2 months ago
20
SUPERMAN ★★★
(M) 130 minutes
Zanier than Zack Snyder’s Justice League, more crammed with comic-book lore than an Avengers sequel, capable of reaching the top of the global box office in a single bound … yes, it’s James Gunn’s Superman, possibly the most-hyped cinematic reboot in the history of reboots, and also a perfectly adequate piece of light entertainment.
David Corenswet has taken on the iconic role of Superman.Credit: AP
New beginning or not, a recap is required. Having written and directed three Guardians of the Galaxy films for Marvel, Gunn was poached by the rival DC Studios, who tasked him with launching a brand-new cinematic universe featuring all the beloved DC characters, with Superman recast as the suitably square-jawed David Corenswet (Pearl).
What all this amounts to is that if this new Superman is a hit, we can count on approximately two dozen movies like it, though not all of them made by Gunn himself, or with his particular flair.
The audacity peaks in the opening sequence, which shows us a wounded Superman lying in a vast Antarctic wasteland, somewhere near his fabled Fortress of Solitude, the blood on the snow the same hue as the “S” on his cape. And wait … no, it couldn’t be … why yes, it is Krypto the Superdog bounding to the rescue!
That’s Gunn all over: he likes bright colours, he likes things to be a little bit grisly, and if there’s anything in the source material that might be deemed too ridiculous for a 21st-century audience to accept, he’s duty-bound to work it in.
David Corenswet as Superman with Nicholas Hoult as his nemesis, Lex Luther.Credit: Warner Bros.
This is an extremely busy movie, aimed at re-introducing not just Superman but the whole parallel universe he inhabits, where so-called “meta-humans” have been part of Earth history for three centuries (many appear more or less prominently, with Edi Gathegi’s no-nonsense Mr Terrific coming closest to stealing the show).
Sensibly, Gunn assumes we all know by now that his hero was dispatched to Earth as an infant following the destruction of his home planet Krypton, and that he works for the Daily Planet in the guise of the mild-mannered Clark Kent.
Also already up and running is his on-and-off romance with fellow reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), who’s fully aware of her man’s secret identity and not above needling him about some of his choices, particularly when it comes to intervening in global conflicts.
While Superman may no longer openly fight for the “American way”, something of the kind remains implicit, as does his status as the most prominent immigrant success story of them all.
With the arch-villainous Lex Luther (Nicholas Hoult, an improvement on Jesse Eisenberg), the topical resonance is more pointed. There may be no strict proof that Gunn is drawing on a specific real-life model – but who comes to mind when you think of a blowhard tech billionaire with a raging sense of his own inadequacy and a doomed longing to be adored by the public?
It can feel as if Gunn believes more in Lex than he does in Corenswet’s Superman, who, compared to Christopher Reeve’s definitive interpretation, takes some getting used to: a good guy, yes, but smirky, a bit full of himself, and hardly more emotionally mature than Gunn’s typical heroes. On the other hand, the notion of having the character wrestle with his dark side leads nowhere: he doesn’t really have a dark side, in this incarnation at least.
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In this, he differs drastically from Gunn himself, who feels obliged to keep his usual bloodlust in check, even where the villains are concerned – there’s one cold-blooded murder and a bit of implied animal torture, but by his standards it’s mild stuff.
Supposing this Superman soars high enough, I’m both curious and anxious about what might happen when his overseer really comes out to play.
Superman is in cinemas from today.
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