Superman Review

One of the unavoidable aspects of watching a modern-day superhero film is that you're already primed for what it's going to be like. This audience-grooming happens not only because of the marketing overdrive but also because you've essentially seen the same film before, often more than once. So when you sit down to watch, say, a Batman movie, it helps to know which iteration you're watching: is it the self-serious billionaire of Nolan's world? Or Reeves' campy detective? These tonal preambles shape what you expect and accept from a film.

That's why, when a director is as stylistically distinct as James Gunn, it's worth knowing up front that this won't be the angsty, grim superhero movie DC has long been associated with. It helps to know a bit of background on DC's embattled cinematic universe, too. The flops of Man Of Steel and Batman v Superman pushed the studio to hand over its glum heroes to someone known for irreverent, sharp-tongued storytelling that has clearly worked for the masses (see Guardians Of The Galaxy). So by the time you sit down for Superman, the broad strokes of the reboot are already outlined in your mind: a vibrant, contemporary, occasionally downright silly superhero film featuring a very, very naughty dog. What remains to be seen is whether Gunn's signature spin can bring that outline to life in a way that feels compelling, at least within the context of superhero cinema.

The first of the newly-created DC Universe (DCU) films, Superman is James Gunn's playground. His influence, as writer, director and part-producer, feels near-total. In his version of the retelling, the classic Superman - Lex Luthor rivalry plays out across three distinct realms: the glass-walled LutherCorp headquarters, where Lex is barking orders at his minions to take down Superman; the ground-level offices of the Daily Planet, where Clark Kent and Lois Lane are chugging coffees and debating Superman's reckless interference in a geopolitical crisis; and a fantastical realm known as the pocket universe, which Luthor constructs to cloak his nefarious dealings. This third space gives the film a playground for CGI curiosities - interdimensional portals, space-time rifts, bubbling anti-proton rivers, even black holes.

Gunn's characters are bursting with spirit, touched with just enough juvenility to make them feel approachable. Even when it's Superman wrestling with an identity crisis or Lex Luthor playing the pouty billionaire man-child, the film never lets itself get trapped in a dark corner. But Gunn's humour-forward writing does undercut some of the film's emotional heft. Except for a cursory moment of intimacy between Clark and his very Kansan parents, the film moves at breakneck speed, its tongue-in-cheek tone stretched thin across a wide berth of sub-superheroes and sub-villains: Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Hawkgirl (Isabella Mercad), Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), Engineer (Maria Gabriela de Faria)...

Between the performative cuteness of Super-Dog, a cape-wearing pup that Superman is fostering, and giant Kaiju rampaging through downtown New York, this is easily the goofiest a Superman film has ever been. But in the precious few moments when the characters actually sit down for a real conversation, that's when Gunn's script shines. Take the scene where Lois grills Superman in a mock interview. It serves as an expositional dump about the news story gripping the world - Superman's idealistic intervention that stops a militarized country from waging war on its neighbour (hard not to read it as a nod to the Israel-Palestine conflict). But the scene also captures Lois Lane's sharp pragmatism and the couple's honest, grounded dynamic without needing to linger too long. Gunn knows how to write women, and he directs banter better than most. Both talents are on full display in this cracking scene. Rachel Brosnahan's spunky revision of the formerly in-the-shadows Lois Lane is a real breath of fresh air, too.

Dimple-cheeked and personable, David Corenswet plays a more enlivened, comic-book version of Superman (yes, the undies are back over the pants), and while it doesn't demand much digging from him, a late-stage breakout monologue just about seals the deal on the casting. Nicholas Hoult is a sensational Lex Luthor, improbably toeing the line between childish petulance, inflated arrogance and genuine menace.

At times, Gunn's kitchen-sink approach - throwing a glut of elements at the screen and joking all the way to the finish line - feels designed to keep us distracted and titillated rather than deeply invested. You have to be paying close attention to catch some of its sillier bits, like the moment in the third act when Lois and her Daily Planet crew are floating in Mr. Terrific's spacecraft, frantically trying to publish a breaking news story while the city below them is being ripped apart.

But if the movie occasionally feels like it's doing too much, it also never forgets to have fun doing it. Superman confidently reclaims the character from the shadows of brooding realism and sends him flying, cape flapping, into a more playful, zanier future.