Originally, this movie was to be known as "Superman: Legacy", but that eventually ended up being dropped. If I had the chance to name this movie, I would have named it Superman: Year 3. At the very beginning of the movie, we are presented with a bunch of factoids: Metahumans have been around for a while, Supes was sent here to earth 30 years ago, and he's been in action for 3 years. This time around they've done away with the need to present an origin story; the assumption is that everyone knows the typical beats, so they're depositing us into a fully lived in world. 3 months ago, Superman partook in some international incident for which we are about to experience the blowback.
For such major storybeats to be presented in this manner was certainly jarring. You feel like a lot of the story only happened offscreen. I feel like we would actually have profited from seeing Superman in the thick of the action to get a feel for what this new lore is like. My gripe was precisely that with the last iteration: they spent so much time telling us that Superman was great, and was supposed to be this big beacon of hope, but they spent very little time showing it to us. So we're immediately thrown into a fight whose ramifications don't seem to match up with what's being presented onscreen.
We get introduced to his Clark Kent persona, which I have to say, was only sprinkled in sparingly through out this movie. He and Lois are already in a "situationship", which the movie never really elucidates. Gone is the mystique of the steps leading up to her discovering his identity, so it's a case of "Less Mystery, More History", which means we get a helluva lot more of Superman. It wouldn't be a Superman movie without the villain du jour, Lex Luthor (played very menacingly by Nicholas Hoult). This has got to be the most menacing maniacal vision of Lex Luthor that we've seen onscreen. Gene Hackman played it suave, but ever so intelligently devious; Michael Rosenbaum played him as a betrayed childhood friend; Kevin Spacey's impression was menacing with a sort of aloofness; Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor (Jr.) was an annoying rich techie with frenetic mannerisms and unexplained rage. Nicholas Hoult's impression is rather sadistic, jealous, cold and calculating, and you immediately understand that he feels Superman is the bane of his existence.
Superman is not alone in the heroics this time around; a sponsored team - The Justice Gang (consisting of Mr. Terrific, Green Lantern Guy Gardner, and Hawk Girl) is acting parallel to him at this point. The standout of the group was Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), but the adddition of this group to the mix does exactly what the JSA did to the Black Adam movie: it detracts from the story of the main character. I can't for the life of me figure out why James Gunn chose to play things this way. One moment which seemed pivotal from production stills was Superman seeming almost sullen and defeated as "Solaris" run amok in the Metropolis background. What should've ideally been a moment of gravitas, ends up being tossed aside as a joke. The movie is just too busy with "too many irons in the fire".
One thing that'll also stand out is the technology of this movie. Going along with the theme of this being a "lived in" world, seemingly impressive technology just exists. I don't know if this is James Gunn preparing us for the influence of Intergang and technology smuggled in from Apokolips, but I just couldn't get a grasp of it. Due to the fact that I've watched the Superman and Justice League (Unlimited) series, I can kind of see what they're trying to do, but without it being couched in the new lore that they're setting up, I feel rather rudderless.
At least James Gunn got the Kent parents right; you don't see too much of them, but you get the impression that they care about Clark and they're happy about his decisions. You could actually see Clark wanting to be a Superhero this time around; however, for the life of me I do not understand why they take such a sharp U-turn with Lara and Jor-El. We already know the beats of this story and that Clark can benefit from the influence of both his biological and adoptive parents; there is no need to change such foundational truths, and then just leave us stranded like a bunch of hobos.
Whereas Zack Snyder left us with the impression of spectacle and grit, James Gunn has given us spectacle and whimsy without any sort of emotional tether. He's dug deep and mined the intellectual property for deep cuts that might make sense in future, but for now we can't really see how all those things fit together. It turns out that even the introduction of Krypto (the dog) is something that's there as a placeholder.
This movie really broke me. I wanted to love it. I enjoyed the music which harkens back to a lot of John Williams' original theme. Perhaps there is a story to be told here, but it is concealed by all the responsibilities that this movie has to bear as the rebirth of this DC universe franchise. The hullaballo about Immigration, Wokeness, etc. is misplaced. It's shown up multiple times onscreen (Heck, it was very well done in "Superman vs. The Elite"), and any Superman fan knows that as an idealized figure, he typically stands above the typical selfish nationalistic tendencies seen in typical life; as an alien with an affinity for earth, he's expected to make the most benevolent choice.
As much as it pains me, this movie is worthy of a "C Grade". I might watch it again just to see if a repeat viewing will help tie all these concepts together in a better fashion.
God Bless.
