David Corenswet stars as the title character in the new “Superman” movie.
Superheroes have always had an identity crisis. Am I Peter Parker today, or Spider-Man? Bruce Banner or the Hulk? I mean, who am I, this time?
Superhero movie franchises struggle, too.
Marvel found its personality early on. There have been occasional, deliberate outliers — the snarky “Deadpool,” the grim “Logan” — but from the start, the house style was almost uniformly brightly lit, wryly self-aware and, ultimately, upbeat.
DC, though, wavered.
It started out fun and slightly campy in the ’70s with the Christopher Reeve “Superman” flicks.
Then the lineup went darker with the two Tim Burton “Batman” movies, a mood made permanent with the Christoper Nolan trilogy. Soon, Superman followed suit, with even his spandex turning drab and dreary.
Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, with David Corenswet in “Superman.”
The new upbeat, brightly colored and even occasionally silly “Superman” from director James Gunn, opening July 11, suggests a fresh and different hybrid, giving DC’s most iconic character back his optimistic outlook while adding some of Marvel’s most successful marketing tricks.
Yes, once again our hero is an uncomplicated force for good. He doesn’t swear, drink or complain; he even pauses, during a major disaster, to rescue a scared squirrel. And thank heavens. After years of angsty guys in tights, don’t we deserve at least one pure-in-heart, incorruptible role model?
But Gunn, who earned his comic-book bona fides with Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy,” has also grafted some patented, Marvelous touches onto this DC adventure. There is more humor here, mostly of the snarky kind. There is some real, superhero-on-human violence.
And in another Marvel trademark, there are (sometimes too many) supporting characters — their spin-offs and streaming series all ready, only waiting for the final corporate nod and an “Up, up and away!”
In the end, improbably, the hybrid works. This isn’t the best Superman movie, as some have claimed. It’s probably not even the best Gunn movie. (I’d give that honor to the first “Guardians.”) But it’s fun and may be one of the most successful, mostly because it combines old-school idealism with some modern approaches.
Some of the borrowed ideas stick out. Marvel movies often begin with the assumption that you have already memorized every other one; “Superman” starts off like a sequel to a movie that was never made. The usual escape-from-Krypton, arrival in Smallville, even his first days on the Daily Planet … all that has already happened, years before this movie begins.
Instead, the film opens with a foreign war already in progress, and Superman, for the first time, having lost a fight. Also, it seems, he is not Earth’s only strange visitor from another planet. A lot of other superheroes are already here, although none of them get quite the public adoration that old Supes does.
Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, with David Corenswet in “Superman.”
A popularity that occasionally nags at them, but drives the fabulously rich genius Lex Luthor kryptonite-green with envy, and has him convinced he must destroy Superman once and for all.
The story is overloaded from the start — at one point, it divides its attention among at least three different, cataclysmic struggles — and audiences may struggle themselves to find something, someone to focus on.
David Corenswet’s Superman provides the best option. Although not quite as impossibly handsome as Christopher Reeve, he has the same square-jawed cool. And he also adds an unexpected vulnerability to this almost literally invulnerable character, displaying a willingness to show a doubt and shed a tear.
There is also Rachel Brosnahan as the spunky Lois Lane. Apparently, when we weren’t looking, she and the man from Krypton became an item, although their relationship, and his secret identity, pose a few personal challenges (none as serious as her clunky wardrobe). But at least this is a Superman movie where Lois doesn’t stand around waiting to be rescued.
Both stars are fine, although to this dog-lover, neither adds quite so much to the movie as Krypto. Imagine your own pet at their most devoted, affectionate and uncontrollably destructive. Now give them superpowers. You can imagine the rest. His every appearance kicks the film up a happy notch.
And Nicholas Hoult makes a good Luthor — neither the clown that Gene Hackman’s villain was, nor the smirking psychos or glowering headcases that Kevin Spacey and Jesse Eisenberg embodied. He actually gives his chrome-domed villain some motivation, beyond simple greed or ego.
But the rest of the film’s guest list could have used a firm pruning.
From left, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced and Edi Gathegi as Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Mister Terrific, respectively, in “Superman.”
The screen is crowded to bursting with “meta humans,” here to either help or bedevil our hero — Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Metamorpho, Mister Terrific and The Engineer, among them. I will confess I never heard of some of them before, but most of them seem to take up more time, and space, than they are worth.
When he’s not overpopulating this world, Gunn does take some time to acknowledge our own.
His film has already drawn the usual rabid right-wing attacks, calling it “woke” for referring to Superman as an immigrant. (Sorry, folks, but that’s canonical — he is. And was a character not only created by the sons of Jewish immigrants, but whose early adventures often involved punching out Nazis and exposing The Klan.)
The movie does go a little further in trying to stay topical — there are some broad slams at “influencers” and the internet’s cancel culture (of which Gunn himself was once, briefly, a victim when some old ugly tweets of his surfaced). A scene in which Superman is roughly grabbed off the street and flown to some secret prison now strikes even closer to home than I imagine Gunn had expected.
Yet while these jabs land, sometimes the introduction of all those supporting characters goes too far, and feels too calculated. Again, I loved seeing Krypto. But, frankly, I don’t go to a Superman movie hoping for introductions to everybody from Daily Planet reporter Cat Grant to ARGUS director Rick Flag Sr. This kind of shameless fan service may elicit cheers from the geek squad, but it doesn’t exactly move the movie along.
And a movie as big as this can’t waste too time pandering to an opening-day crowd of Comic Book Guys. It has to reach a broader audience (something that recent Marvel disappointments, like “The Marvels” and “Eternals,” apparently didn’t do). At their worst, the guest appearances in “Superman” feel like corporate calculations, moves solely meant to build the brand and expand an already over-extended universe.
Gunn is pretty much in charge of DC’s movies now, along with co-CEO Peter Safran, and I understand their motives. They want this movie to give other directors something to build on. They want to provide the company with a blueprint for future product launches. And they do both with this slick, calculated entertainment.
But watching it, I kept thinking: Can’t they just give us Superman? Isn’t that enough?
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