Superman Review: I Believe a Man Could Fly
by Ken Jones
87 years ago, the first Superman comic appeared. Forty-seven years ago, Christopher Reeve and Richard Donner made audiences believe a man could fly. 19 years ago, Bryan Singer tried to reboot the franchise by making a sequel to the second of four previous Superman titles. 12 years ago, Zack Snyder tried to make him dark and brooding. And 3 years ago, director James Gunn was hired to right the DCU ship, and his first attempt at doing so is this year’s Superman.
I start writing my review like that because that is similar to how the movie kicks off, in media res, eschewing a prolonged preamble of backstory and reducing it to a few sentences on screen. Gunn’s Superman (David Corenswet), it turns out, has just lost his first fight when we meet him, battered and bloodied at the hands of the “Hammer of Boravia”, who is retaliating for Superman’s intervention in thwarting a Boravian invasion of their neighbor, Jarhanpur. Working behind the scenes and almost literally pulling the strings of the Hammer is none other than Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult).
Luthor has a full-court press to undermine everything about Superman, fighting him from the shadows, pushing his buttons, and even launching a stealth social media campaign to soil his reputation and turn the public against him. Despite Clark’s best efforts to stay above the fray, he is easily manipulated and lets his emotions get the best of him at times, not just with Luthor’s tactics, but also with his co-worker and girlfriend, Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan). Nevertheless, when finally faced with a moment where public sentiment turns against him, Superman must rely on Lois, the Justice Gang, and the values he has learned (from Krypton and Kansas) to get to the bottom of Luthor’s scheme and avert disaster. Oh, and his dog Krypto helps out, too. A lot.
The struggle with Superman as a character is that he is so powerful, to an almost absurd extent. Rather than see that as an obstacle, Gunn and company seem to embrace it as a challenge and show how feeling invincible and trying to project yourself as invulnerable can be a weakness, either in agreeing to be interviewed by your girlfriend or walking into a trap set by your archnemesis. He may be a metahuman that bullets bounce off, but there are some ways that he is thin-skinned.
The other thing that Gunn leans into with Superman is making him a squeaky-clean Boy Scout. Say what you want about the Snyderverse, it felt the need to pivot from the conventional Superman vibe. Those movies were interested in what happens when a character who believes in black and white is forcefully confronted with a world of gray (and rain). This movie embraces the “aww shucks” and “golly gee” in a way that is refreshing, similar to how Captain America was in the MCU. They lean into it. In a world full of superhero characters that Hollywood wants to fashion after Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man, it’s ok to be the sincere and earnest guy instead of just another cynical or snarky superhero.
A big theme of the movie is the question of what motivates Superman. Early on, as he is recovering at the Fortress of Solitude, his robots (Kevin Smith might say Jon Peters would call them guards) show him the recorded message from his Kryptonian parents as he heals from the sun, a message that was damaged during his journey to Earth. When the full extent of that message is fully revealed to the world, it rocks Superman, and it shakes the confidence that the world has in his intentions. This slight change in the intent of Superman’s parents is a potentially controversial change, but it works for the movie because it gets to the heart of who the character is.
It is interesting (read: sad) that people are taking exception to James Gunn making a Superman movie that focuses on him being an alien and foreigner, like it’s not something that has always been inherent to the origin of the character. There is awe and wonder inspired by seeing a man who can fly and protects even the least among us, but there is an uncertainty and fear that his presence can stir in some people, like Luthor, of a being from an unknown world with seemingly unlimited power being in our midst.
The story of Superman is fundamentally an immigrant story; in fact, it is vital to the story. It is aspirational, of coming to a new home and trying to make a better life for yourself, and working as hard as anyone to make it a better place for everyone. Every immigrant story is also a story of assimilation; in coming to a new world, you are leaving an old world. Some of the old world you bring with you, but some of it may be left behind. And what is brought becomes part of the tapestry that is the new world.
While Superman’s story is fundamentally one of immigration, it is equally also a story of adoption. The Kents in Kansas, played beautifully by Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell, took in an orphan and raised him as their own. And what people like Luthor or the online trolls or the people who throw stones at him as he walks through their midst misunderstand about him is that Superman is a son of Krypton and a son of Earth.
The message of his Kryptonian parents says one thing, but the life he leads and the values he believes in were instilled by the parents who adopted him. And the movie doesn’t spell this out, which is something that could have been easily done in some ham-fisted dialogue; instead, it shows us in a small, quiet moment on the farm how his family keeps him grounded.
The three main leads, Corenswet, Brosnahan, and Hoult, are terrific. I really dug Corenswet’s performance, he does a terrific job of not basing his performance on those who have come before, he looks comfortable in the role, and never like he is feeling the pressure of having to measure up. Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois is a hard-hitting journalist, asking the tough questions and getting to the heart of matters. Hoult brings a fire and intensity to Lex Luthor that has not been seen in previous movie performances. For most of the movie, I found myself asking why he was so motivated to bring down Superman, and there is an explanation given at the end that I think may play better for me on a second viewing.
Based on the footage in the trailers, my biggest worry about this film was that it would be overstuffed with characters, but thankfully, it was not. There are the mainstays of the Daily Planet (Jimmy Olsen, played by Skyler Gisondo, apparently is dropping with Rizz), and the Justice Gang (the name is still being workshopped in the group) is prominently involved. The team consists of Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabel Merced), and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi).
Fillion is a James Gunn mainstay, and his Green Lantern has an ego, coming off like he is in it more for the fame and glory of it all rather than a sense of duty. Merced’s is the smallest role of the three, but she gets one really great moment with the president of Boravia (Zlatko Buric). Mr. Terrific gets the largest role of the three, assisting Lois. He’s a character I am not at all familiar with, but I enjoyed his deadpan delivery and dry sense of humor.
And then there is Krypto, who is in way more of the movie than anyone could have possibly expected. His presence brings levity to the movie. There is also some quality humor scattered throughout the movie. In one scene, Superman and Lois have a heart-to-heart while the Justice Gang fight a giant being in the background. Almost everything with Krypto elicits a laugh. And maybe the best joke in the movie involves Clark Kent’s glasses.
I was cautiously optimistic about Superman, given Gunn’s success in handling the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and making an enjoyable Suicide Squad. He delivered a popcorn crowd-pleaser. It may be weird to say, but this Superman movie felt more like a comic book movie than any of the other previous Superman movies. One movie does not a cinematic universe make, but this is a very strong first step. The kind of step that could lead to being faster than a locomotive and leaping tall buildings in a single bound.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars