Superman is probably my second-favorite comic book superhero (though I may say it’s Spider-Man depending on the day and my mood 😂), and I’ve been a fan of the character since I was a little boy. My Mom made me a homemade Superman costume when I was 3, and my first dog’s name was…wait for it…Krypto (scroll down for picture). And SUPERMAN (1978) is one of my all-time favorite films.
So yeah, at the end of the day, my lifelong fandom of The Man of Steel had me looking forward to seeing the new movie despite the problems that I had (and still have) with it. Bottom line, I went into the early preview screening hoping that it wouldn’t disappoint me.
It didn’t.
James Gunn’s SUPERMAN isn’t a game changer, nor is it one of the genre’s best. It’s not the best Superman movie to date (anyone saying that is being hyperbolic) as that title still belongs to Richard Donner’s SUPERMAN starring the late and great Christopher Reeve.
And all of that is fine.
It’s a fun (most of the time) popcorn movie that skimps on story and substance and simply allows the audience to check out for 2 hours-ish and enjoy the ride.
Let me get the negatives out of the way first…
Story-wise, there’s a lot going on and nothing happening at the same time. Subplots are introduced and then go nowhere. As a result, it struggles to gain any real momentum. It felt very hodgepodgey (not sure if that’s a word, but I’m going with it anyway) to me as I watched. And the overall story is far from groundbreaking or fresh; in fact, we’ve seen it all before in Superman comics, TV series, animation, and films.
My number one issue with this movie was — and still is — that it included a few non-Superman DC characters (Hawkgirl, Mr. Terrific, Metamorpho, Green Lantern Guy Gardner). There was no reason for any of them — primarily “The Justice Gang” — to be in this film, and the main reason they are included is to help set up the whole shared universe thing. To be fair, while they didn’t add anything to the movie, they didn’t have a negative affect on it either…other than to make it feel a bit stuffy. And to be even more fair, I will say that Metamorpho worked and did service to the story. But The Justice Gang? Nah.
The kaiju? Dumb. Could’ve done without that.
The musical score? Meh…unmemorable.
Before I move on to the positives, let me say this: It’s the most comic-booky live-action incarnation of Superman ever. I didn’t particularly like it, but it didn’t bother me overall either. I was just, “whatever.” With that said, I know that aspect of the film will be welcomed by a lot of people.
Positives? You bet!
David Corensweat was great as Superman; think an updated version of how Christopher Reeve played the character. His Clark Kent was also enjoyable, though we really didn’t see much of him after the first part of the movie.
The cast, overall, was good. Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen (who didn’t get murdered this time), Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor stood out to me particularly.
And then there’s Krypto.
I was excited that Krypto was included in the film and was looking forward to seeing him, and The Dog of Steel didn’t disappoint! Hell, you could make the argument that he was the movie’s second lead character. Honestly, even though I know Krypto was CGI, I found myself caring about him more than any other character in SUPERMAN, and I can’t wait to see more of him! (I must note that I wore a Krypto shirt to my screening of the movie.)
Overall, SUPERMAN is a cute, fun film made with a lot of care that gets Superman right. My first thought after watching was, “It was OK.”
And that’s all it had to be. – Bill “Jett” Ramey
GRADE: B+
1968…
2025…
