The Krypto Experiment

My thoughts on Superman

I think that if you are going to sign on to bring the adventures of iconic superhero Superman to the big screen, especially with a budget rivaling the GNP of any number of emerging nations, you should, call me crazy, demonstrate at least some discernible interest in both the character and what he represents to generations of fans throughout the world. Richard Donner clearly had that quality when he helmed the original Superman: The Movie (1978) and it is why, even after nearly a half-century, it remains the gold standard for superhero cinema. Richard Lester also demonstrated this quality in 1981’s Superman II (though a good chunk of that was actually directed by Donner) and in the best scenes of the admittedly uneven Superman III (1983). Since then, however, there have been number of attempts to make Superman work on the screen but they have all failed, mostly because you always got the sense that the filmmakers in question, especially Zach Snyder, had a certain disdain for the character and wished that they were working on a project centered around someone with an edgier persona.

Now comes the latest attempt to restore Superman to his big-screen glory and while it is a step up from the Snyder-led craptaculars Man of Steel, Batman vs. Superman and Justice League, Superman proves to be yet another misfire. There are plenty of reasons as to why it doesn’t work but the central one is that I never got the sense that James Gunn, the man put in charge of shepherding the latest attempt to create a sustained DC Comics screen universe to rival that of Marvel and who both wrote and directed this film, had any interest in the character other than as the most obvious entry point for a DCEU redux. Instead of presenting a streamlined back-to-basics narrative that would move away from the clutter and bluster of the Snyder films, this one overloads the proceedings with so many unnecessary side characters and ridiculous plot developments that even Jon Peters might have implored Gunn to simplify things. Although perhaps not a total disaster, for every good idea or element that it demonstrates, it also includes three or four that don’t work at all.

One that does work is Gunn’s decision not to offer up yet another version of Superman’s origin story, correctly realizing that pretty much everyone willing to buy a ticket already likely knew it by heart. One that doesn’t work, however, is starting the story more or less in the middle with an unnecessary backstory hurriedly explained in a series of titles right at the start. We learn that, having unveiled himself to the world three years earlier, Superman (David Corenswet) has now chosen to insert himself in the midst of an international conflict between two faraway and ostensibly fictional countries—the evil and oppressive Boravia and the persecuted Jarhanpur. To make matters worse, a so-called “metahuman” (another bit explained in those titles), ostensibly from Boravia, has just kicked Superman’s ass and forced him to return to his Fortress of Solitude in Antarctica to lick his wounds alongside his army of helper robots and loyal super-canine Krypto while billionaire genius Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) seizes the opportunity to sow seeds of doubt regarding Superman’s reliability amongst the public and in the corridors of power, while having his own diabolical reasons for making sure that the conflict between Boravia and Jarhanpur goes on as scheduled.

Meanwhile, Superman’s alter ego, Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent, is going through difficulties of his own. We learn that he and fellow reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) have been carrying on a theoretically clandestine romance for a few months and she even knows his true identity as well. Alas, their relationship has hit a rocky patch that has left both of them wondering if there is any future for them. However, when the world winds up turning against Superman thanks to Luthor’s manipulations, Lois smells a rat and begins digging deeper to figure out what is really going on and makes some shocking discoveries. Also popping up from time to time is Daily Planet reporter Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo)—depicted here as quite the ladies man—Luthor’s selfie-obsessed girlfriend Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio), a trio of corporate-sponsored metahumans consisting of the super-vain Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) and Hawkgirl (Isabel Merced) and Luthor’s all-powerful henchman The Engineer (Maria Gabriela de Faria).

Prior to making Superman, Gunn wrote and directed the three Guardians of the Galaxy films as well as The Suicide Squad, all films centered around lesser-known characters in the superhero firmament and which utilized an approach that relied heavily on bizarre humor, overt social commentary and a certain ironic attitude to both the characters and the entire concept of superheroes in general and in those cases, it was an approach that proved to be successful (though the formula had become a bit cumbersome and repetitive by the time of the last Guardians film) because it meshed nicely with the more offbeat characters and material. The problem with Superman is that Gunn has attempted to utilize a similarly acerbic approach in the service of material for which it is wildly unsuited. Ham-fisted political commentary rubs shoulders uneasily with wackier antics involving Krypto and the usual third-act apocalypse in which buildings crumble and the lives of millions are placed into theoretically jeopardy both here and abroad—there is so much going one, in fact, that Superman at times feels likes a supporting player in his own story. That is especially evident regarding all the Justice Gang nonsense, which feels as if it was shoehorned into the story by Gunn in order to get a group dynamic going despite the needs of the story (not to mention an easy way to work in a role for Gunn regular Fillion as well).

What makes Superman especially frustrating is that there are elements that actually do work from time to time. Corenswet and Brosnahan are the most successful cinematic incarnations of Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane since the glory days of Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder and the scenes involving the two of them are among the strongest. (Perhaps inevitably, the narrative keeps them apart from each other for extended stretches.) Although the big action beats are not particularly memorable, Gunn stages them with enough visual clarity to allow them to stand in sharp relief to the sludgy and borderline incoherent approach popularized by the likes of the Russos in their various MCU adventures. While a lot of the political commentary on display is too clumsy and on-the-nose to do anything but raise the hackles of those determined to have their hackles raised, the sight of a character portrayed by a Latina actress summarily dispatching a character clearly meant to represent a certain odious world leader (grabbing him just as he is attempting to flee to his bunker, if you need a hint as to whom he is presumably meant to represent) is certainly bracing, though not necessarily the kind you expect to see in a Superman film. And as always, when the familiar notes of John Williams’s theme music from the original film crops up on the soundtrack from time to time, it proves to be just as stirring as ever, even as it reminds of just how far what we are watching now is from that one in terms of greatness.

As I said, this is hardly the worst Superman film by a long shot—even at its crummiest, it is still preferable to both the Snyder films and Bryan Singer’s equally misbegotten and largely forgotten Superman Returns (2006)—but just because it isn’t the worst doesn’t mean that it is good by any stretch of the imagination. This is a case of a movie that is more concerned with setting up the groundwork for yet another elaborate cinematic universe than it is in telling a story that might encourage viewers to come back for those proposed future installments. If this one does well enough to inspire additional sequels, here is hoping that Gunn will elect to turn the reins over to someone more in tune with the character and what he represents so that we might finally get the Superman film that moviegoers have been yearning for over the last few decades—the kind that might install new viewers with the same sense of astonishment and wonder that I felt when I saw the original film back when I was seven. Alas, Superman feels as if more time, care and concern went into the creation of the overpriced commemorative popcorn buckets being sold at the concession counter than in the movie itself.