Superman: A Superhero Reboot That Has It All - Too Much, In Fact
By Karen Gordon
Rating: C
The DC universe has struggled to find the cinematic footing that Marvel movies had from day one. There were hopes writer-director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy), would be the one to kick off the Superman reboot.
And he has done some good things here, including rethinking, a.k.a. modernizing the Man of Steel, Lois Lane et al.
On the positive side, Superman is exuberant. It wants to entertain and really wants to please, toggling between humour, action and drama (kind of). It’s action-packed. At about two hours, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. By far its biggest and best asset is its cast, especially David Corenswet as Superman.
But, alas. Superman is uneven with an often goofy storyline that at times feels like it’s echoing familiar story ideas from other superhero and genre-action films.
I mean, I get it. He’s a superhero. Even in an update, there are things comic book superheroes must do. And it can’t be easy to squeeze out new ideas when you have to fit in the basics: battles with giant flying monsters, having to wrangle wily, evil antagonists, etc. And then there's another challenge: How to make the characters and the plot relevant?
It’s clear that Gunn has thought about that, mixing the superhero stuff with modern themes and subtexts including social media, immigration and fascists, greedy capitalists teaming up to take over smaller and less economically prosperous countries. Oh, and then there’s the fact that it’s the beginning of a series. And no matter what anyone thinks about this film, with its new and sprawling cast, it’s setting us up for sequels. It’s a lot for one film to do.
And with that, to the film itself.
Superman has singlehandedly saved the country of Jarhanpur from being invaded by troops commanded by Boravian strong man Vasil Ghurkos (played by Zlatko Buric, the colourful Slavic arms dealer from Triangle of Sadness). Good people saved!
But not everyone is happy about Superman interfering on his own volition. And that’s led to him being assaulted and losing his first ever fight to a beast of a fighting machine, a robotic monster of steel.
He retreats to the only place he can get healed, to his crystal Fortress of Solitude in the Antarctic, where a group of robots who maintain the place, know how to heal him. But beaten and wounded, he can’t get there on his own. So, he calls on his dog, the enthusiastic and not-well-enough trained Krypto, to help drag him there for the final leg of the journey.
(If there was an awards category for best CGI pets, I’d give it to Krypto right now. Behaviour-wise he definitely needs more training. But even still, he’s a charmer and a very good boy)
Superman isn’t an origin story, but if you don’t know about him, in the Fortress of Solitude, you’ll get a bit of his background. A reminder that, looks aside, he is not human, but is an alien, who came from the planet Krypton as a baby, sent by his parents in a little rocket ship to save him as their planet was being destroyed.
Superman has indeed made some serious enemies. Not just the leader of Borovia, but he has once again drawn the extreme ire of his arch nemesis Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). He’s a tech billionaire, the head of his own corporation in a glistening office tower. For most of the film he calls the shots from what is effectively a command post or mission control in a room with multiple computers. It’s manned by staff who share Luthor’s desire to defeat Superman, and who use their computer systems to do things like track him, or control the actual movements of the steel monster to physically beat him up.
Superman is invincible, but not infallible, and so doesn’t always work alone. When he needs help he can call for it from a loose confederation of superheroes in search of a name. For now they’re the Justice Gang, kind of led by the wry and obnoxious Guy Gardner a.k.a. The Green Lantern, (scene stealing Canadian actor Nathan Fillion in a deliberate and comically terrible blonde wing), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and the cranky techno-wizard Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi).
By day, of course, Superman is in disguise as Clark Kent, a reporter for the Daily Planet newspaper, where he works for editor Perry White (Wendell Pierce), and alongside of young Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) and senior reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), who Clark is secretly dating. Lois is as solid a journalist as you can imagine. She also knows Clark is Superman, and she’s not afraid to challenge him on his choices. There’s big chemistry there, and also mutual respect. And the L word.
But, any relationship will have to wait: there’s the issue of Superman being a pain in Luthor’s plans. The public loves Superman. Luthor really hates him, although we’re not given any hints about where the animosity comes from. And so Luthor goes after Superman with a series of maneuvers: monsters, which make for great action pieces. And then he finds something more devastating, information that tanks the public's trust of Superman's motives and pushes it on social media.
But his most effective flex, is capturing Krypto. Superman goes straight to Luthor, demands the dog back, and ends up in a cell in a private prison Luthor has created in a pocket universe. Luthor uses a metahuman, named Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) who can turn his body into minerals, to morph one of his hands into Kryptonite to keep Superman debilitated.
In the meantime, Lois, with the help of Jimmy Olsen, has been investigating Lex Luthor’s involvement with Boravia and Vasil Ghurkos, taking on Mr. Terrific as a partner to track Superman..
And that’s just part of what is a very stuffed story, with some plot points that are sometimes head scratching, or silly.
Gunn’s superpower is that he’s cast this well. And so what often pulls it forward are the actors who make the most of their characters. Some get better opportunities to show that than others. Krypto the CGI dog gets great shots. Likewise, Green Lantern and Mr. Terrific. Lois is a terrific character, and Brosnahan plays her with understated elegance. Nicholas Hoult, on the other hand, is almost completely wasted in the reconsidered role of Lex, who doesn’t seem nearly menacing nor narcissistic enough.
The character of Superman is an appealingly sincere one with strong values. Sure, he was born on Krypton, but he’s more of a classic Kansas farm boy. Superman really believes in old fashioned and cliché-admirable Americana virtues. In a confusing, divisive age, it’s a beautiful thing. Gunn walks the line by having him affirm these virtues at a point late enough in the movie where it seems like a bad idea to throw in so much sincerity.
Superman is a bit of a mixed bag. It succeeds at modernizing the characters, but the storyline is often just silly.
However, this is a good cast. Assuming that Superman is the first of a series, based on their strength, I'd be willing to give them a second chance.
Superman. Written and directed by James Gunn, Starring David Corenswet, Nicholas Hoult, Rachel Brosnahan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Mercred, Edi Gathegi, Skyler Gisondo, Wendel Pierce. In theatres July 11