In most Superman movies (and there’ve been a fair few of them over the decades), no one else like Superman exists. The blue-and-red-costumed Kryptonian is typically unique in our world—an alien god plopped into an unfamiliar society, inspiring both reverence and fear. Not so in this latest iteration, the character’s first solo movie in 12 years. Directed by James Gunn, the new Superman both reintroduces the character and relaunches the on-screen DC Universe, following Zack Snyder’s grim and operatic take on the franchise. Gunn’s bright and bouncy film conceives of the hero as just one of Earth’s many gifted do-gooders. The busy energy this storytelling choice brings to the movie is crucial: Surrounding Superman with his peers helps define why he stands out in the first place.
Making the case for Superman’s exceptionality is something many cinematic adaptations of the character have struggled with. Christopher Reeve’s straightforwardly charming portrayal, which he debuted in 1978, remains culturally pervasive; Brandon Routh’s performance in 2006’s Superman Returns was a broad homage to it. Henry Cavill’s work in the Snyder-verse, meanwhile, was an intentional but depressing swerve, portraying the Man of Steel as distant and alienated from human society. To follow Cavill, Gunn has selected the relatively unknown David Corenswet, who has the traditional look (square jaw, broad shoulders) but gives a performance that underlines the hero’s regular-guy sensibility. This Superman jokes, he grouses, he bickers with his girlfriend—and he does his best to save the planet on a daily basis, because that’s what he believes he’s on Earth to do.
Gunn appears to be making a pointed effort to shift the hectic world of comic-book films in a new direction. It’s a genre that, as a director, he’s occupied exclusively since the release of his first Marvel movie, 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy; he’s since switched over to DC, serving as a co-head of that studio’s cinematic enterprise. Gunn’s work at Marvel was known for its blaring needle drops and an off-color snark that lined up with the franchise’s self-aware comedic stylings. But Superman lacks these trademarks. Instead, it’s a consciously sincere work, evoking the lighthearted fun of Saturday-morning cartoons on a grander scale. If Guardians sometimes seemed designed to reassure the broadest viewing audiences that superhero movies can be as edgy as they are silly, Superman is very happy with being just silly—and it wants you to be happy with its silliness too.
How else to describe a film in which Superman’s mortal enemy, the prominent eggheaded businessman Lex Luthor (played by Nicholas Hoult), hires an army of chimpanzees to write mean social-media posts about the hero he’s so jealous of? Where Supes clocks an evil lackey straight in the jaw so hard that his teeth hit the camera lens? In which Superman’s poorly trained, hyper-powered dog named Krypto enjoys trashing his owner’s Antarctic fortress of solitude, upsetting the fleet of mellifluous butler robots milling around? For as expensive and action-packed as it is, this Superman is also stuffed with whimsical concepts and ridiculous side characters.
Some viewers may find the teeming landscape of established metahumans off-putting. It’s a worthwhile gamble by Gunn, however, who seems to understand that many theatergoers are sick of origin stories and mythological spectacle. Superman begins with the protagonist already operating out of the city of Metropolis, where he’s lived for about three years. When disguised as his alter ego, Clark Kent, he works at the Daily Planet as a reporter alongside his girlfriend, the firecracker Lois Lane. Meanwhile, as Superman, he’s facing media scrutiny for a recent choice of derring-do, in which he inserted himself in the middle of a war brewing abroad, and vicious envy from Luthor, who has no special powers of his own. The twist is that even Superman’s loved ones, such as Lois, and his fellow costumed acquaintances—namely the corporate super-team known as the Justice Gang—look at him askance, as if to question whether anyone could really be that altruistic.
Their skepticism is what’s brilliant about Gunn’s take: Contemporary audiences may also see the story of Superman, an alien adopted by Kansan farmers who raised him to use his powers for unambiguous good, as corny. So the director builds our modern discomfort with sincerity into his interpretation—an approach that meshes with the film’s sunny politics, which are loudly obvious from the jump. Whether it’s Luthor seething in his skyscraper over his rival’s popularity or Lois springing an impromptu interview on her boyfriend, the characters keep prodding our hero on what his deal is and whether they can trust him. This Superman is, more than anything, concerned with our society’s struggle to accept the possibility of inherent goodness.
The result is an optimistic movie, one that sees a hopeful way forward for both Superman and the world’s other caped men and women. This goes even for the raging egotists (Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, a B-list version of Green Lantern) and the fussy, closed-off brainiacs (a very droll Edi Gathegi as the tech-powered hero Mister Terrific). But putting Superman in context with the many beings like him makes clear that the disarming purity of his life’s mission, not his array of powers, is what makes him special. Gunn’s obvious disdain for the self-professed “geniuses” who make news in real life is nakedly on display; Hoult is a wonderful foil as Luthor, infuriated by Superman’s kindness while couching his disdain in intellectual gobbledygook. Superman’s counterattack is to have us root for the ultimate nice guy—it’s a wild fantasy, of course, but a pretty blissful one to take in.
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