Superman must reconcile his alien Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as reporter Clark Kent. As the embodiment of truth, justice and the human way, he soon finds himself in a world that views these as old-fashioned. Tom and Stefan went to check out the latest superhero flick from James Gunn, who also directed The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Tom Parry: Unlike Superman’s previous solo outing, 2013’s Man of Steel, this effort really captures what makes Supes such a compelling hero – he’s not a god who looks like us, he’s a human just like us who happens to have godlike powers. He’s someone who makes mistakes, who’s doing his best and just wants to fit-in. He’s a symbol of purity, decency and not wanting to do harm to others, and in this world of ours which is a bit, let’s say so-so, I think that’s the kind of positive attitude we could do with more of.
Stefan Bradley: Superman is a unifying movie. It sounds lame, but I can’t deny this made me feel hopeful. I don’t think this will stand among the greatest superhero movies ever, alongside the likes of The Dark Knight (2008), Logan (2017) or the original Superman (1978), starring Christopher Reeve, but this is a great popcorn flick that achieved pretty much everything it set out to do. Our very first Gippsland Times film review was The Batman, and that was a terrific restart for the caped crusader, which made myself and others excited again about superhero movies and its future, and I think this rebooted Superman will do the same thing – I’m pumped for Supergirl next year!
TP: As you may well remember, Stefan, I absolutely loved Matt Reeves’ The Batman – it was my favourite film in 2022 and is, dare I say, one of my favourite movies of this decade so far, up there with Oppenheimer. I don’t believe Gunn’s Superman is better than Reeves’ The Batman; but if I had the opportunity to watch it again tomorrow, I would happily do so. Superman is a film that which embraces its silliness and its cartoonish nature without ever feeling like a parody, yet also wary of when to take itself seriously. More impressive is how the story draw parallels with our own world without feeling overly gritty or serious.
SB: David Corenswet was excellent as Clark Kent/Superman. He’s certainly got the voice and looks down pat, and had great chemistry with Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, who thankfully is written as a fully-fledged character and not just the female love interest. And Nicholas Hoult is an actor I’ve admired for a while, and I knew he was going to nail the Lex Luthor character. Last week, I talked about Jurassic Park Rebirth’s “cartoonishly rich and selfish” corporate man with no discerning personality, which contrasts with Luthor who is also cartoonishly rich and selfish, but is an actual compelling presence in the story.
TP: I want to discuss one of the major flaws: Gunn’s Superman assumes and expects everyone knows who Clark Kent is, and Lex Luthor and all of these other characters – the narrative doesn’t really provide viewers with an engaging backstory or a reason to root for these people, just a simplistic good-versus-evil narrative.
SB: You’re not tired of origin stories?
TP: I am somewhat, but given that for many younger generations, this will be their first time seeing a live-action Superman on the big screen, I reckon it would have been wise to flesh-out his backstory and origins a little bit more. Because let’s not forget, Man of Steel was 12 years ago, and the last Superman origin story before that was 47 years ago – there will be kids out there who have no idea about Richard Donner’s Superman and Christopher Reeve, or even John Williams and his iconic theme. And by the way, props to the producers for bringing it back – I recall Christopher Reeve once said that without John Williams’s music, Superman doesn’t fly, and that is more than apparent in this movie, because the use of his music in the soundtrack really elevates the material.
SB: You do learn a little bit about Superman’s Earth parents, and his real parents from his home planet, and all this could be fleshed out in the future along with other characters. There’s a large number of minor roles, with most of them not doing much in the movie, but I don’t see a problem with that – they’re supposed to be peripheral characters that complement the principal cast.
TP: I feel that that James Gunn injected a bit too much of his style into the action sequences – for instance, Superman punching a bloke and having his teeth fly out, or the one-shot of Mr Terrific (Edi Gathegi) battling all these bad guys to some cheesy pop tune – we could have done with a bit less of that, because those gimmicks is better suited to something like The Suicide Squad or Guardians of the Galaxy. But overall, the fight scenes are pretty good and certainly not boring. The film’s two and a bit hours, and I’m not going say it flies by, but certainly it doesn’t feel too lengthy, either – nothing’s dragged out, nor is there any noticeable padding.
SB: I agree, there’s some minor flaws with this movie overall, but every aspect comes together to make a Superman movie for the modern age. He is of course the poster child for all superheroes, so this also feels like a throwback. It’s like when an old band comes back together to release a new album. I think it will be a great cinema experience for families and will change the trajectory of superhero films going forward.
