Superman

4 outta 5

As the world continues to spin, a newly rebooted Superman film is upon us once again, but happily this Superman is great. There are a lot of super characters throughout the film, but they are supporting characters (aside from one or two gratuitous cameos) so it doesn’t feel like overwhelmingly enforced superhero world building. But this is really about Clark, Lois, Lex and Superman’s dog. There’s also a lot of fantastical sci-fi comic-book-y weirdness sprinkled throughout. It may devolve a bit into action and widescreen apocalypse peril by the end, but pretty much all Superman movies end with action and widescreen apocalypse peril. This does reintroduce an iconic character with a fun revamp that shows how inherently good he is, and even in a world of superheroes, he flies above all.

Clark Kent aka Superman (David Corenswet), the superpowered last son of Krypton, is having a rough time after he intervened in a war overseas, now he is stuck fighting superpowered goons and monsters, all sent by businessman, genius, and evil terrorist Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). Clark is in a relationship with his Daily Planet co-worker, Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), and she knows he is Superman, so their dynamic is very complex. Superman is visited by The Justice Gang, cocky Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) and when they learn something devastating about Superman things are looking bleak. All while Superman is looking after the rambunctious and often incredibly violent Krypto the Superdog, but Lex’s evil knows no bounds as he will even dognap Krypto to get what he wants.

The film has a scene where Lois interviews Superman, which recalls the iconic interview scene from the original film, but this one is different as she is interviewing Clark as a civilian speaking as Superman. It gives the scene a different dynamic as she doesn’t hold back with tough questions about his unilateral intervention into another global conflict. The Daily Planet crew, with Lois and Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo), are getting information about Lex’s scheme from an inside source (there’s a lot of funny bits as Jimmy can’t stand the “inside source”). It’s great to see Lois a part of the story instead of the kidnap bait plot piece she is often used as (Krypto the Superdog is the kidnap plot bait here). Strangely, two Superman movies now have Lois and Clark making kissy face after Metropolis is splattered by a supervillain but at least here they snuck off somewhere unbroken and quiet as opposed to making out on the rubble of Metropolis. Corenswet is great as Superman and Clark, he still has moments of Kansas farmboy “aw shucks”, but he can be totally intense as Superman.

There are a lot of different superheroes, but the biggest support is the Justice Gang (there are some small other cameos which don’t feel too egregious, and one cameo from a previous DC Universe character is a hoot). Gathegi as Mr. Terrific is a tech genius, and there’s a very funny bit when he and Lois are waiting for his ship to emerge from a garage and Lois complains about how slow the door is moving. Merced as Hawkgirl is amusingly annoyed with her co-workers but she carries a big mace and is really tough. Fillion as Guy is a huge jerk with a terrible haircut, but as he is so cocky he is without fear and he isn’t even scared to get in Superman’s face. Stupid, but brave. However, the best supporting superpowered character is Krypto the Superdog. He is constantly breaking things and inadvertently beating up on Clark, but he’s very funny. There is a tease where he may show up next which could mean that Krypto may end up being the superhero with the most screentime in this new DC Universe. Lex is nasty, even manipulating online discourse against Superman (with a reveal of how he is doing it is one of the movie’s best gags). All of Lex Luthor’s schemes come down to him hating Superman. Superman say’s it’s just envy, something Lex readily agrees with. One of Lex’s superpowered goons, Ultraman, is a twisted reveal of how far Lex would go to completely destroy Superman.

The movie goes at an excellent clip from action scene to action scene, with some good character moments in between. The film embraces its comic book roots and is full of fantastical sci-fi fantasy moments. There is so much constant action and buildings getting collapsed that by the end it is a little wearying, but Superman movies often do that. There are a bunch of awesome action bits, like when Superman and the Justice Gang are fighting a giant monster.  There is an interdimensional prison break with Superman and Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), a guy who can become different elements, that has much chaos. Krypto keeps coming out of nowhere to totally smash stuff, and the way the dog is used in the finale is perfect. 

Superman is fantastic experience, if not quite as good as writer and director James Gunn’s last two movies, The Suicide Squad or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 but that is an incredibly high bar to clear. Superman is still an iconic character and this is a fun, bombastic movie to reintroduce him. Hopefully this sticks around for a while!