Review By Brad Balfour
Film: “Superman”
Director/Writer: James Gunn
Cast: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, María Gabriela de Faría, Wendell Pierce, Alan Tudyk, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Neva Howell
When I got into comic books, I appreciated the hyper-dynamics of Marvel Comics’ Jack Kirby’s images and mythology. There was also his associate Steve Ditko’s anguished nerdiness in his drawings and storytelling. Though Marvel Comics were informed by powerful personalities dominating the storytelling and company itself (witness Stan Lee’s antics), I nonetheless gravitated to DC Comics.
More than with Marvel, I looked to the classicism of an artist like Curtis Swan who drew Superman with a certain smoothness and clean lines. The stories he illustrated during the Silver Age of comic books (roughly the ’60s) were never infused with the melodrama of Marvel, but they had a kind of heroic quality appropriate to who Superman was — or is.
But that very stalwartness also vexed moving image makers ever since the start of superhero cinema. The efforts to bring Superman to the screen large or small were often thwarted by cheesy effects or wooden storytelling. How can there be drama without something that could diminish Superman’s powers enough to make his backstory one fraught with challenges?
Then came the Superman played by Christopher Reeve who brought enough humanity to make the character feel sympathetic if not authentic. But getting the balance right wasn’t always the case with subsequent sequels. With further reboots from “Superman Returns” on, directors have grappled with story lines that provided a Superman with weaknesses, a dark side and something of a passion that offered a human-like character.
But in mega-director James Gunn’s version of the Super Guy, he starts out with the idea that we all know he’s an alien — and he’s struggling to prove that this shouldn’t be an impediment to his being earth’s hero. Not that ultra-billionaire Lex Luthor [Nicholas Hoult] likes the idea of Superman being accepted by humankind. For Lex’s purposes, he wants to turn the world against the Kryptonian and make him humanity’s uber-Menace.
With that premise in mind, Gunn likes to murk up the idea with all sorts of offbeat characters, subplots, off-the-grid concepts and so much else that I got lost at times. Why Gunn feels compelled to throw in all that shit does confound me. Having seen his other films, especially the “Guardians of The Galaxy” series, it’s something he loves to add in his films. He applies various sideways paths that may or may not lead back around to support the main narrative and primary characters. In one sense, I get it and in another, it distracts. But that’s Gunn for you. He takes an off-kilter approach.
Take for example, the opener. The film feels like it started in the middle of something that we suddenly step into. Superman crashes to the ground after being defeated by a super foe. And we have to work out just who and why. Then all the classic characters get introduced from Lois Lane to Perry White.
In his signature style, Gunn takes on the original superhero in this newly imagined DC universe. With a singular blend of action and humor, he delivers a Superman driven by wanting to be seen as human, who wants to understand what being human is. Supe has an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind which compels him to connect with that.
Part of the charm to this Superman is how actor David Corenswet plays him — as a sometimes addled participant not always sure how to be Superman correctly. His Lois (Rachel Brosnahan) clearly has an upper hand that we haven’t seen in earlier Lois-es, but then she does know that Clark Kent is actually Superman. In this film, paperboy/young photog Jimmy Olsen [Skyler Gisondo] is not so naïve a character (he’s even a bit of a ladies man) and this Lex Luthor is insidious but by way of being a wimpy-nerd villain. So our expectations of these characters are thrown off. I’m not ever sure this Lex has really had the upper hand on anything except in being a petulant adolescent.
Again, something else is woven into the undulating narrative — a political spin that makes Luthor seem like a cross between Elon Musk and other malevolent MAGA members such as Stephen Miller. It may have raised some rightwing hackles, but this energized re-imagining threw a further wrench into Comic Book Movie expectations.
That’s not the only side paths that Gunn infuses in this version of his DC Universe. There is a breezy celebration of superheroes from Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) to Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) and other costumed characters. And lest I forget, one other crucial element that makes this film further Gunn-fied, there’s the presence of Krypto — Kal-El’s adopted pet and sometimes the deus ex machina for all the shenanigans here.
Gunn may not always get it right, but he definitely got it better. By doing this version of Superman, he kick-starts a peculiar DC vision and forces us onto his turf. This makes us step into a very alien universe with many additional superheroes and alternate realities. This narrative may be a bit of a mess, but it’s a mess that’s worth unraveling.