Comic book movie mastermind, former Marvel movie saviour and current DC movie showrunner James Gunn has given unto the world another Superman movie, complete with a new cast.
Out is Henry Cavill and the rest of the ill-fated Zack Snyder-helmed DC extended universe franchise and in with David Corenswet as America’s favourite illegal alien.
Joining Corenswet’s Kal-El aka Clark Kent is Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as evil businessman and super-genius Lex Luthor.
Director Gunn, whose Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy franchise and resurrection of failed DC experience Suicide Squad (2016) with The Suicide Squad (2021) paved the way to make an ambitious project like this possible, shows why he is the man for the job.
Superman is a refreshing take on the Man of Steel (not the 2013 movie) as it jumps right into the action without telling the superhero’s origin story beyond a few lines of text.
With his expert understanding comic books and comic book movie viewers, Gunn doesn’t waste time, as practically everyone watching this iteration will know who Superman and Lex Luthor are and their dynamic.
Corenswet and Hoult are evenly matched in this film, with Luthor’s seething rage and Corenswet’s boy-next-door looks and all-American image coming through in every appearance.
Corenswet, who bears more than just a passing resemblance to previous Superman Cavill, fills the shoes left by the Brit well, switching from almost naïve Kansas boy Kent to Kryptonian superhero Kal-El with ease and precision before flying headfirst, once again, into danger.
The movie also doesn’t waste time with the will-they-won’t-they of Clark and Lois, they’re already together albeit recently, and she knows he’s Superman.
The 2025 reimagining kicks off with Superman losing his first battle ever, to a flying juggernaut by the name of the Hammer of Boravia (Boravia is a fictional nation in a clear analogy for a real-life current conflict.)
Naturally, this battle is engineered by Lex Luthor, with his hatred of Superman and grand designs for that embattled part of the world.
Themes of dominance and domination are woven throughout as Luthor seeks to control a section of what is ostensibly the Middle East, and the last son of Krypton reckons with his parents’ true wishes for his life.
Superman is an ambitious movie, adding characters from other pre-Superman Gunn movies, including others from other DC properties in reimagined forms (though they’re almost all played by the roster of regulars Gunn keeps on hand).
It also has many plot threads including main and side threads, slow burns, and subplots which feel a bit extraneous to the film (did we really need another attempt at a Justice Society?)
Perhaps the most ambitious move is adding Krypto, Superman’s superpowered dog in his first live action (though mainly CGI) outing.
Krypto, labelled as a “not-so-good good boy” by Gunn, is an active participant in the film, helping Superman take out bad guys.
Superman boasts an impressive list of side characters from meta-humans to the journalists at The Daily Planet, but Krypto and his boundless, uncontained energy really brings life to the film.
A word of caution: some viewers may find it difficult to see the film at times due to the repeated use of shaky cam and extreme close-up techniques. And right from the jump the opening exposition is in white text set on mostly white background.
But the film is exactly what it needs to be: a story about a man from middle America juggling his personal life with the biggest professional hurdle he’s ever encountered, all the while figuring out what his parents had planned for him isn’t what he thought, all while he cleans up the streets of Metropolis.
Superman doesn’t reinvent the superhero wheel but it doesn’t have to. The love shown for the characters both on and off the screen and references to the modern real world show why Superman is a cinema stalwart.
The film contains some science fiction themes, violence, mature themes surrounding humanity, coarse language, crude gestures, and animal peril.
Superman is rated M and is in cinemas now with the option of viewing it in 3D.
