Insofar as writer-director Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) was hired to make an definitive break from the nihilistic, grimdark Snyderverse DC movies and recover a sense of Superman as a character so decent and generous that it’s okay if he’s corny: mission accomplished. This is the first new big-screen interpretation of Superman since the Christopher Reeve days that feels recognizably like the same character portrayed by pretty much every other screen interpretation of the character I’ve seen, at least since Kirk Alyn in the 1948 serial played the early Superman as a not-so-nice bruiser for justice. George Reeves, Dean Cain, Tom Welling, and the DC Animated Universe Superman voiced by Tim Daly, among others — I can accept them all as the same iconic character, along with Reeve and now Corenswet. As for Brandon Routh in Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, the film was essentially an extension of the Reeve films with Routh as Reeve’s stand-in; I like the film and the performance, but it’s not a new interpretation. That leaves, of course, the glum, aloof character played by Henry Cavill in the Snyder films as the odd man out, and the sooner we put him behind us, the better.
I called All-Star Superman “smart, silly, and sincere.” Gunn’s Superman may be influenced by the graphic novel, but the movie is at best only two of those three things.
Take the big set piece in which Corenswet’s Superman battles a rapidly growing kaiju in the streets of Metropolis, eventually aided by Green Lantern, Mister Terrific, and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced, Alien: Romulus), who are collectively going by the working group name “the Justice Gang.” (There’s a sight gag that teases the question whether they will eventually settle on “Justice League” or “Super Friends.”) There’s a lot of property damage, but Superman repeatedly intervenes to protect innocent people (and even an animal) from harm — a concern I complained in my review of Snyder’s Man of Steel was absent in that movie’s battle sequences. Heck, Superman even wants to capture the kaiju alive if they can.
“We’re so different,” Lois tries to explain. “I was just some punk rock kid … I question everything and everyone. You trust everyone, and think everyone you’ve ever met is, like, beautiful.”
Our hero shrugs. “Maybe … that’s the real punk rock.” Yeah. That’s the stuff. That’s my overgrown Boy Scout.
That’s the good news. Here’s the other thing: I called All-Star Superman “smart, silly, and sincere.” Gunn’s Superman may be influenced by the graphic novel, but the movie is at best only two of those three things. It embraces the silliness, and the sincerity is there, at least fitfully. But neither Superman nor the story he’s in are anywhere near as smart as Morrison’s protagonist and story. Corenswet’s Clark is a bad writer. And his Superman is not great at being super.
I want Superman to be likable and relatable. But the guy is also supposed to be inspiring and aspirational, and it’s hard to look up to a super when you’re continually frustrated because you feel like you could do his job with his powers better than he does.
The movie opens boldly, in medias res, catching us up on what’s happening in a world and ominously telling us that Superman has just lost his first battle. Beaten nearly senseless, the Man of Steel manages to retreat to his Fortress of Solitude, where the entrance is keyed to his DNA, and robotic attendants use advanced technology to help him get on his feet. Then, not yet fully recovered, he goes charging back into battle with a crew of flying armored opponents, who proceed to beat him up some more. He has no plan to achieve a different outcome: no secret tech from his amazing, advanced fortress that might turn the tide. He’s just going full Steve Rogers in a hopeless battle: “I could do this all day.”
Superman spends a lot of the next hour or more getting kicked around. Presumably this is because Gunn figures he’s so over-powered (or “OP” in gaming jargon, meaning too strong to keep things interesting) that beating him up over and over is the only way to make him Relatable and Sympathetic and create Drama. Partly this is achieved by effectively nerfing (or weakening) his powers. For example, the filmmakers seem to have forgotten that Superman has X-ray vision. Superman himself seems to forget his heat vision for well over the first hour — a power that could have been a game-changer in that opening battle, where he could have, like, used it from space to try to cripple his opponents’ armor — and the first time he does try it, it doesn’t help. It’s like the filmmakers are inspired here, not by All-Star Superman, but by the Daly-voiced animated character, whom my kids noted long ago a) seriously under-utilizes his heat vision and b) seems to get kicked around more than any other five heroes combined.
I want Superman to be likable and relatable. But the guy is also supposed to be inspiring and aspirational, and it’s hard to look up to a super when you’re continually frustrated because you feel like you could do his job with his powers better than he does. The most badass scene belongs to Mister Terrific, who, in a conceit cribbed from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, effortlessly takes out a whole contingent of soldiers while listening to music. The movie does eventually highlight Superman’s role as a galvanizing icon of hope, and when it comes it’s a powerful moment. I would have liked a glimpse of that in the early going.
(On a side note, far from nerfing his superpowers, All-Star Superman goes the other way, supercharging his powers and making the Man of Steel more powerful than ever — unsustainably so, so that he spends the whole arc slowly approaching death.)
Clark discovers that a fundamental idea that he has looked to for guidance in shaping his life is a lie. One could say he has to “deconstruct” his belief system and decide whether he has lost faith or believes in a new way.
“Brains beats brawn,” Luthor sneers, and Superman later throws the line back at him. This callback is borrowed verbatim from All-Star Superman, where Superman ultimately defeats Luthor by outsmarting him and planning the course of their conflict with careful timing and (no kidding) special relativity. In Gunn’s film, when Superman says “Brains beats brawn,” he just happens to have thought of something that’s not terribly clever. There’s a bit in All-Star Superman in which a young, inexperienced Clark calls on Krypto the super-dog to aid him against a more powerful and more experienced antagonist. Corenswet’s Superman goes to that same well repeatedly.
The graphic novel is a point of reference, not a measuring stick. Gunn’s film is not an adaptation of All-Star Superman, and it stands or falls on its own. This Superman is still relatively inexperienced (first defeat), and maybe he’ll improve.
What else? Gunn undermines the Christological resonances that have characterized big-screen interpretations since the first Reeve film. (Even Snyder leaned into the Superman as Christ figure idea, though he had no idea what to do with it.) Clark experiences something that has become common for many: He discovers that a fundamental idea that he has looked to for guidance in shaping his life is a lie. One could say Clark has to “deconstruct” his belief system and decide whether he has lost faith or believes in a new way. I’m not a fan of the way Gunn portrays Clark’s Earth parents, Kansas farm couple Jonathan and Martha Kent (Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell), but it doesn’t ruin the movie.
With ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity being inflicted in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and other regions of the world, the fantasy of noble powers capable of just putting a stop to it is still enjoyable, even if the MCU’s Civil War arc, among many other things, has made it clear how much more complicated this kind of thing is.
Hoult makes Luthor as entertaining as he can, but the role is too limited to be interesting. Some personal conversation would help, as would making him more fallible in the early going. I admit it’s cathartic to see a scheming tech billionaire and would-be oligarch ranting about aliens, or at least one alien, get his comeuppance. And, with ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity being inflicted in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and other regions of the world, the fantasy of noble powers capable of just putting a stop to it is still enjoyable, even if the MCU’s Civil War arc, among many other things, has made it clear how much more complicated this kind of thing is.
The dumbest bit of obscure Superman lore that Gunn recycles is an old idea that Clark Kent’s spectacles are “hypno-glasses” that cause people to see his face differently so they won’t recognize him as Superman. I like much better the way that All-Star Superman leans into the absurdity, suggesting that people simply can’t grasp or retain the information that Clark Kent is Superman, even when it couldn’t be more obvious. Morrison effectively treats Clark’s secret identity as what Superman chronicler Glen Weldon ( Superman: The Unauthorized Biography) called an “ambient Jedi mind trick,” or low-level telepathic effect. I like this a lot better than Superman II’s amnesia kiss.
I’m just done with epic urban destruction and collapsing skyscrapers. The rap on Superman Returns was “not enough action,” and Snyder understandably went in the opposite direction. But Superman Returns came out before the whole MCU juggernaut, and this kind of thing has been more than done to death. My favorite MCU movie climax might be Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange, where Hong Kong takes a beating and then the damage is undone. Filmmakers, I’m begging you: Find ways to make fight scenes epic without destroying cities every single time.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.