Let’s start with some good news: James Gunn’s take on Superman, perhaps the world’s best-known superhero, is a 180-degree departure from Zack Snyder’s take. Gunn’s Superman is not dark, glum, and overly serious. Rather, it’s bright, attractive, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. In fact, many frames and scenes of the movie look like they’re a live-action adaptation of something from the Silver Age.
The problem is, the movie is also completely meh. It’s one of my least favorite films of the year so far.
Superman starts with on-screen text explaining that our hero (David Corenswet, whose previous credits include the movie Twisters and the Netflix series Hollywood) is not the first metahuman on Earth, and that it’s been three years since his first public appearance. So, I guess that’s another good thing: Unlike other Superman movies, Gunn doesn’t spend any time on the character’s origin story. It’s assumed we all know that, as a baby, Kal-El was sent to Earth from Krypton, shortly before the planet exploded, killing his parents. When he arrived, Kal-El landed in Kansas, where he was adopted by the Kents, named Clark, and raised to be a good ole boy, with good, old-fashioned American values. Fast-forward a couple decades, and Clark puts his knowledge and his powers to good use, becoming a hero named, yes, Superman — when he’s not moonlighting as a reporter at the Daily Planet, alongside Lois Lane (played here by Mrs. Maisel herself, Rachel Brosnahan), who eventually learns of Clark’s secret identity but falls in love with him anyway. Yada yada yada …
And, it’s assumed that the people on screen are by now used to superbeings existing and saving the day, often damaging lots of property in the process.
By excising all of this exposition, Gunn trims the movie by about 30 minutes. Phew.
So, anyway, when we meet Supes here, he’s mid-fight, bloodied and in need of care. He’s stopped a war between two countries named Boravia and Jarhanpur, but he’s also earned the hatred of Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult, from The Menu, in a performance that actually may be too animated). Megalomaniacal as always, Lex has used his vast empire to launch a campaign that he hopes will turn people against Superman. “He’s not a man. He’s an it — that’s somehow become the focal point of the entire world’s conversation,” Lex says, resentfully. “I will not accept that.”
Fueled by a discovery Lex makes in Kal-El’s Fortress of Solitude, that Lex promptly broadcasts to the world, people begin to wonder if this visitor from another planet is, indeed, as good as he seems, and start wondering whether he should be messing with international policy — and if Superman should be on Earth at all.
It’s not exactly subtle.
By overtly labeling Superman an alien and an immigrant, questioning the motives behind his actions, and having Superman make a big deal about how he’s “human” and not just American, Gunn takes his film into political territory, weighing Superman down with “depth” and “meaning” he doesn’t need. No wonder certain segments of the population are up in arms about the film.
The fact is, politics aside, it’s all unnecessary. An unforced error. Snyder did a similar thing in Man of Steel, casting Superman (there, played by Henry Cavill) as a reluctant hero, uncomfortable being looked at as more of a god or an alien than a man.
One thing people love so much about the Christopher Reeve–fronted series is that in that one, Superman was just a two-dimensional hero. There was no pathos. No mental anguish. No inner conflict. No irony. No overt metaphor. Just good vs evil, with some corn thrown in for good measure.
That’s the kind of character Superman is: He’s boring. Intentionally so. He’s not Batman, racked with guilt and sadness over the death of his parents. Superman believes the people of Earth are innately good. He’s someone trying to fit in and be one of us. He has an idealistic sense of right and wrong that’s not motivated by outside influence, and he just wants to do the right thing and help people when he’s needed. Maybe in 2025 that’s unfashionable, and to meet the “progressive” definitions of humanity these days, our heroes also have to have some form of weakness. But Superman doesn’t have that dimension. By injecting this modern-day commentary and sensibility into what should be a timeless character, Gunn distracts and frustrates viewers. At least, he did this viewer.
(For the record, 2006’s Superman Returns with Brandon Routh veered into the godlike territory stuff, too, but at least that film maintained some of the hokey tone of the Christopher Reeve series.)
It’s a shame, because the film is well cast where it matters: Corenswet, who is the first Jewish actor to play Superman, has the right look. He could have been a great Supes with a different script. For example, Gunn doesn’t give Corenswet much to do as Clark Kent — ironically, something that would have given the character humanity in a less blatant way. And Brosnahan nicely conveys Lois’ strength as a reporter and her tenderness as a romantic interest.
The rest? Well, that’s another problem with the film: There are just too many people in this movie. Gunn makes too-little use of great actors like Wendell Pierce, who plays Daily Planet editor Perry White, while giving us way too much of characters like Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern — who is grating in a way that even Ryan Reynolds wasn’t in his Green Lantern movie — and Steve Lombard, the Daily Planet reporter played by SNL alum Beck Bennett.
Which brings me to one of the film’s big, lingering questions: Why do we even need Green Lantern — and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), aka: the “Justice Gang” — in this movie? This is the first chapter in a universe-building saga, so the focus should be almost entirely on the core character. Instead, Gunn overcrowds his focal hero with superbeings most audience members will barely know or care about. (That said, I do wish I saw more of Merced. She’s one of the best things about The Last of Us, but here, as Hawkgirl, she’s hidden under a mask for too much of her screen time.)
Also, why do the robots in the Fortress of Solitude call their leader “Superman” and not “Kal-El”? And why does no one question it when Lois has a super-aircraft at her disposal and demonstrates she already knows how to fly it?
And I haven’t even mentioned the dog.
Ugh.
Gunn found a perfect match for his sensibilities with the Guardians of the Galaxy movies he made for Marvel Studios. His Volume 3 was one of the better comic book movies of recent years.
When Gunn took over DC Studios, it was cause for optimism after the malaise of the Snyderverse. (Even though there were some bright spots, like The Flash.) Alas, if this is what we have to look forward to with the new DC Extended Universe, I may have to pass.
Superman is a mess. An attractive one. But an overstuffed mess just the same. I really did not like this movie.
I give it a C–.
P.S. Don’t bother staying for the end-credit scenes. There are two of them, including one at the very end of the scroll, but they’re a complete waste of time.
Martin's Musings 
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