Over the last couple decades I've been pondering why it seems to be so difficult to make a truly great Superman movie, and I have yet to come up with any real answers. It seems like it would be easy! He's the first real comic book superhero! The OG indestructible man! The ultimate good guy fighting for truth, justice, and the American way!
I didn't like how Christ-like he was in 2006's Superman Returns, and the Zack Snyder directed incarnations were just too gloomy and...Zack Synder-ey. And while I do adore 1978's Superman, I really can't say how much my love for that movie is fueled by pure childhood nostalgia, or genuine appreciation, because I have to admit parts of it are extremely hokey.
All of this is to say I enjoyed director James Gunn's Superman more than any Superman movie since 1978's, but that very well may be damning it with faint praise.
Gunn forgoes any real backstory, instead literally dropping Superman into the middle of the story. Superman has just prevented a war, saving the small and poor country of Jarhanpur from an invasion by the larger and richer Boravia, but this has resulted in some controversy, fueled in large part by billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), who has a vested interest in Boravia taking over Jarhanpur.
Superman this time around is played by David Corenswet, best known - at least to me - for his role as the seductive movie projectionist in 2022's Pearl, and his Superman is much closer to the earnestness of Christopher Reeve's Superman than to the more emo interpretations of Brandon Routh or Henry Cavill. Which is not to say he's milquetoast. But he's no cynic either. He's just a genuinely nice guy who wants to protect his adopted planet.
James Gunn is responsible for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy movies, which have, for the most part, masterfully blended humor and action, making those films some of the funnest in the MCU. But I can't say Gunn's brand of humor works quite as well here. Yes, seeing Superman go out of his way to save a squirrel is delightful, and his foster dog Krypto, is a very, very good boy. But other things, such as Nathan Fillion's turn as the Green Lantern, and almost every scene at the Daily Planet, fall flat.
But there's so much more going on that it's easy to overlook the clunkiness. Rachel Brosnahan makes a great Lois Lane, one so dedicated to her job as a reporter that she doesn't stop working even when the city of Metropolis is crumbling around her (as toppling skyscrapers seem to be a common occurrence in almost all superhero movies, perhaps she's just used to it). Gene Hackman will always be the best Lex Luthor, but Hoult is a vast improvement over Jesse Eisenberg's twitchy version, a billionaire who has the ear of the government and literal typing monkeys controlling the Internet's narrative about Superman.
I'm not going to say much about the stupid accusations being made by some that this Superman is too "woke," because anyone who says that obviously knows nothing about the history of the character, and is really nothing but another typing monkey on the Internet. But I will say that I appreciated that this Superman tells a story that mixes the fantastic (superheros; giant monsters) with the relatable (billionaires playing with the fates of nations; America turning against a good guy because of something they see on online).
So, no, Superman is not the great Superman movie I've been waiting for. But it's close. And to paraphrase Lois Lane herself: a good director doesn't get great movie scripts, a good director makes them great. Maybe James Gunn will get there.
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