I can’t think of a franchise movie with more riding on it than James Gunn’s long-awaited Superman. For all intents and purposes, this movie needs to relaunch a character on the big screen as well as usher in a new connected universe of comic book adaptations. But entertainment journalism and subreddits spend a lot of time discussing whether or not it’ll make money or strike hard enough to keep DC Studios going into new ventures. I feel as though the idea of whether Superman will or won’t be good is secondary. But I have news for everyone: Superman is really, really good.
Gunn said many times in the lead-up to the movie’s release that, while his Guardians of the Galaxy movies were his tribute to the kinds of films he loves, Superman is a tribute to the kinds of comic books he loves. It really shows. The movie is bright, colorful, wild, wacky, romantic, exciting, and about the kind of positive heroism that often comes across as naive. That’s what’s aspirational about Superman as a character; he’s a god raised by the most morally upstanding people in the world. The weight of the world is on his shoulders and he wonders if he can help.
Superman begins roughly three years into Clark Kent (David Corenswet)’s time in Metropolis as the red-caped do-gooder. He has recently acted to stop an invading army from taking over a poorer country and sparked an international incident. His actions draw the ire of billionaire genius Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) who attempts to destroy Superman’s reputation and the man himself. But when a terrible truth comes to light, the Man of Steel has to grapple with whether he even deserves to help humanity.
The story is about as refreshingly simple as any in the genre. As ever, Gunn doesn’t need wild twists or out-there revelations because his genre movies are about character above all. Corenswet’s many conversations with Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane and his moments of saving people tell you more about him than 50 punched baddies or destroyed buildings.
I could heap praise on the whole cast, not just the three leads. Edi Gathegi’s Mr. Terrific absolutely rules, as does Skyler Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio’s Eve Teschmacher, and Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl. And yes, of course Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner is the perfect d-bag. While not on screen a ton, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell as Jonathan and Martha Kent also shine like a ray of yellow sun.
A few of the characters, however, did not quite do it for me. Not for performance but simply due to feeling a bit extraneous. The Engineer was little more than a henchperson and the buzzsaw arms and nanotech effects really felt like they were in a different movie. And as good as Anthony Carrigan is as Rex Mason, the Element Man, I didn’t get much of a sense of him. Naturally cutting down a movie with this many characters must be a nightmare and I fully expect them to show up again, so it’s a minor quibble ultimately.
I also should elaborate that while I was relieved and tickled and thoroughly pleased, I was never *wowed.* That might be, and probably is, a me problem. I’ve spent the better part of a year hoping against hope that Superman would be good, that it would live up to what I’ve wanted from a Superman movie for over a decade, and it is. However, I felt like the trailers (which it is my job to watch) give away a lot of the action. What they don’t give away is the context, and the context makes the movie more than spectacle. So I said “yes” in my head a lot. I never said “Oh cool!” except for a couple of Mister Terrific moments. (He’s really great.)
Superman is good. It’s very good, in fact. It left me feeling a profound sense of relief. Thank God it’s a good Superman movie. But almost more than its status as “a good movie,” it needed to be something more. The greater moviegoing public have grown tired of superhero movies, as the recent skid in some of the box office numbers have proven. Two separate connected universes of DC characters have come and gone in the past 12 years, with The CW’s Arrowverse on TV and of course the slow but steady collapse of the DCU’s predecessor, the DCEU. The pressure on Gunn to make Superman new, different, but also appealing to the most amount of people must be staggering.
No, more than anything, Superman needs to represent stability and a strong, sturdy base for the entire DCU to stand upon going forward. Peacemaker and Creature Commandos are delightful, but they cannot be the basis for an entire cinematic universe. Superman has to be that, and it is that. Like the character himself, the movie seems to exist under almost untenable scrutiny, its every imperfection or departure from what came before primed for ridicule and derision. It’s unfair, but to his credit, Gunn seems ready for the job, as does his first, biggest central character.
I loved this version of Superman, I love where the DCU appears to be going, I love the bright, comic-booky hopefulness of David Corenswet’s version of Clark Kent and the already quite varied universe we see. Oh, and on top of it, Superman is a good movie that addresses so many timely real-world issues. Legitimately what else could you want?
Fly into theaters and see Superman on July 11.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.
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