass, we
need to talk about Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific, who gives us one of the
coolest fight scenes in the film. I’m also a big fan of Anthony Carrigan’s shape-shifting
Metamorpho, who is introduced later in the film and is someone you truly wind
up rooting for in the bombastic third act. I hope we see more of him elsewhere
in this universe soon.
But perhaps the most endearing supporting character of the film
is Superman’s canine pal Krypto, a fully CGI savior/troublemaker who steals many
a scene and never gives them back. Because he’s kind of a bad dog, but we love
him anyway.
Superman is a triumph, and although Donner’s aforementioned
Superman: The Movie has long been considered the cinematic benchmark for
the character, this film just might surpass it. It’s packed to the brim with warmth,
heart, action, humor and all the things we love about the character. And that’s
just, well, super.
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