Superman review — the funniest superhero movie in years
It’s been said that superhero movies are past their best. James Gunn’s intelligent and strongly-acted reboot with a new actor in the suit suggests otherwise.
Superman (M)
★★★★
129 minutes
In cinemas
“You brought that dog, man?”
“Yeah. I didn’t want him killing my parents’ cows.”
This exchange between Mister Terrific and Superman, about Krypto the superdog, goes to the superpower of Superman, the latest reboot of the DC Comics film franchise. This is the funniest superhero movie I have seen and the good news is the humour is deliberate.
It’s also action-packed, visually spectacular, has decent twists and is full of knockout performances, especially the English actor Nicholas Hoult as the villainous billionaire Lex Luthor, who bears a passing resemblance to Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.
It’s written and directed by American filmmaker James Gunn, who had a hit with the 2014 Marvel movie Guardians of the Galaxy and its sequels in 2017 and 2023. Moving on to the Man of Steel, however, is a whole new ball game. Gunn has not only stepped up to the plate but hit the ball out of the park.
We first see Superman (American actor David Corenswet, who is tall, handsome and talented) prone in the Antarctic snow, cuts on his face, bleeding from the mouth. He’s just lost a fight to another metahuman. He whistles and Krypto flies to his side. He then does exactly what a dog would do: increases his master’s pain.
Krypto is by and large a CGI pedigree, though a real dog appears in some scenes and the inspiration for the character is Gunn’s own pup Ozu. The caped canine pops up throughout the film and every moment he’s there is a joy to watch.
Here’s the set-up: Luthor has armed one country in the middle of nowhere to overtake its neighbour. We learn that Superman stopped the first attempt. Whether that territorial conquest is Luthor’s ultimate aim, however, remains to be seen.
He’s also running an anti-Superman campaign. He has an army of monkeys chained to computers flooding social media with hashtags such as #Supershit and, as in real life, that’s enough to sway public opinion. In a meeting at the Pentagon he urges the US Government to shut down this alien who is messing with foreign affairs.
Luthor has his own metahumans, one of whom is strong enough to take on Superman. The reason he is so powerful is one of the twists. “He’s not a man,” Luthor declares of Superman. “He’s an it, a thing with a cocky grin and a stupid outfit.”
He’s right about the cocky grin. This Superman is 25, a little arrogant and flippant and, despite his vow to do good, capable of anger. The scene where he crashes into Luthor’s high rise office and faces up to him is brilliant in a John Wick sort of way.
His alter ego Clark Kent has been dating Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), his colleague at The Daily Planet newspaper, for three months. The cows he wants to save from Krypto are on his adoptive parents’ farm in Smallville, Kansas. In the key twist, a message from his biological parents, sent to Earth with their son, contains more than he realised.
When Luthor unleashes a Godzilla-like beast on Metropolis, as a “distraction”, Superman receives a helping hand from The Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion, who has a lot of fun), Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced).
They have corporate sponsorship, which means they care less about dropping people from great heights. “C’mon bro, don’t be such a wuz,’’ Green Lantern advises Superman. This trio, the Justice Gang, become the comic sidekicks as the action unfolds.
All of the cast are on song, including Skyler Gisondo as a decidedly different rookie photojournalist Jimmy Olsen. And the Australian actor Milly Alcock makes a watch-this-space, faster-than-a-speeding-bullet appearance towards the end. If you read the entertainment news you’ll know why.
It’s been said of late that superhero movies are past their best. This intelligent, humorous, strongly-acted, crisply-written, well-made movie suggests there’s life in the old superdogs yet.
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