In the cultural consciousness, Superman is a perfect being. A perfectly muscled god who is above making mistakes and has the right answer for every situation. That makes for a great freeze-frame, but it makes for a pretty dull character. James Gunn’s take on Superman reaches back to the simpler days of Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve’s take on the character, looking for a version of the Man of Steel that is relatable and vulnerable while still being the god-like superhero we’ve been in love with for almost 90 years. In Superman, he pretty much nails it. Superman’s strength lies not in his biceps, but in his heart.
Excellent Casting
I think they nailed just about every character they went for, right down to athletic dork Steve Lombard. Of course, the core trio of Superman matters the most: Superman, Lois, and Lex Luthor. Played by David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicolas Hoult, these three make everything else that works in the movie feel effortless.
As Superman, Corenswet is welcoming and warm. He’s grounded in a way that some version of Superman have struggled with. His body is Kryptonian, for sure, but he grew up in Smallville. The thing that makes Superman work is that he *isn’t* distanced from humanity. His head is as human as any of us, thanks to Ma and Pa Kent (who are proper farmers in this movie, not just attractive people who look good in flannel). In some ways, he feels like a throwback to Christopher Reeve’s Superman, who was certainly powerful, but not unassailable. He gets frustrated when people misinterpret his intentions and motives. He’s on the way to acquiring the wisdom that Superman needs, but he’s not quite there yet. He’s a work in progress.
Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor is an excellent fit for this Superman, too. His accomplishments make him more than a simple tech bro, but his maturity keeps him from ever truly escaping it. He’s believable as being one of the most intelligent men on the planet, but he’s also believable as a petty little man whose obsession is what ultimately controls him.
Lex is also important as a way of telling us just how big this DC universe is. He’s also much more than the skeezy real estate mogul or twitchy tech bro. They’re fun in their own right, but this version of Superman, where people are accustomed to seeing superheroes battle aliens in the sky over Metropolis, needs a bigger Lex Luthor. If anything, Luthor is a bit less grounded than Superman, maybe, but certainly not in a bad way. This Lex knows the possibilities of the strange world he lives in, and is ready to take advantage of kaiju monsters and pocket universes and all the other silly comic-book stuff, but without any of that weighing the story down or dragging Hoult’s performance down.
Rachel Brosnahan is immediately one of my favorite Loises. That’s tough, too. Bitsie Tulloch, Teri Hatcher, and Margot Kidder are all a blast to watch as the character, and Brosnahan stands right with them. The hardest part of making Lois work is that she’s a completely mundane character surrounded by incredible humans. A rabbit in a pride of lions, if you will. Brosnahan makes her own Lois feel perfectly at home in that world. She’s smart, passionate, and fun to watch.
The other heroes, too, stand out. Gunn can often go a little too deep with his deep cuts, but these characters are just a bit outside the mainstream. Everyone knows what a Green Lantern is, but not who Guy Gardner is. He’s a complex character to bring to the screen, but Gunn and actor Nathan Fillion pull it off. Guy comes to life on the screen with his silly orange bowl cut, which is a miracle on its own. Gardner is a jerk and an idiot. But he’s also extremely proficient and has the heroic heart under all that other stuff. Even the way he uses the Lantern powers, which I won’t spoil, shows both his proficiency and charisma, along with his abrasiveness.
My favorite of the Justice Gang, though, was Mister Terrific. Edi Gathegi strikes the right balance of stoic and heroic, making him a lot of fun to watch. The costume is excellent, looking like something from the comics without looking unbelievable or silly. His T-Spheres are used to great effect, too, at multiple points in the movie. Isabela Merced has charisma to spare as Hawkgirl, but goes mostly unused in the film. She’s one of the few characters that I can say that about, though.
You’ll Believe a Man Can Fly
The visual effects, too, are excellent. Whether Superman was holding up a massive beast or a collapsing building, I never once questioned that he was really doing it. I wasn’t consciously thinking they were special effects while I was looking at them–I was just enjoying the story. That’s a sign of excellent VFX. Guy Gardner’s Lantern constructs looked pretty much like I’d want them to look in live action, which I imagine Ryan Reynolds is happy to see. The effects centered around Lex’s complex plot straddled the line of looking like a comic book and fitting into reality very well, making great use of shape, color, and texture. The anti-proton rivers reminded me just a little bit of Jack Kirby’s color choices.
There’s that one shot of him flying with what looks like a GoPro camera angle. I didn’t like it, but it’s not because the effects were bad. I just didn’t like the shot.
Beat Him Down, Bring Him Up
The pacing of the movie is, admittedly, just a little weird, and it’s in a way that I think some Superman fans will struggle with. This Superman didn’t come out of his cocoon fully formed, and he doesn’t have all the answers.
That scene in the trailers where Superman crashes down in the arctic is, it turns out, the first scene in the movie. Superman interfered with international politics, and people aren’t taking it as an obvious good despite his intentions. Public sentiment is turning on him. Even an interview with his girlfriend doesn’t go how he’d hoped it would. There are reasons why Superman should have to struggle, but so often the rhythm of these movies has us either seeing the character experience the joy of becoming a superhero, or we find them in their day-to-day life kicking ass and living out that power fantasy. He’s having his worst day ever, and has to work his way out of it.
But it works because these are problems that are relatable, perfect for Kal-El’s earthly sensibilities. So many of us have struggled in arguments with our loved ones or felt like the whole world was attacking us. He’s having one of those days where it just keeps coming and he has to get up and dust himself off, and then keep going.
It also works because these are problems you can’t simply punch your way out of. Superman is great at punching stuff, but he needs something bigger to fight. You can’t punch people’s wrong-headed notions about you or your own questions about your lineage–you have to work through them.
And so it’s not the satisfying simplicity of the Hero’s Journey–Superman never resists the call to adventure–but something that feels a little bit more like life (if life involved fighting skyscraper-sized monsters).
One consequence of meeting an already-working Superman, though, is that we don’t get to spend very much time with Clark Kent. We meet him, sure, but he goes missing pretty early into the movie as far as the audience is concerned. Even in private, he’s not so much Clark as he is Kal-El. With the story the movie is trying to tell, infusing it with some more of Clark Kent’s abilities would’ve been useful.
In the end, Superman is a fun film that introduces us to a new version of the DC Universe, while trying to leave behind the baggage and homework that comes with superhero movies. We get to meet a brand new Superman, and he invites us into his world. It’s filled with heroes and villains already, but we don’t have to know them all. Metropolis is a beautiful, inviting place despite all the danger that apparently comes with living there. Corenswet and Gunn leave a mark with their first Superman outing that makes me hope we’ll see the Man of Steel again sooner rather than later, because he’s going to give us an interesting, fresh take on the character and his world.
