Pan and Slam

Superman

PG-13 2h 9m

• Director
  • James Gunn
• Stars
  • David Corenswet
  • Rachel Brosnahan
  • Nicholas Hoult

by Jason Koenigsberg

Be careful what you wish for. Myself, and a lot of other people cried and complained about how dark the DC movies were under the helm of Zack Snyder for the last decade or so. I and many others have also complained about superhero movies and their over reliance on origin stories, I have also complained that movies should represent the times that they are made and serve as a social commentary when applicable. By that notion, James Gunn’s Superman should be right up my alley. But alas, I walked out disappointed and convinced that either James Gunn hates America, or the producers just care more about their wallets than Superman fighting for “truth, justice, and the American way” as he has for almost a century.

Superman opens up with a new Superman/DC logo instead of the usual Warner Bros. shield. The first notes of John Williams’ score play over the logo and then the opening shots are wide angles of a vast, snowy tundra with tongue in cheek text to catch the audience up on what they are about to see instead of giving us Superman’s origin story which we have all seen countless times. This Superman is trying to be different from the get-go. It throws us right into the action and inserts humor right away. That immediately makes this Superman feel more like a course correction from the overly serious tone in Man of Steel (2013) and the DC Snyder-verse than its own actual movie. James Gunn has a unique voice as a director but right away this wreaks of filmmaking by committees and focus groups with its forced humor and lighthearted tone starting in the first moments. The lack of an origin story actually hurt this film. It jumps right into the action and the audience will have no idea who most of the characters are besides the obvious ones (Superman, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor) that are fighting each other unless they have prior knowledge of the DC comics world. Unfortunately, I do not have an extensive knowledge of C and D list Superman characters so I was lost throughout the entire film. There is no character development throughout this movie. Monsters and aliens just appear and cause mass destruction. Characters with superpowers walk onto the screen, they either help or hurt Superman, they have an action sequence, and then move on to the next scene and I have no idea who they are or what exactly just happened. Maybe seven year old me would love James Gunn’s Superman for the non-stop action and adrenaline, but adult me was lost and confused most of the time. All I could keep up with was Superman=good and whoever helps him is good. Lex Luthor=bad and whoever helps him is hurting Superman. Also, the action happens so fast and so frequently, yet the movie as a whole feels so long. It felt much longer than the two hour and ten minute run time.

Nicholas Hoult is Lex Luthor and gives the best performance in the movie. He is really on a hot streak right now after last year’s Juror #2 and Nosferatu. He plays Lex Luthor like an evil Director of Homeland Security. He hates Superman because he is an illegal alien taking a lot of fame and publicity away from Luthor. Since Superman is categorized as an illegal alien, he has no rights. David Corenswet is a serviceable Superman/Clark Kent. He plays the Man of Steel just fine, not really adding a signature but not aping the style of Christopher Reeve either. With the right script or direction he could do more with this character and not only make a good Superman movie, but also make the character more of his own. Rachel Brosnahan clearly did her homework. She is channeling Margot Kidder as Lois Lane. She looks and sounds exactly like Kidder did as Superman’s reporter colleague and love interest in the original films. Bradley Cooper is in this also. He steps into Marlon Brando and Russell Crowe’s shoes as Jor-El. Some pretty big shoes to fill but if they give him more to do in the next movies I am sure he will deliver.

As for the social commentary. James Gunn’s Superman is topical as mentioned above with Lex Luthor’s character and the dialogue mentioning illegal aliens and how they should be treated. At times it feels obvious and contrived, other times it is more subtle. If anything the allegory on immigration was more subtle than other topics. James Gunn tackles the Russian invasion of Ukraine and that war with a fictitious country invading another fictitious country and Superman getting involved to try and help and the media lambasts him for interfering. The fake countries could have also resembled Israel and Palestine but I assumed from the names and the invasion talk that it was Eastern European. It touches upon fake news and that people should not believe everything they first read on the internet. Plus, it has some negative things to say about internet trolls and social media especially with the Instagram obsessed interpretation of Eve Teschmacher played by Sara Sampaio. What I cannot forgive this new Superman for is how they tried to make Superman a world icon and not an American icon. He has always stood for “truth, justice, and the American way”. That line is never mentioned in this movie and maybe that is because they think that “the American way” is a negative slogan they do not want to mention. There is only one single shot of the American flag in this Superman. That was probably done because sadly patriotic images like the American flag are now associated with Donald Trump and his MAGA followers. Regardless of who is in the White House and how Congress is cowardly following the whims of a charlatan President, truth and justice are still American values and there are lot of good people in America that are standing up against the xenophobic policies of the current administration. So either James Gunn hates America, or the producers care more about the global box office and do not want to offend audiences in other countries. That is as cowardly and greedy as Congress.

This new version of Superman is very much a Superman for 2025. I wish I understood the plot and the characters more and that they did not take an anti-American stance on one of America’s most beloved and iconic superheroes. Nationalism does not always need to be viewed as cynical or negative and Superman has always been draped with patriotic imagery. James Gunn’s Superman may entertain some, and is a drastic change from the previous movie version of Superman but it still left a lot to be desired.

Skip this new movie and watch the original currently streaming on HBO Max.