Three years after announcing himself to the world, Superman (David Corenswet) gets caught up in a brewing war — while Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) sets out to destroy him.
It may be the first film in the newly established DC Universe, marking the beginning of James Gunn’s reign over a new comic-book behemothian franchise — but with his Superman, the Guardians Of The Galaxy writer-director chooses to start in the middle. Krypton is gone, Kal-El (David Corenswet) is all grown up, and Superman (plus other metahumans and monsters) are part of everyday life for those on Earth. Clark Kent already works at the Daily Planet, is already dating Lois Lane (who already knows his superhero secret), and is already throwing himself into international affairs in the name of saving lives. We’re told all this in the first minute via on-screen captions, and the sense of being dropped into a story having missed the crucial first half never really goes away.
To catch you up, here’s the situation: Superman interfered in an attack from the fictional nation of Boravia on the fictional nation of Jarhanpur — draw whatever real-world parallels you like here — without any consideration for the geopolitical ramifications. As a result, he’s the target of global suspicion as to his reason for being on Earth, and retaliation in the form of genetically enhanced soldiers created by evil baldy billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), whose ultimate goal is to take Superman down. It’s at this moment — just after Superman has lost his first ever fight (off-screen) — that the story starts.
It’s not that retreading the Kryptonian’s origin story would have been better — but the way Superman is constructed requires us to care about a war we have no context for, and the downfall of a hero whose ascension we haven’t seen. We’re given no sense of who Kal-El is before this, or the world’s sentiment towards him, and so aren’t equipped to feel any stakes in what happens next.
The final act sinks into CGI chaos.
For all that feels off in the set-up, the performances are solid. Corenswet clearly fits the bill looks-wise, but also manages to convey the deep sense of duty that Superman feels towards Earth. Rachel Brosnahan is spiky and engaging as Lois, breathing life into a role with minimal dimension otherwise. The pair have clear chemistry; an early scene where Lois interviews Clark as Superman in a passionate clash of perspectives is one of the best in the film. Elsewhere, Nathan Fillion is amusing as Green Lantern, egotistical leader of the so-called ‘Justice Gang’, and Barry breakout Anthony Carrigan conveys some heart through a mountain of prosthetics as the element-manipulating Metamorpho. Hoult is having fun as Luthor, dishing out witty comebacks and maniacal screams, as well as genuine flashes of emotion.
But there are problems in the writing. Luthor lacks depth, portrayed simply as an abusive sociopath who’s targeting Superman out of spite, and indulging in “reckless science” at the cost of destroying the world entirely. Supes himself, meanwhile, is almost the pure-of-heart hero you want him to be, the one that Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve so masterfully achieved in their iteration — but some clunky dialogue and a cocky edge means the character never quite meets the mark.
As shown by the MCU’s Captain America: Civil War, the question of how governments might try to control superpowered beings, and the morality of decision-making under that kind of regime, can be the basis for blockbuster brilliance. Here, the aforementioned interview scene is the only time Superman really digs into that, otherwise treating it as a convoluted foundation on which to build a fantastical but flat final showdown. The conflict between Boravia and Jarhanpur is a clangingly on-the-nose representation of current events — but while the movie’s stance is commendable, the inclusion of real-life humanitarian crisis as a side-plot in a film this bombastic and snarky feels a little icky.
Visually, Superman is bold and bright and full of colour and cosmic invention — an area in which Gunn excels, and a nice change from the desaturated palette of Zack Snyder’s interpretation. That keeps the film entertaining for the first hour, but the final act sinks into CGI chaos, with an unsatisfying climax, an eye-roll-inducing reveal, a restlessly intermittent tone, and an insistence on prioritising things and people we don’t really care about over core characters.
The biggest saving grace? Krypto, the cheeky, cape-wearing canine sidekick. Superman may not be a great movie, but one thing’s for sure: Krypto is a very good dog.
David Corenswet takes on the blue-and-red mantle admirably, and glimpses of Gunn’s signature sense of fun shine through — but a lack of humanity, originality and cohesion means the movie around them just doesn’t work.
