Note: I’ve never read the Superman comic books—I didn’t grow up on them and never got into them. The perspective of this review is colored by my experiences with the filmed versions of the character and the TV shows, as I grew up on the filmed canon that Richard Donner began with his 1978 classic, portraying a hero who stood for “Truth, Justice, and the American Way.” Of course, as the world turns, so must the character, which meant “make everything grittier and darker” with recent incarnations of our favorite Kryptonian. After years of losing sight of the uplifting, inspirational figure Kal-El is supposed to be, it’s no surprise that I found James Gunn’s Superman a refreshing antidote to all of that.
To me, Superman has always been a straightforward character. He stands for righteousness and peace, sent from a dying planet to live among a violent species bent on destroying itself. There are no hidden motives to his actions; money doesn’t influence him, nor do weapons or extremists. But the world is a different place from when he first burst onto the scene in 1938; it’s even more different than when Christopher Reeve became the gold standard for the filmed character in 1978. To that end, Gunn has brought Superman (David Corenswet) into the 21st century, complete with all of the technological advances that have made the world smaller, but somehow meaner and more self-absorbed.
If Gunn’s script and visuals make you uncomfortable, they should; they’re a reflection of what we’re doing to ourselves and each other on a daily basis. We pick up our phone cameras and shoot ourselves as the central characters of the long-running film in our own heads, and we unleash hell on those who dare challenge our curated aesthetic. It’s all too easy for us to stand by and post things on the internet instead of actually lending a hand. Add the forces in play who sow misinformation and discord just because they can, and you’ve got a populace rife with anger, waiting to turn their mob-style ire on the next target instead of focusing on the real injustice being done.
Superman is working overtime and rightfully getting frustrated with the focus on optics and procedure that casts his actions as illegal or unwanted. In an interview with Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), his most emotional outburst comes after being peppered with questions about bureaucracy, ignoring the fact that he’s merely trying to prevent people from dying. He doesn’t work for America, as so many have taken for granted; Gunn’s script plays up the fact that he’s not from this planet, satirizing the need for him to be treated as a dangerous outsider, even in the face of his humanity-saving efforts.
There’s a lot of satire Gunn wants us to internalize—the need for America to be the center of the world, the treatment of immigrants and refugees, our obsession with social media, the court of public opinion, and propaganda machines masquerading as talk shows. And billionaire villain Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) and his operatives use all of these notions to stick the knife into Superman’s guts and twist it with the restoration of a stolen, damaged message from Superman’s dead parents, eviscerating his reputation and painting him in the same colors that Americans have used to paint foreigners as terrorists.
It’s not the Superman character that Gunn has chosen to darken and modernize; it’s the world around him. David Corenswet plays Superman as a being driven by the ultimate good, a man who chooses to believe that humanity is capable of so much more than the pettiness he sees every day. He’s just as confused as most of us are by people who actively want to hurt others and take pride in it; he doesn’t understand how evil is rewarded and unpunished, while those who seek to course-correct peacefully are somehow portrayed as the bad guys. There’s a brutal conflict that Corenswet bears in his portrayal that epitomizes this dichotomy—an internal battle with the knowledge that humans are a lovely but violent bunch.
In playing Superman’s bête noire, Nicholas Hoult goes full-tilt with how he fills Lex Luthor’s shoes, wrangling pure malice and putting it into his every move, becoming downright frightening at times with how much evil is contained in his body and soul. Gunn has written Luthor as a puppeteer making Superman dance; there’s nothing that happens in this movie without Luthor’s say-so, and Hoult takes great care in becoming the catalyst for everything Superman has to counteract. He isn’t some sit-back-and-let-the-world-destroy-itself thumb-twiddler; he is, as the kids say these days, “locked in,” doing whatever he can to carry out his plan to eradicate Superman. Whether it’s appealing to television viewers by playing gently scared or being mutedly gleeful at the prospect of torturing Superman or flushing with apoplectic rage, Hoult fashions a Luthor like we’ve never seen before, resulting in one of the year’s best performances.
Yeah, I said it. I’m calling it now: Nicholas Hoult will be on the shortlist for Best Supporting Actor come awards season.
But it wouldn’t happen without a story that exposes us for the simultaneously wondrous and harmful beings we are as humans. The character of Superman is meant to reorient us with our better natures, and Gunn has succeeded mightily in this endeavor. Our capacity for silliness, madness, and—most importantly of all—love is captured with Gunn’s knowing and humorous tendencies, extending even to Superman himself (and a certain someone who pops their head in for the last minute). While Luthor’s motive for and methods of unleashing destruction upon Metropolis are self-centered and insane, it’s countered by teams working to make the world a better place, both on the human side (Lois Lane and her Daily Planet cohorts) and the superhero Justice Gang (no matter how weird any of them might be).
James Gunn has brought Superman back to what he should be—an example of the good we should aspire to—and the repurposing of John Williams’ iconic 1978 theme cements this return to basics. We are all capable of being kind and compassionate, but it’s challenging to maintain this in a world that often rewards those acting in bad faith. This new manifestation of Superman isn’t petty or spiteful; he’s an example of what’s possible. Superman is full of moments that inspire and wow, but when you pull it all back, it’s one person trusting in the light inherent in all of us and the hope that we can do the same. We act like we’re all in some reality show, sniping at each other and poking holes in everything; this iteration of Superman asks us to dial it back, to remember that we’re all on this planet together and we have to find a way to exist as a species or be part of its destruction. He’ll get it done, even if he has to call upon Guy Gardner/Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) and his horrible haircut to do it.
One Comment
I watched the movie and was disappointed with the lack of story and it seemed to jump from one action scene to another. Mass destruction everywhere helped by technology. Couldn’t tell the difference between this move it and the other ones. The action scenes after awhile from all these movies pretty much look the same. I suppose that’s what people are way to see?
The previous Superman movie did have a bit of story though. Would not see the sequel that’s for sure