{"id":31575,"date":"2025-07-13T20:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T00:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=31575"},"modified":"2025-07-14T15:07:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T19:07:46","slug":"superman-is-as-epic-as-director-james-gunn-promised-and-not-even-its-missteps-can-sway-my-enthusiasm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=31575","title":{"rendered":"“Superman” Is As Epic As Director James Gunn Promised, And Not Even Its Missteps Can Sway Any Enthusiasm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Review By Brad Balfour
 
Film: \u201cSuperman\u201d
Director\/Writer: James Gunn
Cast: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, Mar\u00eda Gabriela de Far\u00eda, 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\u2019s images and mythology. There was also his associate Steve Ditko\u2019s anguished nerdiness in his drawings and storytelling. Though Marvel Comics were informed by powerful personalities dominating the storytelling and company itself (witness Stan Lee\u2019s antics), I nonetheless gravitated to DC Comics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
David Corenswet<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201960s) were never infused with the melodrama of Marvel, but they had a kind of heroic quality appropriate to who Superman was — or is.
\u00a0
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\u2019s powers enough to make his backstory one fraught with challenges?\u00a0
\u00a0
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\u2019t 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.
\u00a0
But in mega-director James Gunn\u2019s version of the Super Guy, he starts out with the idea that we all know he\u2019s an alien \u2014 and he\u2019s struggling to prove that this shouldn\u2019t 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\u2019s purposes, he wants to turn the world against the Kryptonian and make him humanity\u2019s uber-Menace.
\u00a0
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 \u201cGuardians of The Galaxy\u201d series, it\u2019s 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.\u00a0In one sense, I get it and in another, it distracts. But that\u2019s Gunn for you. He takes an off-kilter approach.
\u00a0
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.
\u00a0
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.
\u00a0
Part of the charm to this Superman is how actor David Corenswet plays him \u2014 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\u2019t seen in earlier Lois-es, but then she does know that Clark Kent is actually Superman.\u00a0In this film, paperboy\/young photog Jimmy Olsen [Skyler Gisondo] is not so na\u00efve 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\u2019m not ever sure this Lex has really had the upper hand on anything except in being a petulant adolescent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Again, something else is woven into the undulating narrative \u2014 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\u2019s 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\u2019s the presence of Krypto \u2014 Kal-El\u2019s 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\u2019s a mess that\u2019s worth unraveling.
 <\/p>\n

Share this:<\/h3>