Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

When James Gunn was placed in charge of rebooting the ailing DC cinematic universe the move came with a declaration, from now on the focus would be on creating great individual movies with loose connections, rather than to obsessively cram everything into a convoluted cinematic continuity. With that in mind, here is the first of their new films, DCU : Phase 1 : Gods and Monsters : Superman.

Glibness aside, it is just called Superman, and while there is certainly some filling out of the world going on, it does all seem to be in service of telling the story. A brief bit of text fills us in on Gunn's world, letting us know super powered people are fairly common place and Superman is the strongest of them all, before we are introduced to a bloodied Supes, his dog Krypto and his robot staffed Fortress of Solitude. The plot has plenty going on, with a potential war, revelations about Superman's parents, citizen's mistrust of the Man of Steel and interactions with "The Justice Gang", but it mostly all boils down to Lex Luthor desperately wanting to put big blue in the ground.

There was some concern about James Gunn being the man to deliver a lighter version of a character that has been cinematically stuck in morose mode for the past decade or so. He has a reputation as a bit of mean filmmaker, someone who prefers harder edged characters and isn't above putting them through the wringer in service of pathos, or even just for a joke. Turns out he knows when to reign those sensibilities in and focus on silliness. There are some tonal clashes and attempts at emotion are thoroughly undercut by jokes, but focusing on the humorous side is the right call. There are plenty of nods to our world with advanced militaries prepared to gun down unarmed civilians and call it "war", billionaires pulling the strings of politicians and angry online (literal) monkeys spreading toxicity, but tonally, plot wise and in terms of visual aesthetic, this is probably the closest to just picking up a Superman comic that any live action film has come.

Pretty much all the casting choices prove to be inspired. David Corenswet certainly looks the part and he brings a disarming, naive charm to the role, playing him less stoic and more human than previous incarnations. He spends the vast majority of time in the suit, which is great, but it would have been nice to see a little more of Clark and Lois (Rachel Brosnahan) together as they have a great dynamic and chemistry. Nichola Hoult gives a more manic, and flat out evil version of Lex Luthor and is entertaining every time he is on screen, whether posing in sunglasses, berating employees or having a full on meltdown. The other heroes that show up in the film (the "Justice Gang") are pretty funny, with Nathan Fillion's obnoxious Green Lantern looking ridiculous and Eli Gathegi almost stealing the movie as genius Mr Terrific. Third member, Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) makes the most of what she is given but has the least to do.

The film certainly delivers on fun action and realises the spectacle of Superman pretty well, although arguable the best action sequence belongs to Mr Terrific. Things do move briskly, meaning that for a film dealing with the impact Superman has on the world, we don't get much time to take in the repercussions of what is going on. The only outright disappointment is the score which lacks any impact when not riffing on the iconic original theme.

Superman is a film that does indeed strip the character back to his fundamentals, never giving up and choosing to do the right thing. There is a lot of noise in the film, both in terms of plot and visuals, but if you can somehow get on board with the idea that a guy who flies around in a cape shooting lasers out his eyes shouldn't be taken too seriously, then you'll find an action packed, fun blockbuster to enjoy.

7 monkeys furiously typing out of 10.

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