Superman, directed by James Gunn, is in cinemas now.
Superman and his fan club – which some of us signed up to a very long time ago – have been overdue a laugh. They come delivered regularly in this incarnation, which has affectionate fun with many Superman touchstones but adds a few fresh, mad touches of its own.
It’s the third big-screen Superman reboot of the 21st century. Superman Returns, in 2006 with Brandon Routh in the cape, made him the earnest Jesus-from-another-planet. The Henry Cavill period, starting with 2013’s Man of Steel, was even more cheerless, effectively the start of director Zack Snyder’s heavy metal Justice League trilogy, which got louder, longer and duller. And to add a bit of actual mortality to the mix, there was last year’s Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, the poignant documentary about the man whose sweet, funny, wholesome Superman and Clark Kent made believers of us kids who first saw him in the 1978 film.
There’s something very Reeve about new guy David Corenswet, who handles the Superman/Clark Kent double act – as well as the goofy stuff required by writer-director James Gunn – with ease. Gunn’s story juggles Superman lore with contemporary real-world allusions, including one referencing the invasion of Ukraine, as well as giving this Superman iteration an element its immediate predecessors so lacked – something heartfelt.
There’s an underlying theme about Superman, the last son of Krypton, following his acquired human instincts rather than his metahuman destiny. It brings some depth beneath the big-bash action and comedy.
Corenswet is also one half of a big-chemistry fun couple with this film’s Lois Lane, who, played by Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, not a superhero) is quite possibly the best screen version of the scrappy Daily Planet reporter.
There are a few things we haven’t seen in previous versions. Among them some other minor DC superheroes as supporting players, the standout being “Mister Terrific” (Edi Gathegi), whose job here is to essentially play that irritated-by-luddites guy from IT.
Plus we get Krypto the superpooch, a kind of supersonic Scooby-Doo with behavioural issues. It might have tipped this into cartoonish cuteness, but it works as well as Gunn’s previous CGI supporting creatures – the talking racoon and sentient shrub of his Guardians of the Galaxy films.
That Marvel trilogy leant heavily on the cosmic weirdness of the comics. There are some similarly strange WTF psychedelic touches in his Superman, too, suggesting this is influenced by the comics from the colourful anything-goes era of the 1960s and 70s, rather than recent decades of existential brooding and death. That might also explain why some storylines have dead ends. But Gunn is certainly keen to get on with the start, jettisoning the traditional Superman prologue about his escape as a baby from Krypton and adoption by salt-of-the-earth Kansas farmers who keep their son’s superpowers a secret.
At the beginning of this, Superman is already boyfriend to Lois, who knows about her newsroom colleague’s demanding side gig. He’s a global hero to many, but an illegal alien interfering in foreign policy to others – such as Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult, as bald as he is committed), who in this incarnation presents as a legit tech-genius billionaire with a social media megaphone and political influence, that sounds like nobody we know.
Yes, Superman and Luthor are once again headed for a showdown that will create chaos on the streets of Metropolis and beyond. But this time it’s a hoot, and not just for those of us with a soft spot for the Man of Steel.
Rating out of five: ★★★★
