‘Superman’ embraces a new tone, but the same old overstuffed storytelling
James Gunn’s DCU relaunch puts a sunnier coat of paint on a familiar template
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Before the release of the second Guardians of the Galaxy, writer/director James Gunn promised that the movie would “not only pass the Bechdel test, but run over it and back up over it again and again in an eighteen-wheeler truck.” By that he meant there’s a 90-second scene where Gamora and Nebula talk about their childhood and the main plot of the movie is about Star-Lord and his dad.
That sense of overpromising and under-delivering also hangs over Gunn’s new take on Superman, a movie that embraces the sheen of something fresh, vibrant, and even a bit progressive, but ultimately delivers the same “smash the toys together” vibe that has characterized so much of our recent superhero movie output. This new Supes reboot has plenty to offer DC fans who’ve longed for a sunnier, more comedic take on a comic book universe that’s been ruled by Zack Snyder’s grim and gritty aesthetic for so long. But casual moviegoers might not be quite as wowed. This is less of a hard relaunch than the same overused cinematic universe concept dressed up in a different color palette.
The boldest choice Gunn makes is to skip the origin story and dive right into a thriving version of this newly rebooted “DC Universe.” (R.I.P. the DC Extended Universe.) Superman (David Corenswet) is a known heroic entity in Metropolis and also a known identity to his girlfriend Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), who apparently learned his secret fairly quickly into their burgeoning three-month relationship. He’s also already got an archnemesis in Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), a loyal companion in Krypto the Superdog (a white CGI terrier), and a Fortress of Solitude complete with a host of robotic assistants. He even pulls a Peter Parker by regularly “interviewing” himself as his journalist alter ego Clark Kent in order to nab a front-page story at The Daily Planet.
In some ways, it’s refreshing not to rehash the same origin story beats that the 1978 Christopher Reeve movie and the 2013 Henry Cavill version both did already. But the trouble is that by jumping into Superman’s story in media res, the movie struggles to give him a compelling arc. Corenswet is a likable presence and there are a couple of interesting ideas about this version of Clark being almost comically naïve and/or trying to reconcile his alien and human perspectives. But there’s too little interiority to the hero at the heart of this tale. (We also only see him in his bumbling Clark Kent persona for about two minutes before the movie drops that thread entirely, which is disappointing.) This Superman claims he’s driven by a desire to do good, which is a sweet and welcome message—especially compared to the darker Cavill take. But more often than not he just feels like someone the plot happens to.
Indeed, while you’d think that skipping the origin story would allow more room for lived-in character work, the movie’s overstuffed, action-driven plot leaves just about all the characters underserved. Brosnahan’s Lois describes herself as a punk rock loner even though she dresses like a business casual hipster and acts like a generic Type-A journalist. And even the always-reliable Hoult can’t do much with this thinly written take on a particularly power-hungry Lex. Both performers give the roles their all, but there’s just not much there for them to do.
That could be because the movie often seems more interested in its wacky side characters than its leads. The bad guys include a whole cavalry of Lex lackies plus a number of different kaiju-sized beasts and an interdimensional prison full of even more oddities. The heroes, meanwhile, include not only the staff of The Daily Planet (for some reason, like 15 minutes of this movie is a Jimmy Olsen sex comedy), but also the “Justice Gang”—a ragtag team of corporate-backed crime-fighters made up of comic book heroes Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), and a Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion). More than mere cameos but less than fully developed characters, the Justice Gang regularly head up their own action scenes while Superman is busy elsewhere and/or writhing on the ground in pain, which happens more often than you might expect for a guy whose whole deal is being indestructible.
In fact, Superman sometimes feels more like the season finale of a DC TV show than a standalone Superman entry point. To his credit, Gunn succeeds at creating a world where it feels like anyone from the DC comics canon can pop up at any time, which is fun for the superhero aficionados. But that comes at the cost of a streamlined story that actually knows what it wants to say—both emotionally and politically. The script gestures towards being a pro-immigrant, anti-imperialist tale in which Superman has controversially stepped in to stop a Russian-coded fictional country from invading a South Asian-coded one. But the result is a lot of nameless and/or barely developed brown characters hero-worshipping Superman to a degree that honestly started to make me uncomfortable. (For all its flaws, Black Adam covered a lot of the same ideas with actual leads of color.)
Again, I think Gunn’s intentions are mostly good. And, to be fair, I probably have particularly high standards for Supes storytelling given that I recapped all six seasons of The CW’s Supergirl series and one season of Superman & Lois as well—shows that set a real high-watermark for how to tell sunny but still politically potent, emotionally rich stories. Gunn’s Superman will play best for those who are sick of the Snyderverse but haven’t really sought out much other live action Superman stuff elsewhere. As is, he’s not reinventing the wheel so much as just revisiting ideas that haven’t been on the big screen in a bit. (1984’s Superman IV features Reeve’s Superman trying to rid the world of nuclear arms, so this has always been a politically charged franchise.)
Where Gunn did impress me is with his ability to blend his puerile sense of humor with the wholesome ethos of the Superman source material. Though I was worried the man who brought us the “bag of dicks” debate in The Suicide Squad wouldn’t be able to deliver something more straight-and-narrow, Gunn mostly manages to pull off the balancing act. To ensure the Man of Steel himself doesn’t get dragged into the muck, Gunn turns him into a bit of a himbo boy scout whose fundamental goodness provides a funny comedic contrast with all the insanity happening around him. While Green Lantern is flipping off bad guys, Superman is just concerned about making sure his dog is okay.
Indeed, if Gunn does anything revolutionary here, it’s by turning this film into a cartoon-y comedy, which does feel a bit new for DC. (Although you could argue Shazam! got there first.) And maybe that is enough to make Superman feel fresh for mass audiences. I famously thought Guardians of the Galaxy had too much sci-fi weirdness to connect with the general public, only to be reminded that comedy is a universal language. If all people really want from their summer popcorn flicks is over-the-top CG action and a few laughs, Superman delivers.
It just feels like there was a chance to do something truly new and different with this reboot—to revitalize the superhero genre rather than just tweaking it slightly. Rightly or wrongly, I was hoping Gunn’s Superman would leap tall buildings in a single bound. Instead, it mostly hops, skips, and jumps in a familiar direction. You’ll probably have fun watching Superman. But the cost of all those laughs is a loss of the sense of wonder that’s so unique to the Superman ethos.
Grade: C+
Superman opens in theaters this Friday, July 11.
Perfectly worded and criticised. I stand ten toes behind Clark/Superman but this is the exact reason why I am not nor do I plan on seeing this movie. It’s nothing necessarily new being told. It’s the alien who gets the girl and tries to save the world. It’s the same trope that’s been told for almost 100 years. I hope one day we get a Superman movie that’s truly fresh.
Here's a link to my blog post on the immigrant metaphor in the Superman franchise. Could be an interesting read.
https://thomasyfuller.substack.com/p/superman-and-the-immigrant-metaphor