By Matthew Moorcroft

Strong Recommendation

• Directed by James Gunn
• Starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Nathan Fillion
• PG-13

Superhero movies have come a long way. Nowadays it’s almost seemingly impossible to escape, a necessary – for better and for worse – part of the cinematic landscape whose presence feels like an inevitability. Every time we think they are going away or that audiences are somehow sick of them, one comes out that blows those assumptions away and it’s just a waiting game to see when that question comes around again.

And at the center of this, is Superman, whose films always seem to come at a critical point in the juncture in the history of the genre. The original 1978 film was the milestone in not just superhero films but the cinema landscape as a whole, changing the game in a lot of ways for visual effects and production design work. Superman Returns in 2006, while it’s success or failure debatable, was a legacy sequel before legacy sequels were the norm and was an attempt to differ itself from the rise of the reboots. Man of Steel in 2013, with it’s grittier tone, Nolan aesthetic, and cinematic universe ties, was the first attempt at another studio to ape the unparalleled success of Marvel and their efforts while also doubling down on the “realism” that was everywhere in the early 2010s as a result of The Dark Knight.

And now we have James Gunn’s Superman, the first film in a brand new DC Universe in the wake of the catastrophic failure of the DCEU and a superhero film in an era where the genre faces stagnation. While superhero cinema has been making strives to alter itself – look no further then the MCU’s surprisingly great Thunderbolts released earlier in the summer – Superman is the first superhero film in quite some time that feels genuinely new and fresh, uninterested in repeating past beats of other Superman films or even other modern superhero films, particularly in it’s construction.

Skipping the origin story in entirely and jumping straight into the action – quite literally, actually – Superman plays out like the middle section of a long running comic book storyline instead of a traditional three-act narrative, complete with fade to blacks that almost work as the start of a new “issue”. It’s a little overwhelming at first, having to set up numerous moving pieces and characters who all have long established histories with each other as well as conflicts that seems to have started weeks, maybe even months, prior to the beginning of the film.

It all contributes to a sense of texture and history though, as while Superman‘s slightly overstuffed narrative – and for the record, it is overstuffed, bursting at the seams with side characters and narrative threads that, for it’s just over 2 hour runtime, verges on too much – threatens to overwhelm, it does mean these characters feel like they have lives outside of the screen. None of this is more apparent then with Superman himself, portrayed by a pitch perfectly cast David Corenswet who rivals even the great Christopher Reeve in his portrayal of the Kryptonian, whose interpersonal relationships make up the bulk of the stories’ runtime.

From his romance with Lois Lane, his conflicts with the ever evil Lex Luthor, his interactions with other superheroes – humorously called the “Justice Gang” in this – and especially his effect on everyday people and civilians, Superman is a story about Superman, and more broadly superheroes at large and how they impact us. James Gunn as a director seems to be really interested in bringing back the idea of superheroes as modern myth tales, meant to entertain us yes but also instill a level of hope and optimism in a world that may not have that. Gunn understands that Superman is the best superhero to do this with, as his boy scout routine and old school mentality might be exactly the genre needs to survive and the world requires as we descend further into political upheaval.

Not to say Superman avoids that political upheaval. Just like Gunn’s last two superhero pictures, he doesn’t shy away from relevant discussions about the modern world, particularly using Superman’s status as an alien to make points about the nature of immigration, how we view “the other”, and an invasion storyline that feels eerily familiar to the current Palestinian genocide in a way that it makes the work of Michael Bay seem subtle. But it’s all in service of a tight script that manages to make it’s otherwise overstuffed history and characters feel necessary – I’m not sure how you’d trimmed this down, cause you really can’t.

Everything about the film, in fact, screams James Gunn, from it’s fast and furious camera movements, a color palette that’s so colorful that it might as well be candy, and a final needle drop that ranks among the best of the genre, and that might be the real magic of Superman. For all of it’s talk as a superhero franchise starter – which it is – it’s also very clearly the work of a very oddball director, a singular, unique vision from a creative who actually has something to say rather then checking off a series of required cameos or setpieces.

I don’t know if Superman is the best superhero film of the past several years – hell it’s likely not even the best Superman film, the 1978 Richard Donner classic still a pop mythological masterpiece – but it’s certainly one of the most immediately bold, telling, and immediately eye-catching, and that’s enough for a hearty, almost immediate recommendation from me. A strong start to Gunn’s new cinematic universe and a great new primer for Superman fans old and new. Kindness is the new punk rock.