If, like me, you read Poopy Pants’ Superman review with an open mouth and wondered how much of it was real and how much only existed in his mind, I’ve got some news for you:
The bum fucker song at the end. AI being an army of monkeys on computers inside a tear in the Universe. Superman useing his breath to blast himself out of a black hole. Superman’s parents’ dying wish being that their son impregnate as many women as possible.
All of it.
Taken out of context, it all seems a bit wacky and weird, but this is James Gunn. It’s what he does. Comic book superheroes are inherently silly, but movie adaptations tend to drop the more outlandish aspects in order to ground the stories and appeal to normies.
Here, Gunn embraces the genre in all its silliness. It’s a gamble which guarantees that Superman reviews will vary massively from ‘great’ to ‘great big turd,’ depending on the reviewer’s tolerance for this kind of stuff.
Did it work for me? Not always, but it’s mostly a decent effort, and I would say that Gunn just about gets away with it because he gets one key thing right: Superman himself.
Modern media is kryptonite
There are many reasons why I hated Zach Snyder’s take on Superman, but chief amongst them was that he was overpowered. Here, Superman gets beaten up. A lot.
This is a Universe where kaiju monsters, metahumans and modern media all present a real threat to our hero. He’s beaten physically, and verbally slaughtered in the news and online. Lex Luthor digs up some serious dirt on him and even his girlfriend grills him in a hardball interview.
It seems like the whole world is against him and it gets you on his side. In reality, he’s just an idealistic boy scout who wants to save everybody. He likes cringe music and is seriously uncool. Lois likes punk rock and is way cooler. They are an odd couple and might not make it as a result.
But here’s the problem: while this dynamic appealed to me, it probably won’t appeal to everybody. I just read a review that panned the movie for making Superman appear weak. The reviewer was pining for the return of invincible Superman. I could argue why that is wrong, but what’s the point?
The truth is that we all seem to want different things from the character. We’ve got our own ideas on what Superman should be and how he should act. Achieving any kind of consensus on this movie is going to be nigh-on impossible, at least in the short term.
If you want to like it, you will. If you want to hate it, you will.
The Supporting Cast
But I liked it. Superman is grounded by his relationships. David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan are perfectly cast and the extensive supporting cast is top notch. I’m no comic book nerd, so I’d never heard of Mr Terrific. He is, in fact, terrific in this.
I was not sold on Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, but he does well. Lex wants to destroy Superman’s reputation and then the man himself, for reasons that are quite petty in the end. Some will hate Lex’s motivation, but it is exactly the kind of insecure, ego-driven bullshit I would expect from a billionaire.
Again, all this should come with a health warning. I’m not a hardcore fan. I’m not steeped in DC lore and don’t really know much about it outside of the movies. These portrayals could represent massive betrayals of the established characters for all I know.
A New Universe
The action is well done, but at times borders on becoming yet another cartoonish CGI assault on the senses.
One issue I had was the depiction of the two fictional countries at the centre of this movie. One is a technologically advanced nation looking to invade the other and are all white. The other is a bunch of poor brown people in rags, waving sticks. These are meant to be neighbouring countries. No matter what angle you look at it from, it seems pretty racist.
James Gunn recently made a point in an interview about Superman being an immigrant story. If he intended any social commentary on that, then it’s well hidden unless you’re reaching. Lex calls Superman an ‘alien’ at one point. Superman responds with a speech about how human he is because he fucks up all the time. It’s a valid point, but mistimed and comes across as preachy.
There are nods to the extended Universe throughout, but it doesn’t crowd the movie like I thought it would from seeing the trailers. Green Lantern is great fun, with a great haircut. Krypto the Superdog isn’t overdone and appears when the plot needs him to. But everyone likes dogs, so it’s cool.
Without giving too much away, a late cameo gives me hope for a certain upcoming DC movie that I previously had no hope for.
I also like how James Gunn sneaks almost the entire cast of Guardians of the Galaxy into this movie in cameo roles.
In the end, this is a new DC Universe that I wouldn’t mind seeing more of, unlike the bleakfest that was the Snyderverse. It’s a hard one to rate, but rate it I must.
